[Nfbmt] Fwd: [Nfb-legislative-directors] Iowa View: Harkin's antiquated stand on disabled wages

[sheila]

hi, dan thank you for posting this. I much appreciate seeing this.
On 12/23/2013 7:39 AM, Dan Burke wrote:
> FRom Iowa President Mike Barber ...
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Lewis, Anil" <ALewis at nfb.org>
> Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:24:48 +0000
> Subject: [Nfb-legislative-directors] Iowa View: Harkin's antiquated
> stand on disabled wages
> To: "nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org"
> <nfb-legislative-directors at nfbnet.org>, "Affiliate Presidents
> (state-affiliate-leadership-list at nfbnet.org)"
> <state-affiliate-leadership-list at nfbnet.org>
>
> Iowa View: Harkin's antiquated stand on disabled wages
> Iowa View
> Dec. 21, 2013 4:30 PM   |
> [http://cmsimg.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D2&Date=20131222&Category=OPINION01&ArtNo=312220046&Ref=AR&Profile=1035&MaxW=300&Border=0&Iowa-View-Harkin-s-antiquated-stand-disabled-wages]
> Written by
> Michael Barber
>
> THE AUTHOR:
> MICHAEL D. BARBER of Des Moines is president of the Iowa affiliate of
> the National Federation of the Blind. Contact:
> michael.nfbi at gmail.com<mailto:michael.nfbi at gmail.com>.
>
> As a blind person who leads a statewide organization of blind people,
> I am often asked: What is the greatest challenge blind people face? My
> answer usually surprises people: For the blind, as for all people with
> disabilities, our biggest problem is other people's attitudes about
> our disabilities and about how we should be treated.
> Everyone wants to help us, but the kind of help they want to give
> isn't always the kind of help we need. When we try to explain this, we
> are told that we are being unreasonable or, worse, ungrateful.
> Why can't we accept the things that society is willing to give us and
> believes to be best for us? The answer is simple: Like all other
> Americans, we demand freedom, not the care of supposedly benevolent
> custodians.
> U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., has been the political champion of people
> with disabilities for many years and was a key proponent of the
> passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the civil rights
> act for people with disabilities.
> The adulation he has justifiably received for his advocacy has,
> however, given him the impression that he can speak for us. Sen.
> Harkin has mistaken our appreciation of his past service for
> permission to advance a public policy that will set us back in our
> struggle for equality. He is endorsing an antiquated and immoral
> practice that allows workers with disabilities to be paid less than
> the minimum wage.
> Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act allows certain employers
> to pay less than the federal minimum wage - usually "sheltered
> workshops," the term for segregated factories set up specifically for
> workers with disabilities. Some of these workshops not only pay their
> workers mere pennies per hour, but they have them working in abhorrent
> conditions where the workers are physically and psychologically
> abused.
> The Des Moines Register reported extensively on such a case, that of
> Henry's Turkey Service, which paid workers at an Iowa turkey
> processing plant 41 cents per hour and housed them in a
> roach-infested, unheated building.
> In a recent bill known as the Workforce Investment Act,
> reauthorization was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor
> and Pensions Committee, which Sen. Harkin chairs. Language was
> included in Title V, Section 511 that purports to reduce the number of
> youth with disabilities placed in a sheltered workshop.
> Although the intent is laudable, the policy endorses segregated
> subminimum-wage environments as viable training and employment options
> for workers with disabilities.
> There is a better way to stop young people from becoming victims of
> subminimum-wage employment: Responsibly phase out the use of this
> practice over a three-year period, allowing existing entities to
> convert to a proven business model that leads to competitive
> integrated employment of people with disabilities.
> That's what another bill, the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities
> Act, would do. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., introduced this
> legislation, and it currently has nearly 50 co-sponsors and is
> supported by the National Federation of the Blind and over 60 other
> organizations of people with disabilities.
> Americans with disabilities have tried to convince members of the U.S.
> Senate to support a responsible phase-out of subminimum wages, like
> that introduced by Rep. Harper, rather than the ineffective, half
> measure proposed in Sen. Harkin's bill.
> We have offered objective policy analysis, historical data, case
> studies and descriptions of alternative best practices. We have
> provided data demonstrating that the archaic sheltered segregated
> model costs more and produces poorer outcomes for workers with
> disabilities. We have informed senators about alternatives for
> competitive, integrated employment that assist even those with
> significant disabilities in acquiring job skills that allow them to
> earn at least the federal minimum wage.
> But rather than considering the merits of our arguments, most respond
> with this insulting question: "How does Sen. Harkin feel about this?"
> With all due respect to Sen. Harkin, he is not a person with a
> disability and cannot speak for us. His reputation as a champion of
> the rights of people with disabilities came about because, in the
> past, he listened to us and put forward legislation in response to
> what he heard. When he rejects our advice, as he is doing by putting
> forward Section 511, he is no longer a champion but a custodian,
> seeking to substitute his own idea of what is best for us.
> Sen. Harkin helped Americans with disabilities achieve important
> milestones on our road to freedom. But freedom cannot be achieved
> while Section 14(c) remains in force and its grinding, soul-crushing
> machinery is merely tinkered with.
> If Sen. Harkin wants to secure his legacy as a champion of Americans
> with disabilities, he should amend the Workforce Investment Act to
> remove Section 511 and introduce a Senate companion to the Fair Wages
> for Workers with Disabilities Act.
> These are the legitimate demands that millions of Americans with
> disabilities, speaking for ourselves, have put forward. Sen. Harkin
> and his colleagues must recognize and act upon them.
>
> Mr. Anil Lewis, M.P.A.
> Director of Advocacy and Policy
>
> "Eliminating Subminimum Wages for People with Disabilities"
> http://www.nfb.org/fairwages
>
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
> 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
> Baltimore, Maryland   21230
>
> (410) 659-9314 ext. 2374 (Voice)
> (410) 685-5653 (FAX)
> Email: alewis at nfb.org<mailto:alewis at nfb.org>
> Web: www.nfb.org<http://www.nfb.org>
> twitter: @anillife
>
>
>
>