National Consumers League applauds Sen. Dodd’s introduction of finance reform bill – National Consumers League

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November 10, 2009

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, D.C.—The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, applauds the introduction of the financial reform bill unveiled today by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), seeking to consolidate federal responsibility for banking oversight, now assigned to four agencies, into a single regulator.

“The disastrous consequences of ineffective regulation of consumer financial products is self-evident in the millions of home foreclosures nationwide, the growing credit card debt load of too many American families, and an out-of-control payday lending industry,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “We applaud Senator Dodd for his leadership in introducing common sense legislation that will help protect millions of American consumers from unsafe financial products and services.”

This summer, NCL signed onto testimony, with nearly two dozen other consumer and civil rights organizations, delivered to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs calling for greater oversight of the consumer financial product market. NCL and other consumer advocates have called for greater oversight of the financial products and services industry for a number of reasons:

  • The inability of the current system of financial product regulation has led to staggering losses. Between October and December 2008, families lost $5 trillion in household wealth. An effective regulatory regime could have prevented much of this pain.
  • There is an overriding need for a financial regulator that makes its consumer protection mission a priority. The current financial regulatory system places “safety and soundness” supervision – and the attendant bank profitability – ahead of the need to ensure that unsafe financial products are not marketed to consumers.
  • Consumers would benefit from a common-sense floor, not a ceiling, for financial product regulation that promotes innovation while ensuring transparency, simplicity, and fairness.

The National Consumers League has been fighting for the rights of consumers and workers since its founding in 1899. The League was instrumental in seeking a safety net for Americans during the Great Depression and in the New Deal years, writing legislation to gain passage of minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, social security, and health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The League continues to champion the fair treatment and protections for all consumers and workers in today’s marketplace.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

It’s Time to Do the Right Thing and End the Worst Form of U.S. Child Labor – National Consumers League

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Note: This blog posting was originally posted at Media Voices for Children, an Internet news agency for children’s rights.

By Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition

Most people don’t associate egregious forms of child labor with the United States. People tend to think that U.S. child labor laws have successfully done away with the worst forms of child labor. But there is a dirty little secret that not many Americas know: young children harvest fruits and vegetables on many of our farms.

Nightline, the ABC News show, highlighted agricultural child labor in an October 30th investigative report “Blueberry Children” that found several children under 12 in Michigan picking blueberries, including a 5- year-old. The children sometimes work till 9:00 p.m. One 11-year-old told reporters he was in his third year in the fields. Another small child talked about the danger when pesticides are sprayed nearby.

Josie Ellis, a nurse with Migrant Health, told Nightline that the fields in North Carolina, where she is based, are full of working children. She noted that the kids acquire severe rashes, respiratory illnesses, and neurological impairments from their contact with pesticides.

They also miss out on their childhoods because they are working long hours. “Play is something that migrant children know very little about. Work they know,” said Ellis. “We see frustration. We see really tired kids. We see depression in children….despair…the inability to dream…the inability to see past high school…the inability to see past junior high school….I think it’s shameful that our nation tolerates child labor,” added Ellis.

Recently, at a recent dinner in Washington, D.C. hosted by the National Consumers League, Norma Flores, a former child farm worker, now in her twenties, recalled her years in the fields. “I hated it,” said Norma. “I hated to work in the fields.  I hated getting sweaty and dirty. I hated getting blisters and cuts and sunburns. I hated finishing my row of work only to see there was no water to drink at the end. I hated to have to walk half a mile to go to a dirty portable toilet. I hated how the work affected me outside of the fields. I hated having to enroll in school late every year, to have to make up months of assignments and have to fight to get my school credits. More than anything, I hated knowing my parents needed me out there to make ends meet, because it meant I couldn’t say no. Even though I was only a kid, I knew I didn’t belong there. I knew I could do more than hoe weeds for 70 hours a week.”

The Michigan farm shown on Nightline is not an isolated example. The U.S. Department of Labor found eight other farms in Michigan with child labor or migrant housing violations. Earlier this year, nine farms in North Carolina and a farm in Vineland New Jersey were fined for child labor violations.

But these are example of illegal child labor—the problem is that there is a great deal of legal child labor in U.S. agriculture. Exemptions in U.S. child labor law allow kids who are 12- and 13-years-old to work. The law does not allow a 12-year-old to work for one hour in my air conditioned office making copies, but it allows a 12-year-old to work all day in a field in 100-degree heat performing work that would be too hard for many adult Americans.

In addition to the health problems already cited, the kids pay a very heavy price academically. The dropout rate fluctuates from 50 to 80 percent in most migrant communities. The kids are exhausted from work and migration. As Norma Flores noted, many leave their home school before the school year ends and return weeks after it begins in the fall. As they follow the crops around the country, some may enter other school systems, but they are often placed in the wrong classes or in the wrong levels. Understandably, these migrant students often become frustrated and discouraged, and often drop out.

Although some of the kids are immigrants from Mexico, more than half were born here in the U.S. and are American citizens. They are good kids trying to help their family escape poverty. The underlying problem is that adult farmworkers often do not earn a living wage, and they feel compelled to bring their children to the field with them to increase their income.

The working children—I discovered during field investigations—are more likely to wear little or no protective clothing to guard against the sun or pesticide contact. It’s not uncommon to see them working barefoot despite the presence of dangerous farm tools, pesticide residue, snakes, and scorpions.

In 2003, I joined Len Morris and Robin Romano of Galen films in South Texas when they filmed the U.S. farmworker section of their feature length documentary, Stolen Childhoods. We filmed and interviewed 9-year-old Mariela on her first day of work. In 90-plus degree heat, she stood there working beside her father, cleaning onion bulbs with giant adult-sized scissors. She was very ill with the flu or an allergic reaction to the onions, but her family needed the money, so she kept working. It’s hard to describe the amount of effort required to bend over and pick up an onion a thousand times a day. It’s exhausting work, extremely taxing for adults—and totally inappropriate for children.

The exemptions that allow these young children to work have been around since 1938 and the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The 22 members of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), which I coordinate, believe it’s time to end this unfair treatment of farmworker children. Through the Children in the Fields Campaign, AFOP, the National Consumers League and the CLC have been working to pass the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), which would close the exemptions and force the equal treatment of farmworker children.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) in September, would preserve an exemption for family farmers so their children could help  on the farm, but the children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who work for wages would have to wait till they are at least 14 to work. The U.S. Department of Labor would evaluate the safety of agricultural jobs to determine if some can be performed by 14- and 15-year-olds. The CARE Act would also prohibit teens in agriculture from doing jobs recognized as very dangerous from doing those jobs until they were 18—the age limit in all other industries.

More than 20 national groups—Human Rights Watch, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union among them—have signed on to endorse the CARE Act. Please help us. Call your Congress member and urge the passage of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment—the CARE Act—today. The unfair treatment of farmworker children is intolerable in 2009 in America, and it must end!

Coalition Calls for Congressional Support of FDA Action on Tainted Oysters – National Consumers League

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By Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

Each year, dozens of American consumers fall ill – and half of those individuals die – from eating raw Gulf Coast oysters contaminated with Vibrio vulnificus bacteria, present in oysters harvested in the region during the summer months. These illnesses and deaths can be prevented, while still allowing consumers to enjoy oysters when the weather turns warm, with one simple measure: post-harvest processing. Vibrio vulnificus contamination is not simply a case of an upset stomach. I have read numerous horror stories of individuals who managed to survive oyster-induced illnesses, only to face fluid-filled blisters, significant skin loss, and multiple amputations. The National Consumers League and fellow members of the Make Our Food Safe Coalition today urged Congress to support FDA efforts to protect the public from contaminated oysters.

In October, the FDA announced that, as of 2011, oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico during the warmer months will have to be treated before reaching consumers, in order to kill the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria that are most prevalent at that time. Since 2001, the agency has expressed concern about the bacteria to the oyster industry and has made it clear that, if the industry’s voluntary efforts to reduce illness and deaths from contamination did not succeed, it would require post-harvest processing. In 2003, California began requiring post-harvest processing of Gulf Coast oysters sold in the state during the summer months; not a single person has fallen ill or died from consuming Gulf Coast oysters in California since.

The oyster industry, however, is exerting its powerful lobby to block these doable, life-saving requirements. Concerned about job loss in their home state of Florida, despite the fact that the FDA regulation will only affect a small portion of Gulf Coast oyster production, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Representative Allen Boyd (D-FL) have each proposed legislation to hamper the FDA’s efforts. We understand that they are trying to protect a hometown industry, but NCL believes consumer health and safety must come first.

“I like raw oysters as much as the next person, but consumers should be able to enjoy the delicacy without putting their lives in danger,” stated Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of NCL. “Post-harvest processing is estimated to cost as little as 2 cents per oyster, and has little or no impact on flavor. The industry can, and should, implement this life-saving measure, which will only be necessary for less than one quarter of the Gulf Coast oyster harvest.”

Until the oyster industry starts processing oysters during the summer months, consumers will continue to fall ill and die. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, since 2001, more than 250 individuals on vacation, celebrating special occasions, or simply enjoying a restaurant meal have ordered and consumed raw Gulf Coast oysters, and have become ill or died as a result. Even greater numbers have looked on as family members suffered after consuming contaminated oysters. As Vicki Peal of Florida, a tireless advocate for protective measures on oyster consumption, has stated, “Vibrio vulnificus is a deadly bacteria that eats you inside out like gangrene. Seventeen years ago I took my father out to a dinner of raw oysters that killed him. I had to watch that sweet kind man die like a dog. …Kudos to the FDA for finally requiring procedures to ensure the safety of Gulf oysters. And shame on any elected official who would get in the way of this overdue public health protection. The only good oyster is a safe oyster and FDA’s action will save limbs and lives.”

It is long past time that FDA, the consumer watchdog on the shellfish industry, stepped in with this important regulatory requirement. NCL applauds the agency for its efforts to make Gulf Coast oysters as safe as their colder water counterparts, no matter the season in which they are consumed.

Overdraft Fees Gouging Consumers – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

NCL joined a number of civil rights, labor, and consumer organizations recently to support legislation to curb the abuses in overdraft charges that banks have employed in the last few years.

According to the Center for Responsible Lending,

  • More than 50 million Americans overdrew their checking account at least once over a 12 month period, with 27 million accountholders incurring five or more overdraft or non-sufficient funds (NSF) fees.
  • Banks and credit unions collected nearly $24 billion in overdraft fees in 2008.
  • Overdraft fee income for banks and credit unions rose 35 percent from 2006 to 2008.
  • Overdraft loans cost consumers nearly $24 billion each year and are typically charged without consumers even knowing that they will be dinged for extra fees. These fees hit lower-income consumers and communities of color especially hard. The most common triggers of overdraft fees are debit card transactions that could easily be denied for no fee; in fact, until recent years, they most often consumer cards were rejected at point of sale if funds in their accounts were insufficient to cover the charge.

Yes, it could be embarrassing when you’re trying to buy something and your card is rejected, but its a lot cheaper than getting hit with a $34 overdraft fee, or multiple fees. Today, banks and credit unions routinely approve debit card overdrafts with no warning, charging a fee averaging $34 for an overdraft averaging only $17. The sad fact is that they force low-income families especially into a cycle of snowballing fees that eat up a large portion of their paychecks.

Fee-based overdraft coverage is, by far, the most expensive way to have an overdraft covered. But financial institutions like to make enrollment in overdraft coverage “automatic,” meaning, as soon as you get your card you’re signed up for the “coverage,” for which you can be charged $34 for every transaction where you don’t have funds in your account to cover the charges. Financial institutions were also found to be manipulating the order in which they post transactions to maximize fees.

So lawmakers have come in to address these abuses. We have bills in the House (HR 3904, Congresswoman Maloney (D-NY)) and Senate (S. 1799, introduced by Senator Dodd (D-CT )) establishing the following key reforms, among others:

  • requiring that all overdraft fees be reasonable and proportional to the cost to the institution of processing the transaction;
  • limiting the number of overdraft fees institutions can charge per month and per year, without preventing them from offering a lower cost alternative if they want to continue charging for overdrafts;
  • requiring institutions to obtain consumers’ affirmative consent to fee-based overdraft coverage for debit card and ATM transactions;
  • clarifying that overdraft fees are a finance charge under the Truth in Lending Act;
  • requiring a real-time warning at an ATM before a cash withdrawal would trigger an overdraft fee; and
  • prohibiting institutions from reordering transactions to maximize fees.

It’s a shame Congressional action is needed, but it is. I always ask myself why such companies couldn’t simply try to be honest brokers with their own customers, letting them know when they overdraw by rejecting the charge instead of taking them for hundreds of dollars to cover some charges, often very minor ones. By the way, the Center for Responsible Lending has great information on its Web site on this issue. CRL has led the charge on overdraft abuses and has a knowledgeable staff and a lot of good information on this issue. NCL is proud to join with CRL, labor unions, and other groups in support of these important bills.

Teen’s Death Raises Concern About One of the “Worst Jobs” for Teens – National Consumers League

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by Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition

For the last several years, the National Consumers League (NCL) has warned parents and teens that traveling sales crews are too dangerous for young workers. The discovery last week of the remains of Jennifer Hammond, who was only 18 when she disappeared from a sales crew six years ago, heightens our concern about the safety of traveling sales crews for teen workers.

Jennifer Hammond was one of those teenagers who knocks on your door and tries to sell you magazines. In August 2003, co-workers at Atlantic Circulation, Inc. dropped Hammond, a native of Littleton, Colorado, off in a mobile home park in Milton, New York. She failed to show up at the designated pickup spot two hours later. Six years later, a hunter found some bone fragments and teeth in a forest in Saratoga County, New York and forensic specialists identified the remains as Hammond’s. Local police are investigating the case as a homicide.

Each year, traveling sales has consistently appeared as one of NCL’s list of “Five Worst Jobs for Teens.” Going door-to-door is a risky proposition these days and when you add doing it in an unfamiliar town without parental supervision, the dangers add up quickly. After reviewing this industry and scores of problems we’ve heard about over the years, NCL came to the conclusion last spring that under no circumstances should a minor be allowed to travel as part of a sales crew.

Members of sales crews are vulnerable to assault and exploitation from customers, fellow crew members, and their superiors. Over the years, we’ve heard and read many stories of crew members who were beaten because they wanted to leave their crews or did not sell enough magazines.

On October 15th, the New York Times published a story about two young magazine salesman who were beaten with baseball bats and golf clubs in Lakewood, Washington simply because they wanted to quit. The police arrested six men in the attack.

Unscrupulous traveling sales companies charge young workers for expenses like rent and food that in some cases requires them to turn over all the money they earn from selling magazines or goods. When they try to quit or leave the crew, they are told they can’t. Earlier this summer, NCL received a phone call from a young man who quit his crew and found himself stranded 1,000 miles from home. He was broke and trying to hitch-hike home.

Disreputable companies have been known to seize young workers’ money, phone cards, and IDs and restrict their ability to call their parents. Drug use and underage drinking are not uncommon. Another New York Times report in 2007 found that crew members often make little money after expenses are deducted.

Teen sales crews are often crammed into poorly maintained, unsafe vans and driven by young distracted drivers. In November 2005, two teenagers were killed and seven were injured when the van they were riding in flipped near Phoenix, Arizona. A month earlier, 20-year-old, James Crawford, was ejected and killed from a van crash in Georgia. Eighteen young adults were crammed into the 15-passenger van when the driver fell asleep.

Unfortunately, Jennifer Hammond’s suspected murder is not the first associated with work in traveling sales crews: In November 2007, Tracie Anaya Jones, 19, a member of a traveling sales crew, was found dead of stab wounds in Memphis, Tennessee. Her killing remains unsolved and is featured on “America’s Most Wanted” Web site. In Rapid City, South Dakota in April 2004, a 41-year-old man was charged with murdering a 21-year-old woman who came to his home to sell magazines.

Clearly, these are extreme examples of what can go wrong, but there is ample evidence that there is much to be concerned about when one contemplates traveling sales work. Last month’s Times article on the beating of the two young salesmen, noted that Parent Watch, an industry watchdog group, is receiving about 10 emergency calls a day from crew members with problems.

In Wisconsin, a new law designed to protect young sales people will take effect next April. We’ll take a closer look at it in the days ahead….Stay tuned.

National Consumers League warns about work on traveling sales crews after remains of Colorado teen recovered – National Consumers League

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November 2, 2009

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

WASHINGTON, DC — The National Consumers League (NCL) has long warned about the dangers traveling sales crews pose for young workers. Last week’s discovery of the remains of Jennifer M. Hammond, who disappeared from a sales crew six years ago, heightens our concern about the safety of traveling sales crews for teen workers.

“Jennifer Hammond’s death should serve as a tragic warning. We urge parents not to allow their children to join traveling sales crews,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “The dangers are too great. Without parental supervision, teens are at too great a risk of being victimized. Traveling sales crew workers are typically asked to go to the doors of strangers and sometimes enter their homes—a very dangerous thing for a young person to do.”

In August 2003, co-workers at Atlantic Circulation, Inc. dropped Hammond, an 18-year-old native of Littleton, Colorado, off in a mobile home park in Milton, New York. She failed to show up at the designated pickup spot two hours later. A hunter found her remains in a forest in Saratoga County, New York last week.

Local police are investigating the case as a homicide—another young woman, also missing from Milton, New York, was found dead just miles from the location of Hammond’s remains in 2005.

Each year, traveling sales has consistently appeared as one of NCL’s list of “Five Worst Jobs for Teens.”

“Frequent crime reports involving traveling sales crews suggests that the environment they present is not a safe one for teen workers,” said Greenberg. “Working in unknown neighborhoods poses risks, especially if you are carrying money from sales or goods to sell. Workers are vulnerable to assault and exploitation from customers, crew members, and their superiors.”

Unscrupulous traveling sales companies charge young workers for expenses like rent and food that in some cases requires them to turn over all the money they earn from selling magazines or goods. When they try to quit or leave the crew, they are told they can’t. Disreputable companies have been known to seize young workers’ money, phone cards, and IDs and restrict their ability to call their parents. Drug use and underage drinking are not uncommon. A New York Times report in 2007 found that crew members often make little money after expenses are deducted.

“The crews also expose young workers to grave danger from vehicle accidents,” added Reid Maki, NCL’s director of social responsibility and fair labor standards. “Teen sales crews are often crammed into poorly maintained, unsafe vans and driven by young distracted drivers.” In November 2005, two teenagers were killed and seven were injured when the van they were riding in flipped near Phoenix, Arizona. A month earlier, 20-year-old, James Crawford, was ejected and killed from a van crash in Georgia. Eighteen young adults were crammed into the 15-passenger van when the driver fell asleep.

Unfortunately, Jennifer Hammond’s suspected murder is not the first associated with work in traveling sales crews:

  • In November 2007, Tracie Anaya Jones, 19, a member of a traveling sales crew, was found dead of stab wounds in Memphis, Tennessee. Her killing remains unsolved and is featured on “America’s Most Wanted” Web site.
  • In Rapid City, South Dakota in April 2004, a 41-year-old man was charged with murdering a 21-year-old woman who came to his home to sell magazines.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.