“He was a great advocate for himself and for the men he called ‘brothers,’ who shared the same pain.” Willie Levi was one of a group of men with disabilities who found justice after working in virtual servitude for decades. He died at 73. nyti.ms/35y4x4l
In a perversion of a labor law that allowed people with disabilities to be paid less than what a nondisabled person was paid for the same job, Willie Levi worked in Iowa at a turkey-processing plant where he was paid the same $65 a month for decades.
Willie Levi was a claimant in a successful lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that championed proper pay and working conditions for people with disabilities. Read more in @DanBarryNYT's 2014 story, “The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse” nyti.ms/2YmD18c
The coronavirus pandemic has taken an incalculable death toll. We're putting names and faces to the numbers. Here are some of their stories. nyti.ms/2z9GiNv
