WHEREAS, eighty-three blind Marylanders are employed as production workers at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland; and
WHEREAS, the preponderance of goods manufactured by Blind Industries and Services of Maryland is sold to the federal government in accordance with provisions of the Javitts-Wagner O'Day Act; and
_ WHEREAS, the General Services Administration (GSA) is the primary purchasing agent for items on the Javitts-Wagner-O'Day procurement list; and -
WHEREAS, in the past, GSA ordered staple items, for example, glued paper pads, in a consistent, predictable manner, enabling the management of Blind Industries and Services of Maryland to enter into favorable contractual arrangements with suppliers and to provide steady employment for blind production workers; and
WHEREAS, the management of Blind Industries and Services of Maryland has not exercised the skills necessary to deal with recent erratic ordering by GSA, resulting in avoidable lay-offs of blind workers; and
WHEREAS, blind production workers are taxpaying, productive citizens who earn their way and do not wish to be forced to rely on the social safety net due to Blind Industries and Services of Maryland's poor management and marketing practices: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Convention assembled this third day of October, 1987, in the City of Frostburg, Maryland; that this organization calls upon the management of Blind Industries and Services of Maryland to establish the management-by-objectives concept, whereby a minimum of at least two years past procurement be analyzed, ascertaining daily average production output and trends in level of products purchased; this information shared with production workers will result in steady work, eliminating whip-sawing of employees, and contribute to improved efficiency and morale; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this organization calls upon the General Accounting Office, the investigating arm of Congress, to undertake a study of the procurement process between GSA, NIB, and sheltered workshops leading toward recommendations to improve the work flow and marketing of their products.