A Warehouse Revolution
Donald Cohen-Cutler is Communications Manager at the Union for Reform Judaism. He is also a former Eisendrath Legislative Assistant.
There is a “quiet revolution” taking place in a Walgreens warehouse. World News Tonight on ABC ran a fascinating story that was intended to make you go “huh.” It started with a not so surprising, but equally disturbing, statistic that 44% of adults with a disability are unemployed. While there are laws in place to stop discrimination, like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other state level programs, the rate of unemployment of the disabled community is more than 30% higher than the national average.
Walgreens, a corporate drug store chain in the United States, has made it practice to hire and expect the same work from people with mental and physical disabilities in its distribution center in Anderson, S.C. From the young man with autism in the shipping department to the HR recruiter with Cerebral Palsy, people with disabilities not only comprise 40% of the 700 person staff at this facility, they are making the distribution center stronger.
Randy Lewis, an executive whose son is on the autism spectrum and created this program because of his personal connection to the issue, noted that the Anderson warehouse is as productive as any other in the Walgreens system. He also said, “This isn’t just a good thing to do, it is right thing to do.”
It is wonderful that Walgreens has taken on this program but it clearly isn’t enough. In the coming weeks the ADA, the legal protections against discrimination of people with disabilities, is up for reauthorization by Congress. Please take action now to support this legislation. If Walgreens can figure it out, we need to help Congress do the good and right thing for disabled Americans.
Randy Lewis, an executive whose son is on the autism spectrum and created this program because of his personal connection to the issue, noted that the Anderson warehouse is as productive as any other in the Walgreens system. He also said, “This isn’t just a good thing to do, it is right thing to do.”
It is wonderful that Walgreens has taken on this program but it clearly isn’t enough. In the coming weeks the ADA, the legal protections against discrimination of people with disabilities, is up for reauthorization by Congress. Please take action now to support this legislation. If Walgreens can figure it out, we need to help Congress do the good and right thing for disabled Americans.
Comments
Looks perfectly straight to me. Of course, I'm also the type of person who allegedly [ahem! allegedly] agree with everything.
Posted by: isabella mori | April 3, 2008 5:01 AM