We Aren't Second Class Citizens!!!

Orlando, Florida (July 7, 2011): The National Federation of the Blind at its national convention today voted unanimously to demand fair wages for blind workers. The convention is being attended by 2,900 delegates from across the United States and Puerto Rico. On Wednesday, July 13, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will vote on the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which contains language reauthorizing the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. The Rehabilitation Act is supposed to provide services to disabled Americans so that they can obtain competitive employment, but Title V, Section 511 of the proposed Rehabilitation Act language references Section 14(c) of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which allows certain entities holding special wage certificates to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage. Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Language endorsing the antiquated practice of paying the blind and other workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage, which is based on the fallacious premise that disabled workers cannot be productive and do the same work as their non-disabled peers, has no place in legislation designed to increase competitive work opportunities for workers with disabilities. We believe that this language, in effect if not by design, is a Trojan Horse provision that will inevitably lead to the placing of workers with disabilities in subminimum-wage sweatshops. We demand that the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee either amend this bill to remove Title V, Section 511, or simply vote down the entire bill.”

I guess you are wondering what aall that stuff I pasted above is all about. Basically, congress is looking at signing this bill that would make it legal to pay people with disabilities a subminimum wage for the same work done by everyone else. I don't remember what the exact amount is, but I know it's less than $4 an hour, a wage that no person can live on in these times. Living expenses aside however, the idea that people deserve a smaller wage because of a disability is absolutely rediculous! Some may say that the disability keeps the person from being productive, so the wage is fair. However, if that's the case, it would be more fair to give that person a task they can do well instead of docing that person's pay. Also, people have said that they have to start paying this subminimum wage to keep compaanies from going bankrupt. However, all you have to do is take a look at the salaries of the top executives of these companies, and you will see that this is far from true. Basically, this bill should not be passed, and there is no excuse for congress to let it do so. In a perfect world, it would never have been proposed in the first place, but it has been. So, it's our duty to make sure it doesn't become law and that every person, disabled or not, gets the earnings he or she deserves. To help get the attention we need, comment on this poast, and visit my facebook page to like or comment on my note, "This is disgusting."