[NFBOH-Cleveland] Ohio Legislative Urgent Matter, Please Read and Share!

[smturner.234 at gmail.com]

Dear Ohio, Presidents, Members, Friends, Family Members and Advocates,

 

I would like to invite you to take a moment to read this email on:

1: Background on Section 14C, and My narrative 

2: A recording of Dr Kenneth Jernigan, which is relevant today.

3: Then, I highly urge you to sign-up for Advocacy Day, which will be held
in Columbus on September 16, 2024, with the 14c taskforce. The link is
below.

 

We need you!

 

As a member of the National Federation of the Blind, we do not only fight
for our rights. We fight for injustices in the world that places a barrier
preventing all blind and disabled Americans from living and working as our
sighted peers do in the world. Therefore, I know you will take a stand!

If you have any questions, please consult me or President, Payne.

 

Again, please share with your members and act asap!

 

Background on 14C

Subminimum wage was a practice created in 1938 under section 14c of the Fair
Labor Standards Act. The goal was to provide supportive services for people
with disabilities while also receiving a wage. Although the original aim of
the legislation was admirable, the use of 14c certificates and the paying of
subminimum wage has been used to exploit workers with disabilities and
subject them to a lifetime of underpaid labor often in segregated settings.
As few as only 5% of workers actually transition into competitive integrated
employment.

 

Suzanne's narrative:

As a blind female, I have come a long way from my days of working in a
"sheltered workshop" earning subminimum wage. Previously, I had the hope of
attending college in the Department of Music at Jackson State University in
1983 after graduating with honors. I found myself in an alarming situation.
I was losing more of my vision, and I did not know how to stop it. However,
this is not about my vision, but the barriers I faced seeking competitive
and integrated employment.

 

Because of the inequities in the state in Mississippi Royal Maid's Sheltered
Workshop for the blind in 1984, where I worked for $1.98 cents; when the
minimum wage was $3.30 cents an hour either packing brooms, mops, plastic
flat ware, or strings. I knew that working as a blind person in this
environment was not the characteristics that defined me or my future. So, In
1988 I relocated to Ohio to be close to family and for a greater
opportunity. But, once again, I found myself introduced to sheltered work in
Cleveland Ohio. I put sponges in a box that was around three feet long and
three feet deep. Each time I filled a box, I earned $1.fifty cents; not an
hour, but by piece. I never could earn what my sighted co-workers earned in
a day. 

 

Not only did my working in such an environment assembling brooms and mops
not prepare me for my opportunities. However, I have come to realize that
someone had to do it. Just think, without a broom or mop, homes restaurants
and establishments would be filled with unwanted trash. Nonetheless, the
difference for me is the underlining meaning of opportunity, equality,
diversity, and inclusion. First, opportunity should be your decision.
Secondly, equality has to be fair for all, thirdly, diversity must include
multiplicity, and finally, inclusion should be embraced. Without them where
do the blind fit in, placing us in a box like sheltered workshops working
below the Mississippi and Ohio state wage and isolating the blind was
unfair, not right and degrading. We who assembled brooms and mops should
have been provided the same wage as the so-called "sighted."  So, I am
appreciative of all of my experiences. They are what made me who I am today.
When I worked on high powered machines, "yes I did that too," I was one of
the best workers. I was taught by my grandmother to do the best at whatever
is awarded. I still live by that today! Even though this treatment is still
a barrier today for persons with disabilities, equal work has dignity. So,
employers must provide that same dignity to its disabled employees in Ohio.
This unfair treatment has to be abolished in Ohio.

 

Members, sign up and complete the form, and select a time slot to meet with
your legislator. There will also be in-person speaker presentations,
including Representative Lipps, Gary Tonks, Suzanne Turner, Katie Hunt, and
others. To schedule a time with legislators, please register here:

https://forms.office.com/r/jNGB1FKxTa

 

///

 

Kenneth Jernigan - Blindness, That's How it is at the Top of the Stairs

https://youtu.be/4ybyQlyRpzw?si=0bMfs9eA8QT3tE0Y

 

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