NAFTA-Style Trade Policy Now Undermining Jobs for Disabled People

David Sirota's picture

The Danville Register & Bee has a tragic story about the Hatcher Center, a facility that provides work training and rehabilitative services to adults with mental and physical disabilities:

Doss and Clark are among the 113 people with mental and physical disabilities who find friends, compassionate acceptance and meaningful employment in the sheltered workshop located off U.S. 29 in the Blairs community.

They can’t understand words like “NAFTA” and “outsourcing” - can’t even come close to spelling the words - but cheaper foreign labor is threatening even their simple jobs.

For 15 years, the employees at the center have sewn hospital gowns for Danville Regional Medical Center. The hospital can now purchase the gowns overseas for half the price.

Yes, our lobbyist-written trade policy is now helping undersell and undermine jobs for mentally and physically disabled people.





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