[Nfbmt] National Federation of the Blind to Unmask Goodwill’s Exploitation of Workers with Disabilities

[James Aldrich]

This is for your information!

Jim



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Goodwill’s Exploitation of Workers with Disabilities


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2330

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

cdanielsen at nfb.org



National Federation of the Blind to Unmask
 Goodwill’s Exploitation of Workers with Disabilities

NFB Members to Educate Donors about
 Goodwill’s Discrimination Against Workers with Disabilities



Baltimore, Maryland (October 31, 2013):The National Federation of the 
Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest organization of blind people in the 
United States, announced that it will hold a public awareness event 
today regarding Goodwill Industries International’s payment of wages as 
low as pennies per hour to workers with disabilities.  Members of the 
NFB will deliver copies of a recent Change.org petition to various 
Goodwill headquarters across the country.  The petition garnered 
170,000 signatures from Americans who demand that Goodwill pay its 
workers with disabilities a real wage.



Goodwill is one of the many nonprofit organizations that takes 
advantage of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an 
obscure provision that permits employers to pay workers with 
disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.  For over seventy 
years, Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act has allowed 
employers to obtain special wage certificates that permit them to pay 
their workers with disabilities wages far less than the federal minimum.

Dr. Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, in 
his banquet speech delivered at the 2013 NFB National Convention, said: 
“Our benevolent superiors (self-appointed, self-governing, 
self-important, self-willed) have determined that a wage structure in 
our country that offers to pay us less than the federally guaranteed 
minimum wage available to everybody else has been established for our 
own good…They tell us that our lives have been improved through this 
system of government-authorized discrimination, while they collect 
their six- and seven-figure compensation packages.”

Congressman Gregg Harper (R-MS) has introduced H.R. 831, the Fair Wages 
for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2013, to repeal Section 14(c) of 
the FLSA.  The National Federation of the Blind, along with a growing 
list of over sixty national and local cross-disability organizations, 
support the passage of H.R. 831 to responsibly repeal this 
discriminatory provision over a three-year period.





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About the National Federation of the Blind



The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is the oldest, largest, and 
most influential nationwide membership organization of blind people in 
the United States. Founded in 1940, the NFB advocates for the civil 
rights and equality of blind Americans, and develops innovative 
education, technology, and training programs to provide the blind and 
those who are losing vision with the tools they need to become 
independent and successful.

-- 
NFB of Montana

James Aldrich, President
 502 Miles Avenue
 Billings, Montana 59101
 Phone: 406–698-3729
 E-mail: jkaldrich at samobile.net
 Web site: http://www.nfbmt.org
 Web site: http://www.nfbmontana.org
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For more information, please call 1–855-659–9314