Question about mentally disabled workers

At a grocery store I go to, many of the baggers are mentally handicapped in someway. Are they in the union (it is a union shop)? Do they get paid the same as the other baggers? Just curious.

Harvest Co-op had a couple (institutionalized) mentally challenged workers bagging the bulk fruits and nuts. They'd sit in a cubicle in the back of the store, with a handler, put a fistful of produce in a plastic bag, close it with a twist tie, and weigh it on a scale that would generate a gummed label with a price on it. It was a pretty mechanical process that they could learn to do, and the handler would oversee them to make sure they didn't start eating the nuts, and when they started weighing different products they'd also change the information in the scale.

A state program paid the lion's share of this worker's salary, plus that of the handler. The co-op essentially got a robot for something like a dollar and a half per hour.

Then new management nuked the bulk department, so these guys are out of work. (Plus the bulk Turkish figs was my favorite snack food in the whole store. Assholes.)

There are vocational services programs that employ job development professionals that will work with employers and disabled employees to create "win-win" situations. Some programs will have staff accompany and train disabled workers one on one for several weeks to help them to acclimate to job expectations and responsibilities. There are frequently tax incentives and other financial benefits for employers to hire disabled workers.

We hired an employee through this method a while back. The program he was involved in paid for three weeks worth of one of our staff's salary to train him. He did a great job for us.

That is one of the things my company does. Good for you for hiring the disabled! :toast:

To answer the OP - the company hires the person as their employee. If non-disabled people, who are doing the same job, are eligible for union membership, the disabled person would be too. Same pay, same benefits, etc. At least that's how it is set up to work.