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

Mon Dec 23 16:17:14 UTC 2013

You bet - it's excellent!

On 12/23/13, sheila <sleigland at bresnan.net> wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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-- 
Dan Burke
My Cell:  406.546.8546
Twitter:  @DallDonal