by Michael Byington
I am pleased to find myself writing this article. It is a pleasure to report about an organization serving people who are blind which has done the right thing.
A few months ago, I wrote an article for “The Braille Forum” in which I expressed my concern about the General Council of Industries for the Blind’s (GCIB) failure to join the American Council of the Blind (ACB), the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), and National Industries for the Blind (NIB) in supporting the payment of at least the federal minimum wage for people whose only disability related to working is blindness.
GCIB had tabled a policy statement supporting minimum wage at its spring 2000 meeting. My worry was that the perceived failure of the blindness community to come together concerning this subject would serve to force the issue, and would result in the opening of Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or the Javits-Wagner-O’Day (JWOD) Act, to Congressional scrutiny. I continue to counsel against putting these laws under the Congressional microscope until we are certain that opening them can bring about more gains in the creation of good employment opportunities for people who are blind or disabled than losses of good jobs. Currently, segments of both the small business lobby and the independent living lobby have advocated for the virtual abolition of JWOD, and this could cause up to 6,000 gainfully employed Americans who are blind to lose their jobs.
At its fall meeting, GCIB adopted a short and concise policy statement supporting the payment of at least the federal minimum wage for people whose only work-related disability is blindness. This statement was adopted as a substitute motion, to replace a proposal by GCIB’s president, William Thompson, which would have resulted in GCIB’s supporting not only the payment of minimum wage, but rather paying all people who are blind a “living wage.” In recent legislative parlance, this term represents an income well above the minimum wage. While the Thompson proposal actually went further than the proposal which was ultimately adopted, either version achieved what was needed. GCIB needed to be in step with the rest of the blindness community on the minimum wage issue.
ACB should be commended for its adoption of resolution 2000-21, which sent a clear message to the GCIB leadership that the minimum wage issue is an important one, and that GCIB should get on board with the rest of the blindness community.