babylonsister posted about the slavery this man fell into, I still remember the story
still remember the story.
Willie Levi, 73, Dies; He Escaped a Life of Servitude
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/willie-levi-73-dies-he-escaped-a-life-of-servitude.html
He was one of a group of men with disabilities who worked for substandard wages at a turkey plant but found justice. He succumbed to the new coronavirus.
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Willie Levi in 2013. Intellectually disabled, he spent years working at a turkey-processing plant for $65 a month but found justice in a successful lawsuit.Credit...Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Dan Barry
By Dan Barry
April 30, 2020
<snip>
But Mr. Levi never had much choice. He was sent first to an institution and then to Iowa, where he and other men with intellectual disabilities worked in virtual servitude at a turkey-processing plant for decades. He never made it back to Orange.
Mr. Levi — a claimant in a successful lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that championed proper pay and working conditions for people with disabilities — died on April 23 at his home in Waterloo, Iowa, after contracting the novel coronavirus, according to Paula Passe, one of his court-appointed guardians. He was 73.
“He was a great advocate for himself and for the men he called ‘brothers,’ who shared the same pain,” said Robert A. Canino, the E.E.O.C. lawyer who tried the case. “Like many of the men, he was not as indignant as he was happily determined, as though he saw the coming of justice.”
<snip>
In 1974, Mr. Levi was sent to work for Henry’s Turkey Service, which then dispatched him and other men with disabilities 1,000 miles north to Muscatine County, Iowa, where the company had a contract with a turkey-processing plant.
<snip>
Dan Barry is a longtime reporter and columnist, having written both the “This Land” and “About New York” columns. The author of several books, he writes on myriad topics, including sports, culture, New York City, and the nation.
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This is the story baby,onsister posted:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/101688149
The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse
Kassie Bracken/The New York Times
The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse
Toil, abuse and endurance in the heartland.
THIS LAND By DAN BARRY
MARCH 9, 2014
snip//
Mr. Berg comes from a different place.
For more than 30 years, he and a few dozen other men with intellectual disabilities — affecting their reasoning and learning — lived in a dot of a place called Atalissa, about 100 miles south of here. Every morning before dawn, they were sent to eviscerate turkeys at a processing plant, in return for food, lodging, the occasional diversion and $65 a month. For more than 30 years.
Their supervisors never received specialized training; never tapped into Iowa’s social service system; never gave the men the choices in life granted by decades of advancement in disability civil rights. Increasingly neglected and abused, the men remained in heartland servitude for most of their adult lives.
This Dickensian story — told here through court records, internal documents and extensive first-time interviews with several of the men — is little known beyond Iowa. But five years after their rescue, it continues to resound in halls of power. Last year the case led to the largest jury verdict in the history of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: $240 million in damages — an award later drastically reduced, yet still regarded as a watershed moment for disability rights in the workplace. In both direct and subtle ways, it has also influenced government initiatives, advocates say, including President Obama’s recent executive order to increase the minimum wage for certain workers.
more...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/03/09/us/the-boys-in-the-bunkhouse.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=US_TBI_20140309&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=0
I've just never forgotten this story.
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