[nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

[Mary Ellen]

If someone really cannot work competitively, and the reason is really that
they cannot work, not that nobody will hire them, what's the point in
keeping them in fake work environments?  Isn't there a lot they could do
with their lives that would be more meaningful?  If we as a society do
decide that work has value as a means for people to spend their time, then
shouldn't we treat them like workers and pay them at a basic minimum level?
After all, we pay the supervisors who run the shops that are essentially day
cares for adults with severe intellectual disabilities.

Sheltered workshops were started in an era when a lot of adults worked in
factories.  Now most people do not work in direct manufacturing.  Couldn't
we become a little more creative about the way we serve people with severe
intellectual disabilities?  If they can't really work, let's stop pretending
and do something that really does serve them instead of serving a 19th
century employment model.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of debby phillips
Sent: August 13, 2012 11:15 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] SUB MINIMUM WAGE

Mary Ellen, I was wondering about folks who do not have a lot of cognitive
ability.  Certainly some of the people that I met while living and working
in the L'Arche community were capable of working in a non-sheltered place of
employment.  In fact, one of the men in my house made a decision to leave
L'Arche, and he was one of the founding members of the community in Tacoma.
I was never quite sure whether he left because he wanted to or because his
caseworker thought he should be in a more "independent" 
setting.  And what is independence, anyway?  I'm not trying to rationalize,
but truly some people are truly happy where they are, even if, for us it
seems that they are being dependent.  
There is a young woman I know who has worked at the Lighthouse four or five
years now.  She loves it there.  Could she work elsewhere?  It's quite
possible she could, and maybe some day she will want to.  But I wouldn't
take away her happiness and contentment for anything.  I've seen her blossom
from a shy, young girl to a responsible young woman who is committed to her
job and has a good life.  Would it not be a disservice to her to tell her
that she is not independent because she works at the Lighthouse?  I know
that in my younger years I would have put her down because of where she
worked.  But who am I, or any of us to judge what independence means for
someone?  I don't know.  I do know that people should be paid at least
minimum wage.  But I'm not convinced yet that there isn't a place, or aren't
places where some people should work, whether they are "sheltered workshops"
or not.  But of course there are lots of provisios 
with that statement.    Peace,    Debby

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