[nfbwatlk] FW: [Nfbnet-members-list] Letter of Support for H.R.3086, the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act

[Mary Ellen]

Fantastic letter!

I once briefly worked on the staff of a sheltered workshop that "served"
people with all sorts of disabilities.  

My job was to help supervise fourteen people who had extremely severe
cognitive limitations.  They did make work, often sorting nuts and bolts
over and over again.  Some of them took home less than ten dollars a week!

I'm sure that the sheltered workshop employers would argue that none of
these people could function, even with intensive support, in any competitive
work situation at all.  My question to the staff, a question that was never
satisfactorily answered, was why people who had no capacity to do productive
factory work were put in a make work position in the first place.  Wouldn't
it have been far better, since two people were employed to supervise them
anyway, to create a much less rigid program that helped identify the
particular strengths of those individuals and put them in a position where
they could genuinely succeed at something?  What if energy had been spent in
teaching them how to prepare food or wash clothes?  What if they had been
encouraged to take up a craft or do art work or play music?  What real
purpose was served in having them sort nuts and bolts that the staff took
into another room and mixed up so that they could sort them again?

There was a lot of talk about how good those folks felt about going to work
every day.  One of the guys commented after having taken his check home one
week that it wasn't even enough to buy a six pack of beer.  Many of the
others were far more motivated by the stamps they received for good behavior
which allowed them to purchase candy or trinkets at the little store the
shop ran.  The token economy, designed to control bad behavior and shape
good behavior, was much more meaningful than an insulting paycheck!

Would the shop really have had to put together a phony factory for these
folks to have an enjoyable time each day?  I don't think so!

Frankly, I was relieved to be laid off after six months when the federal
work experience funds used to hire me ran out.  Though my immediate
supervisor was a really good person, I generally had much more respect for
the severely mentally handicapped people who sorted the nuts and bolts than
I had for the supposed professionals who ran the place!



-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: February 24, 2012 9:10 PM
To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfbwatlk] FW: [Nfbnet-members-list] Letter of Support for
H.R.3086, the Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act

From: nfbnet-members-list-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfbnet-members-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 5:35 PM
To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] Letter of Support for H.R. 3086, the Fair
Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act

 





From: "Freeh, Jessica" <JFreeh at nfb.org>
To: "dandrews at visi.com" <dandrews at visi.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:56:51 -0800
Subject: please post on all listservs
Thread-Topic: please post on all listservs
Thread-Index: AczzDNloaZYGeh1lQGutoG9QUzUy9g==

February 23, 2012

 

Dear United States Representative:

 

I am writing to you in support of H.R. 3086, the Fair Wages for Workers with
Disabilities Act of 2011.  If you are already one of the cosponsors of this
bill, I thank you.  If you have not signed on as a cosponsor, I urge you to
do so as quickly as you can.  I am also writing to you representing disabled
Americans who are affected by subminimum wage payments who want this bill to
pass.  Furthermore, I am writing to you to sound the alarm against those who
say that they know better what to do for the disabled than disabled
Americans themselves.  They will tell you that disabled Americans cannot
speak for themselves and that they have taken on "this burden."  They are
trying to deny us our own voice in Congress and we ask you to listen to the
people, not to the self-appointed so-called spokesmen of the people.  

 

The National Federation of the Blind and the growing list of over forty
other organizations of disabled Americans that support this legislation are
well aware that those of you who are cosponsoring this legislation or
considering doing so are receiving considerable pressure from
representatives of sheltered workshops and others holding special wage
certificates that allow them to pay less than the federal minimum wage.  You
are being told that the workers who receive subminimum wages in the
sheltered workshop system have nowhere else to go, and that their lives
would be destroyed by H.R. 3086.  Those of you from Missouri, in fact, may
have received a piece of correspondence that asks, "Where will Sammy, Patti,
and Becky go when you eliminate their jobs?"  This flyer also contains
quotes from parents, siblings, and caregivers of sheltered workshop
employees, wondering what H.R. 3086 will mean for their loved ones.  

 

Wh<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />atever the motives of the
people behind it, the correspondence is based on outdated ideas about the
capacity of workers with disabilities and a misguided commitment to an
antiquated model of service to such workers.  Rather than participating in a
constructive dialogue about what life will be like for workers with
disabilities, once the subminimum wage exemption is phased out in three
years as required by H.R. 3086, the workshops choose to circulate
correspondence meant to pull on your heartstrings, to evoke your pity, and
to promote low expectations.  

  

The argument of the sheltered workshops is that some people, particularly
those with severe developmental disabilities, are simply unfit for
competitive employment.  This is simply wrong.  To continue this practice
when proven employment strategies exist is inexcusable.  

 

We are also told that these individuals must be given a choice.  We are all
for freedom of choice, but true freedom of choice can only come with
unbiased and accurate information.  Do Sammy, Patti, and Becky know that
people like them are in fact working in competitive jobs?  Do they know that
services like supported employment are already available to help them
acquire and keep such jobs?  Do their parents, guardians, and loved ones
know this?  My experience tells me that they do not. Rather, they have far
more likely been told by sheltered workshop staff-who all too often share
society's low expectations for disabled people and have an obvious conflict
of interest-that Sammy, Patti, and Becky will never achieve competitive
employment and that the sheltered workshop is the best they can hope for.
In short, what they have been told is neither accurate nor unbiased.  

 

Despite the manipulative tone of the correspondence, however, it is fair
enough to ask what will happen to Sammy, Patti, and Becky and others like
them if this bill passes.  I believe that the answer to this question is
limited only by the spirit, ambition, and imagination of disabled workers
themselves, and by our willingness as a society to work hard to help them
succeed in their goals.  I believe that disabled workers can do far better
than receiving pennies per hour.  Under this bill, they will either earn
real wages in the workshops that currently employ them, or they will receive
the training and support that they need to obtain competitive employment
somewhere else.  Imagine for a moment that all of the government and
philanthropic resources that are currently supporting the sheltered workshop
system were redirected to finding real employment opportunities for people
with disabilities.  If they were, I suspect that solutions as yet undreamt
of would emerge to help such individuals succeed in competitive employment
situations.  

 

The sheltered workshop industry has existed for over seventy years.  Many
argue that it is an acceptable status quo, which must not be changed.  We
reject this formulation.  Even if you believe that those of us advocating
against subminimum wages do not have all the answers, this is no excuse for
allowing the system to continue.  The current practice of paying subminimum
wages is unfair, discriminatory, and immoral, and no amount of hand-wringing
about what may follow it can change that.  Please do not simply let inertia
direct our course.  We are urging you and other willing partners, including
any from the sheltered workshop industry, to work with us to find real
solutions for people like Sammy, Patti, and Becky, rather than shrugging
your shoulders and saying that the exploitation must continue because we as
a society will not expend the effort to come up with anything better.  

 

There was a time in our nation's history when African-Americans were
believed to have limited capacity and were fit only for slave labor on
plantations.  There was a time when women were thought capable only of
maintaining the family home, and thus were not even permitted to vote.
Fortunately we realized as a nation that it was bigotry and low expectations
that were defining the roles of African-Americans and women rather than
their true capabilities.  We realized, albeit belatedly, that America would
be a better nation if the true capacities of these citizens were unleashed.
Americans with disabilities are now calling upon our fellow citizens to
realize that the soft bigotry of low expectations is condemning workers with
disabilities to near-slave labor, and that the system that arises from these
low expectations must be abolished.  

 

H.R. 3086 allows for a grace period of three years before sheltered
workshops and other nonprofit employers currently holding special wage
certificates must begin to pay their workers at least the federal minimum
wage.  This is plenty of time for sheltered workshops to study the business
models of similar entities that are already paying their employees
competitive wages and make adjustments to their own policies and practices.
Meanwhile, policy makers can redirect resources to enhance programs like
supported employment, and create new solutions, to help workers with
disabilities transition to real work for real wages.  

 

As for freedom of choice: I am a person with a disability.  I have been
blind all of my life.  I know the pain and despair that comes with low
expectations and prejudice.  Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to
make real choices about my life and career, and to experience the joy of the
accomplishments that can only come through full and equal participation in
society.  I want Sammy, Patti, and Becky to have the choices that I had.  If
workers with disabilities truly want to stay in the sheltered workshop that
currently employs them, or a facility like it, then no one will prohibit
them from doing so.  However, if H.R. 3086 is enacted, wherever they choose
to work, they will receive real wages that allow them to live fuller lives.
They will know the satisfaction of receiving the equal pay for equal work
that they deserve, in addition to any satisfaction that they may receive
from getting out of the house and being among their friends.  They will no
longer be dependent upon the resources of their loved ones or on public
assistance in order to buy the things they need.  They will have disposable
income to spend in the community, thereby contributing to our society and
its economy.  They will go from a subsistent existence to one in which they
can enjoy taking in a movie with their friends, an occasional restaurant
meal, and all of the other small pleasures of life that other American
workers take for granted.  They will become free people with real choices,
not virtual slaves with false ones.  

 

On behalf of the National Federation of the Blind, the over forty other
organizations that support this bill, and the millions of disabled people we
represent, we urge you to join us in our effort to change the paradigm of
low expectations and kindly meant but devastating exploitation that has too
long dominated the lives of over three hundred thousand Americans with
disabilities.  We ask you to express the courage to support H.R. 3086 and
the creativity to seek solutions that allow Americans with disabilities to
become productive citizens.  I thank you for your attention to this urgent
matter.  

 

Sincerely,

 

     

 

Marc Maurer, President

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND