by Reid Maki, NCL’s Director, Social Responsibility and Fair Labor Standards

When Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act and President Obama signed it into law January 29, a nonsensical decision of the Supreme Court was effectively overturned. The court had ruled previously that a worker who wanted to sue his or her employer for illegally discriminating against them by paying them less wages based on their sex or race must do so in the first six months after the initial discrimination occurred.

In cases like that of Ledbetter, who worked for Goodyear Tire and Rubber for 19 years, workers do not always know when they are being treated unfairly. Ledbetter only found out that she made less than all the other male supervisors because someone (in the months before her retirement) left her note telling her about the unequal pay. It wasn’t a trifling amount either: the lowest paid male supervisor made $550 more a month than she did. Over a nearly 20 year period, that kind of pay disparity adds up.

Ledbetter filed a complaint that year and was told by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that she had grounds to sue. She won in a U.S. district court in 2003, but an appeal went to a higher court that ruled she had filed her cases years too late.

In a decision announced in early 2007, the Supreme Court, in a narrow 5-4 decision, agreed that workers who suffer from an employer’s illegal action have only six months from the time the discrimination began to initiate legal recourse—whether or not they knew about the illegal action! As writer Richard Thompson Ford noted in Slate, “Ledbetter basically grandfathers in longtime pay discrimination.”

Thankfully, Congress set about reversing the decision—as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had called for in her dissenting opinion. The National Consumers League endorsed these efforts in a letter to Congress last August.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, allowing workers to bring a lawsuit within six months of any paycheck—not just the first—that discriminates against them was the first law enacted under the Obama presidency.

President Obama signaled the importance of balancing corporate power and employee rights by inviting Ledbetter to be one of 16 guests to accompany him on his train ride into Washington before he took office. He also danced with her on the night of his inauguration!

“Goodyear will never have to pay me what it cheated me out of. In fact, I will never see a cent from my case,” said Ledbetter at the signing. “But with the president’s signature today, I have an even richer reward. I know that my daughter and granddaughters … will have a better deal. That’s what makes this fight worth fighting.”

The National Consumers League has issued kudos to the U.S. House of Representatives for voting to delay the official date of the federal transition from analog to digital television.

You’ve probably heard of the impending transition, which is set for Feb. 17. Consumer advocates are concerned, however, that there are still many consumers out there – an estimated 6.5 million! – who are unprepared for the switch. Those rabbit-ear-relying TV watchers would be in for a rude awakening when the analog signals stop airing. If they haven’t yet subscribed to cable or satellite, swapped their TV for one with a digital signal, or purchased a converter box, they may be baffled when their sets go blank later this month. Unless, that is, the delay is made official, and advocates, government, and others are given more time to reach those millions of consumers with the info they need to make the switch.

Sally Greenberg, NCL‘s Executive Director, had this to say about the move by the House:

“The decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to approve a four-month delay in the shutdown of analog TV signals is a victory for the estimated 6.5 million U.S. households that remain unprepared for the DTV transition. Consumers in these unprepared households are disproportionately elderly, low-income, rural, and minority. The delay will allow time for governmental, private, and non-profit educational efforts to have greater effect and for more converter box coupons to be sent to consumers currently on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s waiting list. The delay will also help avoid the nightmare scenario of consumers, particularly older ones, climbing their roofs in February to adjust TV antennas due to the transition. We urge President Obama to sign the bill to law as soon as possible.”

Our LifeSmarts program in Hawai’i is making headlines, as their state competition is just a few days away. As recently reported in the Honolulu Advertiser, young savvy consumers will battle it out this weekend for a spot at nationals. The defending state champs from Kea’au High School will defend their title Saturday at the state Capitol auditorium.

In Hawai’i, LifeSmarts is coordinated by the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and enjoys local support from partners including the Better Business Bureau Foundation, the Hawai’i Credit Union League, and the state Department of Education.

Good luck, guys! We’ll see the winners in St. Louis!

by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The all American sandwich, peanut butter and jelly, defiled by the potentially deadly Salmonella pathogen?

More than 500 people in 43 states have been sickened, and eight have died, after eating crackers and other products made with peanut butter from  a plant owned by the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA). More than 100 children under the age of 5 are among those who have been sickened.

The good news for consumers is that none of PCA’s products are sold directly to consumers. 
The bad news is that apparently PCA distributed potentially contaminated products to more than 100 companies for use as an ingredient in hundreds of different products, such as cookies, crackers, cereal, candy and ice cream.
 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiated an inspection of PCA’s Blakely plant on January 9 shortly after learning that the firm might be linked to the ongoing Salmonella outbreak that was making people sick in states across the country.  But what should outrage consumers is that isn’t the first time the PCA has been implicated  – far from it. According to the New York Times, over the last two years  there were 12 instances in which the company’s own tests of its product found contamination by salmonella. In each case, the report states, “after the firm retested the product and received a negative status, the product was shipped in interstate commerce.”

It is illegal for a company to continue testing a product until it gets a clean test, said Michael Taylor, a food safety expert at George Washington University.

The FDA’s report describes a plant that was poorly constructed, with gaps and holes in the walls and flaking rust that could get into food products. “There were open gaps observed” near air-conditioner intakes that were as large as a half-inch by two and one-half feet long, the report said.  Previous inspections of the plant by the Georgia State Agriculture Department found dirty surfaces, grease residue and dirt buildup throughout the plant. They also found rust residue that could flake into food, gaps in warehouse doors large enough for rodents to enter, and numerous other problems.

Ingesting foods containing the Salmonella virus can be deadly in the very young, the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.

The plant sells its peanut paste to some of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, including Kellogg and McKee Foods. As a result of the contamination, more than 100 products have been recalled, mostly cookies and crackers.

In a press conference Tuesday, Michael Rogers, director of the division of field investigations at the FDA, said that the company’s tests showing salmonella contamination should have led the company to take actions to eliminate the contamination. “It’s significant, because at the point at which salmonella was identified, it shouldn’t be there, based on the manufacturing process that’s designed to mitigate salmonella, actually eliminate it,” Mr. Rogers said.

But the firm took no steps to clean its plant after the test results alerted the company to the contamination, inspection team found problems with the plant’s routine cleaning procedures as well.

The plant also stored pallets of peanut butter next to supplies of peanuts, the inspection report says. Finished products should be stored far from raw materials to reduce the chances of re-contamination of the finished goods, according to federal rules.

What is wrong with this picture? This Georgia plant is a clearly a serial violator– the feds found numerous violations but so did the state of Georgia. Why wasn’t the plant closed down after the Georgia State Inspection? Restaurants that are dirty and violate municipal rules are routinely closed down until they fix safety violations. What is the point of federal and state safety procedures if a company is permitted to flout them and send contaminated products into the marketplace? and shouldn’t we have tough criminal penalties for a company that knowingly ships contaminated products?

Certainly, Congress will be demanding answers, but consumers should demand them as well. Our food safety regime is broken. President Obama needs to appoint a tough new FDA Commissioner immediately. But the job of the FDA is overwhelming; FDA regulates food, drugs, and medical devices. We agree with our friends at the Center for Science in the Public Interest – our food safety system needs to be overhauled.

We need legislation to bring the food safety program at the FDA and Department of Agriculture and all the other federal agencies that regulate food into the 21st century. Representative Rosa DeLauro has introduced legislation to create a new Food Safety Administration at Health and Human Services.  That approach would bring the program elements together and put an expert in charge. We ask Congress and the Obama Administration to pass this legislation quickly, and begin to overhaul our food safety regime and make it work for consumers.