[Nfbv-announce] Subminimum Wage Issue

[Fredric Schroeder]

Friends,

We need to send letters to the members of the U.S. Senate asking them to
help insure that blind people and others with disabilities are not tracked
into subminimum wage jobs. Virginia does not have any members on the Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, but we still need to ask
our Senators for help. Here is a sample letter you can use. Feel free to
make any changes you wish. The important thing is that our members of the
Senate hear our views.

Fred Schroeder, President
National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

+++++

9522 Lagersfield Circle
Vienna, VA  22181

July 20, 2011 

Dear Senator:

Currently the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee
is considering a bill to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
which includes the rehabilitation act as Title V.  The proposed bill
includes a new provision, Section 511 that would reaffirm the policy of
placing blind people and others with disabilities into sheltered, subminimum
wage jobs. This is a serious step backward and will only serve to further
reduce the already limited opportunities for blind people and others with
disabilities to become self-supporting members of society.

Section 511 sanctions the payment of sub-minimum wages to blind people and
others with disabilities.  There is no place in the rehabilitation act for
this kind of provision.  The emphasis in the rehabilitation act is to train
people for competitive employment, to forbid discrimination against
qualified applicants, and to commit the federal government to buying
technology which has nonvisual access built into it.  This latter provision
has served to provide a powerful incentive for companies to make their
products accessible nonvisually. Everything about the rehabilitation act is
progressive.  Sanctioning the sub minimum wage in this act is completely out
of character with the reason for its creation.  At present the Fair Labor
Standards Act allows the payment of subminimum wages. It was passed in 1938
and should be repealed, not reaffirmed and expanded. 

I am writing to ask for your help. Please contact Chairman Harkin and urge
him to remove Section 511 from the WIA reauthorization proposal. Mr.
Harkin's intent is positive but the language of Section 511 is harmful to
blind people.

Please feel free to write or call me if I can answer questions you have
about this legislation.  My telephone number is 573-874-1774, and you may
use the e-mail address which appears above.

Fred Schroeder, president
National Federation Of The Blind of Virginia