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´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4 In Touch |
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Listen to this programmeFactsheet of this programmeTranscript of this programme Print this page FactsheetTHE LIGHTHOUSE PROJECTPeter has been in America where he visited the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind, a nonprofit organization, providing jobs, training and vocational services for people who are blind, deaf-blind and muti-disabled blind. The factory there is run by the Countrywide charity. SEATTLE LIGHTHOUSE FOR THE BLIND LIGHTHOUSE FOR THE BLIND GLASGOW Back in the UK, Peter was joined by Robert Mooney, Branch Secretary of the National League of the Blind and Disabled in the Glasgow factory where he works as a machinist. They discuss the way things work in the UK and what lessons can be learnt from the US. CONTACTS NATIONAL LEAGUE OF THE BLIND AND DISABLED Swinton House 324 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8DD Tel: 020 7837 6103 Textphone: 020 7837 6103 National League of the Blind and Disabled is a registered trade union and is involved in all issues regarding the employment of blind and disabled people in the UK. The National League of the Blind and Disabled is part of the Community Union. REMPLOY Stonecourt, Siskin Drive, Coventry, CV3 4FJ Tel: 0800 138 7656 (freephone - UK only) Fax: 0800 138 7657 Minicom: 02476 515 869 Email: info@remploy.co.uk Remploy is the UK's leading provider of employment services for disabled people and other disadvantaged groups who experience multiple barriers to work. WORKSTEP Workstep is the Government's supported employment programme which is designed specifically for people who due to their disability, may find it difficult to find or keep a job. GENERAL CONTACTS RNIB 105 Judd Street London WC1H 9NE Helpline: 0845 766 9999 Tel: 0207 388 1266 (switchboard/overseas callers) Web: The RNIB provides information, support and advice for anyone with a serious sight problem. They not only provide Braille, Talking Books and computer training, but imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. The RNIB campaigns to change society's attitudes, actions and assumptions, so that people with sight problems can enjoy the same rights, freedoms and responsibilities as fully sighted people. They also fund pioneering research into preventing and treating eye disease and promote eye health by running public health awareness campaigns. HENSHAWS SOCIETY FOR BLIND PEOPLE (HSBP) John Derby House 88-92 Talbot Road Old Trafford Manchester M16 0GS Tel: 0161 872 1234 Email: info@hsbp.co.uk Web: Henshaws provides a wide range of services for people who have sight difficulties. They aim to enable visually impaired people of all ages to maximise their independence and enjoy a high quality of life. They have centres in: Harrogate, Knaresborough, Liverpool, Llandudno, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Salford, Southport and Trafford. THE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND ASSOCIATION (GDBA) Burghfield Common Reading RG7 3YG Tel: 0118 983 5555 Email: guidedogs@guidedogs.org.uk Web: The GDBA’s mission is to provide guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted people. ACTION FOR BLIND PEOPLE 14-16 Verney Road London SE16 3DZ Tel: 0800 915 4666 (info & advice) Web: Registered charity with national cover that provides practical support in the areas of housing, holidays, information, employment and training, cash grants and welfare rights for blind and partially-sighted people. Leaflets and booklets are available. NATIONAL LEAGUE OF THE BLIND AND DISABLED Central Office Swinton House 324 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8DD Tel: 020 7837 6103 Textphone: 020 7837 6103 National League of the Blind and Disabled is a registered trade union and is involved in all issues regarding the employment of blind and disabled people in the UK. NATIONAL LIBRARY FOR THE BLIND (NLB) RNIB Customer Services on 0845 762 6843 Email: cservices@rnib.org.uk Web: The NLB is a registered charity which helps visually impaired people throughout the country continue to enjoy the same access to the world of reading as people who are fully sighted. Trustees from the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) and the National Library for the Blind (NLB) have agreed to merge the library services of both charities as of 1 January 2007, creating the new RNIB National Library Service. EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION DISABILITY HELPLINE (England) FREEPOST MID02164 Stratford upon Avon CV37 9BR Tel: 08457 622 633 Textphone: 08457 622 644 Fax: 08457 778 878 Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 9:00 am-5:00 pm; Wed 8:00 am-8:00 pm. Enquiry: englandhelpline2@equalityhumanrights.com EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HELPLINE WALES Freepost RRLR-UEYB-UYZL 1st Floor 3 Callaghan Square Cardiff CF10 5BT 0845 604 8810 - Wales main number 0845 604 8820 - Wales textphone 0845 604 8830 - Wales fax 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours service will start running soon) Enquiry: waleshelpline@equalityhumanrights.com EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HELPLINE SCOTLAND Freepost RRLL-GYLB-UJTA The Optima Building 58 Robertson Street Glasgow G2 8DU 0845 604 5510 - Scotland Main 0845 604 5520 - Scotland Textphone 0845 604 5530 - Scotland – Fax 9:00 am-5:00 pm, Monday to Friday (an out-of-hours service will start running soon) Enquiry: scotlandhelpline@equalityhumanrights.com DISABLED LIVING FOUNDATION 380-384 Harrow Road London W9 2HU Tel: 0845 130 9177 Web: The Disabled Living Foundation provide information and advice on disability equipment. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for external websites General contacts Back to top TranscriptWhiteGood evening. Traditionally they've been known as sheltered workshops, factories where blind and disabled people are employed making a range of goods and usually receiving a subsidy from a combination of local authorities or local charities and the government. But they must be feeling far from sheltered at the moment as their whole ethos has increasingly come under challenge. Just in the past couple of weeks Remploy, the company which has employed disabled people since the end of the Second World War, has finalised its plans to close or merge 28 of its factories. And only last week two Aberdeen MPs have accused their local city council of reneging on their obligations to disabled people because of a range of cuts which threatens the existence of a blind workshop they run. And even where factories are doing okay there's a strong implication in the government's Workstep programme, under which they're now employed, that they'll move on to integrated open industry at the earliest opportunity. The blind workshop, in other words, seen as a last resort. But does it have to be like that and is that the way that the people who make their living in them really see them? Well in a few minutes I'll be talking to a man who both works and represents the employees in a successful operation in Glasgow. But first I've recently been in the United States, hardly an environment where commercial failure is readily tolerated, where the factory manned and often largely run by visually impaired people seems still very much alive and well. In Seattle, on the North West coast, the factory there, as many in the States are, is run by the country wide charity Lighthouse for the Blind. But though Lighthouse is a charity it insists that the manufacturing element of its operation is commercial viable and that the money raised as part of its $37 million turnover last year is only used to run special education and rehab projects not bolster the manufacturing side. Well the business either comes from government contracts, especially the military, or from the huge aircraft company Boeing just up the road. So what's the secret? The use of state of the art technology, the fact that they've just appointed a new totally blind chief executive? Well I spent a day there trying to find out and I began by meeting a member of the management team Don Helsel. Helsel Well we have about 370 employees currently and we're really - our main customers are the Boeing aircraft company and also the federal government. We really have serviced Boeing for many years with a modern machine shop and this is where we make a lot of small parts for Boeing, there are a lot of them are made out of aluminium, some of them are made out of fibre glass. White So a lot of the Boeings that are hurtling around the world now they're held together by things which are made by blind people here? Helsel All of them are. We started in 1953 with our Boeing contract and we've continued through all these years, 707s, 727s continue up now where we are doing work for the 787. All the commercial aircraft models you fly on I guarantee there are quality blind made parts from the Seattle Lighthouse, there has to be because we're the sole suppliers on those parts. For instance one part we do that everybody would sort of understand is that we make the visors for the cockpit, the sun visors for the cockpit. Another item we make is a lot of times when we fly on aeroplanes they always say in an emergency follow the lighted strips on the floor, I've never really seen them of course, but we make those big long plastic rails with little slots in them so the lights can flash and lead you to emergency exit, so that's another item that we've made for years and years and years. Boeing's been very supportive of us and this year we'll do maybe between $9-10 million worth of business with Boeing. Pike Okay, hi, my name is Harry Pike and I'm working in the Boeing machine shop, I'm a set up specialist and one of many of the jobs that I do here is milling aircraft parts for Boeing. And right now I'm on a Bridge Port 2 and I'm doing an edging job for Boeing right now, I'm edging it down to net width, then it goes on to a further process for completion. White When you say edging what does that mean exactly? Pike I'm taking a width dimension with access and .. can I show you? White Yeah. Pike Okay. What I'm doing is getting a net width here of 8.400, .840,000ths wide. White Right and how do you get that that precise? Pike On my machine I've got a TDO, which is a digital readout, okay? White Yep. Pike It's also voiced, it has my XY and Z access, all three of them are voiced, that allows me to set the machine up to the dimension that I'm taking this down to. [Digital readout] Hear that? Push again. [Digital readout] Okay, that's telling me my callipers are completely closed with the exception of a half of a thousandth. White So that enables you to do this work as precisely as a sighted worker would do it? Pike Exactly. If it wasn't for the voice I couldn't do it. So here's a plug that I have got a first part checked on, that has been edged on both sides. White So that's completely smooth on both sides. Pike Right. That's what Boeing wants, they want us to clean it up, they don't want that rough finish. White How would this have been done in the past Harry? I mean ... Pike I wasn't here in the past so I couldn't really answer that question. White But would you have been able to - I mean would a blind person have been able to do this by some other means earlier on? Pike With assistance they could yes. White But you can do this independently? Pike Yes, now I can. And when I first started here my vision was well enough to where I could see the dials on the machine to set it up without no help but now I can't do it. White A bit quieter in here. Female worker This is our computer training lab at the Lighthouse and our programme has been open for about a year now. A lot of people here do not even know how to use a computer. White What about the technology itself, the actual making of the equipment because light engineering has changed enormously, is it being used for that sort of thing? Female worker Oh gosh, well technology in the last 15 years has really expanded opportunities for blind people. We have some engineers here at the Lighthouse that work specifically with the manufacturers of these machines to make them accessible to blind people. So the computer technology actually has made it possible for blind people to do technical jobs that sighted people are doing as well. Helsel A lot of the production jobs that you saw when you were out touring are skilled based, most of the people come in with little or no experience will start close to the minimum wage or a little higher and then as they learn new jobs and new skills in the organisation, in the shop, they become more of an asset to the organisation so of course we raise their wages comparably. White But has this changed, I mean is this different to how it would have been say 10, 20, 30 years ago? Helsel Well they used to have a reputation I think as being kind of a last resort, you know last stop, for blind people. Now a lot of people choose to be here. I mean when we do the reviews each year we have a form that basically it asks the employee if they're happy working here and if they were interested in being helped with finding competitive employment in an outside and open market job and you know there's always a few exceptions of people who want to expand their horizons but the majority of people check the box and say oh I'm perfectly happy here and I want to stay here and they sign the form and they do that year after year. Female worker I started in the Boeing machine shop, I ran some of the machines down there, one of their milling machines and their saws, I did that for about a year and a half and then I came back a little later ... White So you came back - so you went away to work in other areas? Female worker I did, I got some different training - I was a massage therapist for a while, I worked at Sears and decided it would be really neat to come back and be with the blind community and that computer training was something I felt passionate about and something I wanted to assist our fellow employees on. So I tried out for this job and so here I am. Pike I've had jobs outside of the Lighthouse, I've done a lot of work in my past lifetime. I've owned my own business, I've done landscaping, I've manufactured windows, let's see - I've worked for a carpenter, I've done framing, you know I've done a lot - commercial painting. So this is not the only thing available to me but as my eyes have gotten worse I've been limited to what I can do. So I decided to make this my career and finish out my time here. Helsel There are production wages, they start at about $8.50 cents US and I believe there's a couple of people in production that are up to around $22-23 an hour. But we have a very comprehensive benefit package which would be far superior to say working in food service or something else that a lot of blind people might choose to work in or a call centre somewhere. White But I mean does this make economic sense as far as both the Lighthouse and your purchasers are concerned because in Britain it's been increasingly difficult. The argument is often used, you know, we're paying more to keep this open, we're paying more per head to keep people employed, is that happening here? Helsel No, certainly we do have some expenses that other manufacturers don't have, such as some of the adaptive equipment and the interpreting services for our deaf/blind employees and things like that but the benefits far outweigh the costs. And we operated or have operated in the black for several years. Very little if any of our funding comes from government grants or anything, it's all fee for service we're providing to them and in order to get on the government's procurement list we have to be able to prove that we can produce a product with similar quality and price to what they can go purchase it on the open market. So it's not necessarily costing the taxpayer anymore money to have the government buy from us than from outside sources. White Finally, this whole ethos of getting to the top, I mean you've come into the organisation, you've now got a blind chief executive, does that change people's perspective of how far they can get? Helsel When I first came here I was just between jobs and was looking for something to do until I found another job. My original intent was to only stay for say six months or so but then I realised oh I have skills and abilities that I can offer these people, there's examples all over the organisation of people who work their way up through promotions as their skills and abilities have improved. And I think having a blind person at the top in Kirk just solidifies that whole notion that there's not a glass ceiling for people with disabilities. Pike Now I'm going to take one of these parts that I haven't finished but one side and if you touch my callipers - where's your hand sir? White There it is. Pike Okay, I stick it in there. Now it has a digital readout but I can't see that, okay? So here we go. [Digital readout] White What does this part do Harry? Pike What's what part? White On the Boeing what does it do, what's its role - this thing that you're making? Pike I have no clue. A lot of what we do here - shim fillers, radius fillers, things of that nature - where it goes on the plane I have no idea. White But you still get a lot of satisfaction out of getting it absolutely right? Pike You got that right. White Harry, a man who's clearly happy in his work. But it's easy to go to a country like the States, be given the big smiling glad handing American welcome and be swept along by their enthusiasm. So to temper this I've been joined by Robert Mooney. Robert is the branch secretary of the National League of the Blind and Disabled in the Glasgow factory where he also works as a machinist and he's just come from the executive committee meeting of Community, that's the union under whose umbrella the National League works. So first of all Robert, first impressions of what you've just heard in Seattle? Mooney I was very impressed. One of the things that impressed me most is that the work is coming from a private company and the fact that the chief executive was a disabled person. I think in our factory that's something that they would like to aim for. White You say you're impressed by the fact that it's from private companies, so is it difficult to get private work in the system that you work in? Mooney Yes it is, especially with local authority and government run factories because of legislation, it's difficult for them to tender for private work. White And yet you're doing quite well, I mean we chose you because your Glasgow factory is very successful. Tell us a bit about it - what you make? Mooney Our factory is run by the DLO of Glasgow City Council Direct Labour Organisation, which has just recently become an arms length company solely run by the council. And the reason we've done that was so that we could bid for private work. The factory make 200 and odd kitchens every week. We supply the homeless persons accommodation in Glasgow Housing Association with all the furniture that goes into them that includes wardrobes, dressing tables, dining chairs, we even make the pillow cases and quilt covers and we make everything that goes into the flats. And just recently there's legislation that's come out in Europe that says that factories with 50% of the workforce disabled can apply for government work. Any organisation can give them work without going through the tendering process. And just recently our factory has secured £14 million worth of work over a period of five years from the Glasgow Housing Association. White So you are doing relatively well, you've cut off your ties to some extent from the local authority, why are so many of our workshops, in that case, in Britain - I mean take Aberdeen - under threat as the council apparently cuts millions from its budgets - so what's going on there? Mooney Well I think in Glasgow we think of ourselves as the jewel in the crown of supported factories and the reason we've got to that position is that we have had a massive amount of support from the local authority and in particular City Build in Glasgow. And that has come in the guise of work and that's what these factories need, they don't need subsidies or grants they need work. White Is there the skills base? I mean one of the things that's been happening in workshops like this is that increasingly they have tended - and correct me if I'm wrong - to employ a slightly less severe disabled people and that has often meant as falling in the number of people, for example, who are totally blind, you know, if you make them too competitive isn't the danger that you take away the source of work for the very group they were set up to support? Mooney I don't believe that's necessarily true. When Glasgow City Council took over the running of the factory from Strathclyde Regional Council the workforce were concerned that that would happen - that Glasgow City would bring people in who had less of a disability than the people that were there previously. One of the first things they done was actually bring people in in wheelchairs and we'd never employed a person in a wheelchair before and there was people with other severe disabilities that came in that we hadn't employed before. So not necessarily no. White What about the philosophy behind all this? The government, the local authorities, even quite a lot of the charities seem to accept that blind people want to work in an integrated setting, you know in your experience is that true? Mooney Yeah, my trade union a number of years ago done a survey within the workforce through sheltered employment in Britain and the answer came back that the disabled people wanted to work within these factories because I think they felt comfortable working in that environment and the jobs outside that were available for them were actually at less pay with poor conditions. White Just to give the people an idea of how these jobs work I mean because some of the things that people are doing sound as if they take eyesight, I mean how do the support systems work in factories like yours? Mooney I feel we have the mixture just right in our factory. We have able bodied people, we have people who are sighted with other disabilities, we have partially-sighted people and we have blind people and we all support each other. Obviously there are some jobs within our factory that need sight, which need full sight, there are jobs that you can do with partial sight and there's jobs that blind people can do and you don't need sight for, like assembly in particular. The furniture is an ideal job for blind people and they can probably do it better than most sighted people. White Because it's very much done by touch. Mooney Yes very tactile yeah. White So is work allocated in that kind of way with people working together for example on certain projects? Mooney Yeah and there is a great camaraderie within our factory and people are only too willing to help each other. White Do you think you've got anything to learn from Seattle? Mooney Certainly the fact that it can work, if private companies can give work to supported factories. A lot of the work that will come through the new procurement laws will probably come from local authorities and government bodies but it would be nice to see private companies buying into this as well. White Robert Mooney, perhaps you'll take a trip there to have a look. Anyway thank you very much indeed for joining us. Mooney Thank you Peter. White And that's it for this week but don't forget we very much welcome your comments on topics like the one we've just tackled. You can call our action line on 0800 044 044 or e-mail In Touch via the website. Next week I'll be in Beijing looking for some pre-Paralympic material for us, while you'll be in the safe and capable hands of Mani Djazmi - be nice to him. From me Peter White, my producer Cheryl Gabriel and the rest of the team, goodbye. Back to top |
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