[Jobs] industries for the blind

[Dick Davis]

Mike, 

Looks like a serious employee morale problem to me.  If so, it won't get any
better by browbeating the workers. I agree that the attitude toward the
sighted vs. the blind workers is particularly loathsome. Sighted
"superstars"? Give me a break!

I have a couple of questions.  First, how do these people get along with our
Alabama affiliate - are they in any way responsive?  Second, if this really
is a sweatshop, and since the NFB has policies opposing sweatshops, why are
we posting their job vacancies on our listserv? Since we are an organization
of the blind, doing so implies an endorsement on our part.  

Having said that, I think if there are facilities in the NIB system that
treat their blind workers fairly, get along with our state affiliate, and
want to hire people from our ranks, I would have no objection to their
posting their vacancies on this listserv.

However, keep in mind that I am only a member of the NFB Employment
Committee, not the chair, and I cannot speak for the other members.   

Dick Davis 

-----Original Message-----
From: jobs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:jobs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
J. Michael Jones
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 10:57 AM
To: Jobs for the Blind
Subject: [Jobs] industries for the blind

Here is a letter that some production workers at the industries for the
blind got to me, I will let you determine the attitude of the writer.  it is
the plant manager writing to his supervisors.  See how he refers to sighted
workers and see how blind workers are looked  upon.
enjoy, Mike

From: Charles Roden, 

(mailto: [Roden.charles at aidb.state. al.us] 

Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 9-27 AM 

 

As supervisors, all of you know that absenteeism is excessive and seems to
be getting worse, not better. Billy Sparkman mentioned this in his last
quarterly plant update, but that emphasis did not create any change in this
habitual absentee problem. I want you to continue to work with Terry McKee
to document, via disciplinary actions, those cases of excessive absenteeism.
The only way we can change this: culture" is to document, document, document
counsel, counsel, counsel--and in doing so, create personnel records that
are sufficiently documented to support more excessive disciplinary,,
actions. 

 

As we are continuing to identify, and document excessive absenteeism, I
would like for each of you over the next several weeks and as time permits,
to have a brief (3-5 minute) personal conversation with each and every
production employee under your supervision to discuss this excessive
absentee problem and to let them know the significant negative impact that
this has on AIB. There is no specific timeline for completion, but it is
something that we need to address as quickly as possible. In that brief
conversation, you need to mention these things: 

1) JWOD ratio-We MUST maintain a 75% blind ratio. We have no wiggle room or
excuses that will make a ratio less than 75% acceptable to the Committee for
Purchase. This should be emphasized to our blind workers particularly. Their
excessive absenteeism reduces our 

 



p,3 

 

direct labor blind hours and directly reduces our blind ratio percentage. 

 

2) JWOD Compliance--failure to maintain the JWOD ratio means increased
scrutiny by both NIB and the Committee for Purchase and in a real sense
jeopardizes the future of continuing the federal contracts that we currently
have and certainly jeopardizes our ability to get new contracts awarded to
us. Due to some situations nationwide where JWOD ratios were not maintained
or were reported incorrectly, this is an area that is under the microscope
of the Committee for Purchase, NIB, the federal government and the national
media. We simply cannot afford to be an agency that fails to meet the blind
ratio requirement. 

 

3) Product delivery every product we manufacture has a series of operations
leading to a finished product. If even one operator in that series of
operations is absent, it impacts the flow of that manufacturing process
possibly creating a bottleneck and a slowdown in the rate that we are able
to finish the product. Our federal customers do not differentiate between
JWOD products and commercially produced products. They want a first quality
product delivered ON TIME. Absenteeism certainly creates situations where it
is difficult to ship finished products on time. If we don't ship products on
time and this becomes a repetitive problem, we come under criticism from
both NIB and the federal customers and this, like the blind ratio situation,
leads to questions about our ability to deliver product and that uncertainty
can manifest itself in real terms as cancelled orders, orders transferred to
other agencies or possible future work being directed toward another agency
or commercial supplier. 

 

4) Sighted production worker absenteeism In looking at this, I am not
differentiating between attendance requirements for blind versus sighted
workers, but it needs to be addressed as a separate issue. Obviously, due to
the blind ratio requirements, we need to utilize as few sighted production
workers as possible to get the job done. We try to hire talented sighted
production workers who can get the 

job done and who can assist us in moving product through the various
production jobs. Sighted workers generally perform highly skilled tasks that
cannot otherwise be performed by blind workers due to specific tolerances,
visual placement or safety related issues. As you know, we REALLY depend on
our sighted workers to be "superstars" who can do every job well and who can
support our mission of employing visually hnpaired persons. The absence of
even one of our sighted workers creates real problems in our production
lines, especially now  that we are particularly "lean" in our sighted
production worker population. In having this brief conversation with sighted
production workers, you need to stress their role in helping AIB perform
it's mission of employing visually impaired workers and they need to be
aware of the severe negative impact their absences have on our production. 

 

There may be other, even more practical, situations that you can bring up in
this brief conversation with each employee to illustrate how excessive
absenteeism is effecting your department and you can be specific about those
situations. We've simply got to tackle this problem head on and do whatever
it takes to get the production workers focused on improving their attendance
and reducing this excessive absentee problem. This exercise in and of itself
will probably not change the mentality that much, but we need to do this as
a first step in educating and counseling each worker and then continue the
process with counseling and disciplinary actions for those employees who
will not change these habits. 

 

Charles Roden  

Plant Manager 

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