[Jobs] industries for the blind

[Ashley, Kathy J]

Hmmm, and he is concerned about absenteeism!!  I can understand why
there is a problem.  Is Mr. Roden still employed at AIB?

Kathy Ashley, MS, CRC
Program Director for Blind & VI Services
Vocational Rehabilitation Services
1-800-545-7763
317-232-1352
Fax: 317-232-6478

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-----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 11:57 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