The award was the result of a case against Henry’s Turkey
Service. The case highlighted the abuse
that this company did toward individuals with disabilities and as a result of
this abuse once again sparked conversation about the relevancy of the Fair Labor
and Standards Act 14 ( C ) program.
The National Disability Rights Network, is the nonprofit
membership organization for the Protection and Advocacy System for Individuals
with disabilities produced a paper “Segregated and Exploited – A call to
Action!” that used as a case study the atrocities that occurred at Henry’s
Turkey Service in Atalissa, Iowa. The
story of the workers at Henry’s Turkey Service, a meat processing plant in Iowa,
is an appalling example of the abuse that can happen when workers with
disabilities are segregated and sheltered away from others. Henry’s “shipped in” 60 men from Texas where
they worked and lived in the company run bunkhouse. Henry’s paid them an average of $.41 an hour
and the individuals also had to pay for their room and board at the bunkhouse –
leaving them with only $65 at the end of the month. The bunkhouse was a 106 year-old cockroach infested, unheated abandoned school converted to a bunkhouse that had boarded up windows and a cracked foundations. The residents paid $600 per month in rent for use of the tax-free bunkhouse.
A federal jury ruled that Henry’s Turkey Service
violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when they paid 32 mentally
disabled workers only $65 per month for their full time work on the turkey
processing line.
"I'm very
pleased the jury made such a powerful statement," said Ruby Moore, a
national disability rights advocate based in Georgia. "People around the
country are absolutely aware of this case. It has unveiled some of the horrendous
practices faced by people with disabilities."
The National Disability Rights Network made a series of
policy recommendations included in their position paper.
What I think was the take-away was their conclusion. It reads:
“Many people working in support of segregated and sheltered
work don’t think there is another way. In fact, there is. Thirty years ago no
one believed there was another option for people with disabilities but to live
in large, state-run institutions. The belief was they could never care for
themselves; they were too vulnerable or made people too uncomfortable to live
among people without disabilities. But soon we saw these human warehouses for
what they were and in state after state institutions closed, and now millions
of people with disabilities are living, successfully, in their communities.
They evolved and adapted and showed us they are more than we believed, as did
the rest of the country who recognized the value of having friends and
neighbors with disabilities. We witnessed lives changing.
The same can happen in the workplace. Sheltered workshops
are just another institution segregating our neighbors away because of our
unwillingness to accept that our own preconceived ideas about the workplace
might be wrong. It’s time to do things differently.”
Well we agree. It is time that we in this nation examine the practice of sheltered employment and paying below the minimum wage.
We believe everyone should be working in the community.
