Is the federal government turning its back on the disabled workforce?
In a U.S. economy that sees businesses, as well as our own federal government, buying cheaper, imported goods, we reported how the effect has been disastrous for two not-for-profit manufacturers in Chicago employing disabled workers.
Happily, the year is ending for the Chicago Association for Retarded Citizens (CARC) with a slight uptick in business for its Halas Center factory on the city’s South Side. There, 115 physically and mentally challenged employees have made pillows for 30 years for the now-troubled airline industry.
Plant manager Mark Hurley reports the plant got unexpected orders from old clients United and Delta. Hurley also landed business from new customers in the AmeriSuites hotel chain and Amtrak. His plant thus will finish 2005 selling approximately 1.8 million pillows, up from last year’s all-time low of 1.5 million — but a far cry from the 20-plus million sold yearly before 9/11.
The Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired reports several new customers for its customized clock manufacturing: Purdue University, McDonald’s and the American Medical Association of New Jersey. Lighthouse Industries, which employs 25 visually impaired workers, once was the exclusive supplier of clocks to the federal government, but it has taken a big hit since various agencies began buying imported clocks, mostly from China.
No final figures for 2005 have been compiled, but Lighthouse officials are hopeful of hitting their annual goal: to break even.
