In the 60's and 70's the Lighthouse closures were an easy 26. I remember that my counselor suggested that I "get some work experience" by working one summer between classes at the U. I took the job because I needed the money. But I told him that after 8 years in a factory job there was little in the way of work experience the Lighthouse could teach me.
But it really got to be over the top. Lazy, or incompetent counselors who had no belief that blind people could work, just shoving clients into the most convenient job, regardless of the clients desires or skills. And in those distant days the Lighthouse paid many sub-living wages. Just about everyone they hired had to go through an evaluation period, during which they received below wage minimum pay. For some years the state organization of the blind talked about trying to shut down the Lighthouse because of the poor working conditions and wages. But some of us argued that the Lighthouse provided employment to a segment of blind folks who would not be employable in competitive, integrated employment. We felt the answer was to work to improve the pay and plant safety. One piece of this was to no longer give a 26 for a sheltered work shop closure. Here in Washington state we also no longer counted Home Makers, which was the other cute trick by VRC's to grab a quick 26.
But times change. Today, with the improved conditions and pay at the Lighthouse here in Seattle, and in many of those around the country, the jobs are as good as they get. And the integrated job market is not providing many openings for anyone, much less blind people. So it is time to revisit the 26 closures and allow the work shop jobs to be counted, just so long as they are paying competitive wages to similar work in the general work place. But it will take some honest oversight by agency administration to assure the clients that they are not once again being shoved into jobs for the VRC's convenience. But that's part of what the ACB and the NFB are for.
Curious Carl
----- Original Message -----From: Frank VenturaSent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 3:41 AMSubject: RE: Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor toBuildHigh-TechWeaponsSystemsCharlie, maybe my understanding is incorrect but wasn't the change away
from sheltered workshops as code 26 closures made by RSA and not the
agencies themselves? I thought this was done to keep smaller agencies
with smaller case loads from cooking the books with sheltered workshop
closures.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On Behalf Of Charles
Crawford
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 2:25 PM
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
Subject: Re: Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor to
BuildHigh-TechWeaponsSystems
Hi Miriam and Dick and all;
Actually, the workshops of the past are exactly that. The ones
running nowadays pay at least minimul wage and in many cases quite a bit
better than that. Still, the rehab agencies won't count folks being
hired at a workshop as a successful rehabilitation because of the lack
of integrated setting.
-- Charlie.
. At 01:06 PM 5/11/2011, you wrote:
>Dick,
>
>I would assume that all that anti-union junk I hear from politicians,
>repeated with no balance by the media is also "biased', as you call it.
>And in addition to prisoners, there's a tradition of government
>contracts given to workshops where disabled people work which pay very
>low wages and lay people off for part of the year when they receive
>disability benefits. I remember when NFB had a campaign about this. I
>remember in the early 60's when Helen Keller Services was still called
>the Industrial Home For the Blind and they had these huge workshops in
>Brooklyn where the blind workers were these very capable, tough blind
>men whose work was equal to any factory workers' anywhere and who were
grossly underpaid.
>
>Miriam
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "R. E. Driscoll Sr" <llocsirdsr@att.net>
>To: "Blind Democracy Discussion List" <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
>Cc: "Mike Edwards" <mike@ultraemail.us>
>Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 11:56 AM
>Subject: Re: Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor to Build
>High-TechWeaponsSystems
>
>
>Dear Friends:
>
>I sincerely hope that all the recipients of the following message read
>and understood the entire message. I did so and came away with the
>idea that the message is a diatribe and then I came across that final
>sentence and my confusion was made clear.
>I copy and paste that sentence here.
>
>"Mike Elk is a labor reporter and third-generation union organizer
>based in Washington, DC. "
>
>One might assume that his commentary is biased.
>
>Regards,
>
>R. E. (Dick) Driscoll, Sr.
>
>On 5/10/2011 12:45 PM, Mike Edwards wrote:
> > There's nothing more productive they can be doing? All
> > service/conpannion dogs have been trained? So, instead of prisoners
> > being made to feel worthwhile, their being used to feed the American
> > war machine...Beautiful
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "S. Kashdan"
> > <skashdan@cablespeed.com>
> > To: "Blind Democracy List" <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:31 AM
> > Subject: Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor to Build High-Tech
> > WeaponsSystems
> >
> >
> > Disabled workers here in the U.S. are also now being employed to
> > make military components and accessories. Although they are not paid
> > as little as prison laborers, and they aren't generally treated as
> > badly, they are also being used to drive down wages, break unions,
> > and support military expansion. The skills disabled workers and
> > prison laborers are gaining aren't generally enabling them to get
> > those well-paid non-military high tec jobs their skill levels and
> > demonstrated capacities should entitle them to.
> > Those jobs are being more and more often done by lower and lower
> > paid people here in the U.S. and abroad in poorer countries.
> >
> >
> >
> > For justice and peace,
> >
> > Sylvie
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Defense Contractors Using Prison Labor to Build High-Tech Weapons
> > Systems
> >
> >
> >
> > By Mike Elk
> >
> >
> >
> > AlterNet, Posted on April 28, 2011
> >
> >
> >
> > http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/150777
> >
> >
> >
> > (8 links at the URL above)
> >
> >
> >
> > It is a little known fact of the attack on Libya that some of the
> > components of the cruise missiles being launched into the country
> > may have been made by prisoners in the United States. According to
> > its website, UNICOR, which is the organization that represents
> > Federal Prison Industries, "supplies numerous electronic components
> > and services for guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced
> > Capability Missile (PAC-3)".
> >
> >
> >
> > In addition to constructing electronic components for missiles,
> > prison labor in the United States is used to make electronic cables
> > for defense items like "the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing (BA) F-15, the
> > General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron's (TXT) Cobra
> > helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE
> > Systems".
> >
> >
> >
> > Traditionally these types of defense jobs would have gone to highly
> > paid, unionized workers. However the prison workers building parts
> > for these missiles earn a starting wage of 23 cents an hour and can
> > only make a maximum of $1.15 an hour. Nearly 1 in 100 adults are in
> > jail in the United States and are exempt from our minimum wage laws,
> > creating a sizable captive workforce that could undercut outside
> > wage standards.
> >
> >
> >
> > "It's no different than when our government allowed a United
> > Steelworkers-represented factory of several hundred good jobs in
> > Indiana called Magnequench to shut down," United Steelworkers Public
> > Affairs Director Gary Hubbard told AlterNet. "This was the last
> > high-tech magnetics production plant in the U.S. that made guidance
> > components for missiles and smart bombs. The factory was sold to a
> > Chinese state enterprise that moved all the machinery to China. And
> > now we depend on prison labor to build our defense products?"
> >
> >
> >
> > As the governments look to cut costs and trim deficits, they are
> > giving more and more contracts for skilled work to prisons, whose
> > workers often make one-fifteenth of the wages they would earn in the
> > private sector.
> > Whereas in
> > the past prisoners made license plates and desks for state offices,
> > they are now being trained for skilled work doing everything from
> > assembling cable components for guided missiles to underwater repair
> > welding. Even the much heralded green jobs aren't immune to being
> > outsourced to prison--the solar panels being used to provide
> > electricity for the State Department's office in Washington, D.C.
> > are constructed with prison labor.
> >
> >
> >
> > States are increasingly expanding the type of products they use
> > prison labor for to help cover the cost of keeping a person in
> > prison--nearly
> > $29,000 per
> > year. States spend a whopping $60 billion dollars per year to
> > maintain prisons, one of every 15 state dollars is spent on prisons,
> > and corrections spending is the second fastest-growing expenditure
> > in state budgets.
> > Prisons
> > are popular in small town America because they often mean bringing
> > several hundred jobs to economically depressed communities. Thus
> > many are in favor of using incarcerated labor to pay for prisons
> > because they work as a means of economic development.
> >
> >
> >
> > According to the New York Times, "Using inmate labor has created
unusual
> > alliances: liberal humanitarian groups that advocate more education
and
> > exercise in prisons find themselves supporting proposals from
> > conservative
> > budget hawks to get inmates jobs, often outdoors, where they can
learn
> > new
> > skills. Having a job in prison has been linked in studies to
decreased
> > violence, improved morale and lowered recidivism." Michael P.
Jacobson,
> > director of the Vera Institute of Justice, told the Times, "At the
> > grossest
> > financial level, it's just savings. You can cut the government
worker,
> > save
> > the salary and still maintain the service, and you're providing a
> > skill for
> > when they leave."
> >
> >
> >
> > For many people, prison labor looks like an easy win-win. Workers
get
> > skills, the state is able to pay for more prisons as the prison
> > population
> > grows, and local towns are eager to get prisons for the jobs they
> > bring. But
> > is it really a win-win for all?
> >
> >
> >
> > "At first, giving people in prison a job looks like a good idea. The
> > prisoner gets the job skill and a few extra dollars, the state takes
some
> > payment to let it happen, and the industry gets the work done. But
> > this is
> > not a win-win situation" says prison expert and SEIU senior research
> > analyst
> > Eric Lotke. "It's actually a lose-lose. The person in prison is paid
far
> > less than a real wage negotiated by free people in a free market
> > economy. So
> > free-market wages are undercut, driving wages down in the real
economy.
> > Meanwhile, business gets an incentive to lock people up for convict
labor
> > and the state loses its financial incentive to improve its criminal
> > justice
> > policies."
> >
> >
> >
> > In some cases, forced prison labor has resulted in inmates being
> > brutalized
> > rather than rehabilitated. Last year, Georgia inmates went on strike
> > at six
> > prisons for over a week. They complained that they were beaten if
they
> > refused to work prison jobs for little or sometimes no pay.
> >
> >
> >
> > Prison experts like Lotke say that while such jobs can be valuable
in a
> > productive environment, there are different ways to do things. "You
could
> > pay workers union wages and invest them in an account for when they
are
> > released. This would give them an incentive to behave well while
they
> > are in
> > prison and give them a financial base for when they get out of
> > prison," he
> > said.
> >
> >
> >
> > Lotke's union, SEIU, which represents many government service
workers
> > whose
> > jobs are threatened by slave wage prison labor, is looking at ways
to
> > invest
> > in programs that will help create jobs. SEIU is working with state
> > governments to dedicate resources away from prisons and into
government
> > services that keep people out of prison like education, after school
> > programs and other services that create good jobs in underdeveloped
> > communities.
> >
> >
> >
> > "The prison industry is extraordinarily destabilizing because small
towns
> > want the jobs that prisons create. However, Its all backwards--a
small
> > town
> > could get a highway or a university or a grant for a factory--any of
> > these
> > things could create jobs," says Lotke. "We could be investing in
good
> > jobs,
> > creating the conditions where poor youth don't turn to crime out of
> > economic
> > frustration. Instead we replicate the problem by throwing all this
> > money at
> > the prison system. When people realize what a waste of money,
economic
> > opportunity, and how ineffective it is to have so many people locked
up,
> > that is when we finally solve the criminal justice and jobs problem
in
> > this
> > country".
> >
> >
> >
> > The effort by SEIU to move resources away from prisons is a bold
one, as
> > prison guard unions have traditionally lobbied heavily to expand the
> > number
> > of correctional facilities in places like California. But as public
> > sector
> > union workers lose their jobs and other services are cut to keep
prisons
> > open, more unions are realizing they have to do something or their
> > jobs are
> > going to be lost in a race to the bottom with America's cheapest
> > labor--incarcerated labor.
> >
> > Mike Elk is a labor reporter and third-generation union organizer
> > based in
> > Washington, DC.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blind-Democracy mailing list
> > Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> > http://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
> >
> >
> >
>
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> > Version: 9.0.900 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3628 - Release Date:
> > 05/09/11 23:35:00
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blind-Democracy mailing list
> > Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> > http://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
> >
>
>
>
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