[Jobs] industries for the blind

[J. Michael Jones]

I like you am a member of the employment committee, although I don't know 
what that means, because the chair never calls meetings.
As for posting jobs, I don't favor drawing lines, I am one that believes 
that information of any type should get to the people for the people to use.
I don't know what resolutions we have that address workshops, however I 
would like to see a strategy from NFB that would help shop workers become 
more empowered.
I think we need to have some seminars, study groups, some type of national 
conversation, maybe the chair of the employment committee can call a meeting 
to do something.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Davis" <ddavis at blindinc.org>
To: "'Jobs for the Blind'" <jobs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 11:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Jobs] industries for the blind


> 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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