Disabled workers and inflation

[Marta Russell]

Thursday, June 24, the National Council on Independent Living,
the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, and the
National Council on Disability coordinated a joint meeting of their
independent conferences.  Labor Department Secretary Alexis Herman and
Social Security Administration Commissioner Apfel were featured as
keynote
speakers. This is an excerpt from remarks of Alexis Herman at the White
House:

As Labor Secretary, I have the privilege of announcing the latest
employment statistics on the first Friday of every month.  And this
month,
I was proud to report that unemployment is 4.2% -- a 29-year low.

But I don't have to tell any of you there's more to the story.   We know

three out of four Americans with disabilities who want to work are not
working.  And we know the key to keeping the economy strong is tapping
into
the potential of every American.  Because it really is very simple:
when
Americans with disabilities lose out on opportunity, all of us do.

As President Clinton has said: The last big group of people in this
country
who could keep the economy going strong with low inflation are Americans

with disabilities -- who can work -- who want to work -- and who are not
in
the workforce.

The President was crystal clear when he said every American should have
a
selfish interest in the pursuit of this goal in the most aggressive way
possible.

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Would you say that Herman is saying that disabled workers can be used to
keep the wage floor down (prevent inflation)???

Marta Russell