[Nfbmt] Fwd: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] Please Sign and Circulate the Petition to Support Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities

[Dan Burke]

Another tool in our fight for fair wages!

Please sign and circulate to others - anyone - and ask them to sign
this online petition to end subminimimum wage exploitation of workers
with disabilities!



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Lewis, Anil" <ALewis at nfb.org>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:18:32 +0000
Subject: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] Please Sign and Circulate
the Petition to Support Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities
To: "Lewis, Anil" <ALewis at nfb.org>

Petition to Support Fair Wages
for Workers with Disabilities

www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition<http://www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition>

We, the undersigned, are Americans with disabilities who are adversely
affected by subminimum wage payments to workers with disabilities;
representatives of organizations made up of, and working on behalf of,
Americans with disabilities; friends and family members of individuals
who have disabilities; and other concerned citizens who believe in
fairness and equality.  We all speak in support of the repeal of
Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which authorizes
Special Wage Certificates that permit employers to pay workers with
disabilities subminimum wages, some as low as 3 cents per hour.

We reject the low expectations for, the false view of the true
capacity of, and the misguided compassion used to justify this
discrimination against workers with disabilities.  This provision has
existed for over seventy years, and rather than creating real
employment opportunities for workers with disabilities, it has
relegated hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities to
segregated, subminimum wage work environments, perpetuated the
misconception that workers with disabilities do not have the capacity
for productive employment, and masked the need for further development
and implementation of innovative employment strategies for the
competitive integrated employment of people with disabilities.

We all believe that the future prospects for workers with disabilities
are limited only by the spirit, ambition, and imagination of Americans
with disabilities, and by the willingness of society to expand and
implement enlightened policies that will help them succeed.  We
adamantly assert that as long as workers with disabilities are denied
the same workforce protections as every other American citizen, and
the solution to the employment dilemma of workers with disabilities is
thought to be their continued segregation in subminimum-wage work
environments, our society will never truly implement the innovative
employment strategies that empower workers with disabilities to fully
participate in the workforce.

For these reasons, we, the undersigned, urge the repeal of Section
14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act in order to abolish the unfair,
discriminatory, immoral practice of paying workers with disabilities
subminimum wages; to reverse over seventy years of mistaken
institutionalized thinking about the employment capacity of people
with disabilities; and to incentivize the development, implementation,
and use of innovative strategies for their competitive, integrated
employment.

To sign the petition, visit
www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition<http://www.nfb.org/fair-wages-petition>

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
Web: www.nfb.org
twitter: @anillife




-- 
Dan Burke, President
The National Federation of the Blind of Montana
www.nfbmontana.org
Visit us on Face Book at http://bit.ly/nfbmtfb
My Cell:  406.546.8546