By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

One of the great things about living in Washington, DC is that you can witness the drama of politics up close and personal and for free. On Wednesday I went down to the House of Representatives to attend the oversight and investigations hearing on the 500 million egg recall that took place over this past summer. The drama was to be the apology offered by Jack DeCoster and his son Peter, who run the million+ hen facility that sent the millions of eggs contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) into the stream of commerce. More than 1,600 (1,608 to be exact) reported cases were identified.

For me the drama was less the questions put to the DeCosters. I thought it was far more powerful – and scary – to hear from two women, one 30 years old, the other over 70, who had eaten food contaminated with the SE pathogen. Each time I hear stories about what the most virulent foodborne pathogens do to victims I’m always stunned. It’s not the overnight upset stomach or throwing up/diarrhea that most of have experienced from a bout of food poisoning. Each of these women would likely have died had it not been for medical intervention. They described high fevers, severe dehydration, emergency room admissions, and days spent with IVs in their veins, unable to function or get out of bed. The older woman testified that she had permanently lost her old vitality and enjoyment of life . . . and eating had become a scary experience.

Both had conditions that compromised their immune systems, making them particularly vulnerable. The 30-year-old mother of two had consumed a custard pie made with uncooked eggs. The older victim consumed something like a crab cake with a sauce that she guessed harbored the pathogen.

The DeCosters – father and son – owners of the huge facility that produced the effected eggs – argued that they had done all they could to keep the plant running well. Sounds reasonable except for the fact that Committee investigators had photos of 8-foot-high piles of manure, maggots, hundreds of live and dead flies, buildings oozing liquid manure, rodents, holes in the floor where mice entered the plant, and piles of dead chickens. The DeCosters really couldn’t explain the discrepancy – the elder DeCoster, who former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called “a rotten egg” in a recent blog because of his many violations of the law – said “we were small and then we got big and that’s where we got into trouble.” Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), who chairs the full committee, challenged the DeCoster’s statement that the plant is well run: “that’s not what the record indicates” naming all of the above violations – and suggesting they needed to fire their quality control manager.

Finally, the FDA’s second-in-command, Dr. Josh Sharfstein, gave compelling testimony about the new rules for egg regulation that have just gone into effect allowing the FDA to set stronger standards for egg production, while also stressing the importance of passing the food safety bill that is being held up by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) in the Senate because it will give the FDA mandatory recall powers (which they lack today). Two other dramatic moments took place: ranking member Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D-MI) nearly came to blows over procedural issues, with Burgess constantly complaining he wasn’t given his allotted time to speak, and Stupak eventually turning off his microphone.

And the moment the DeCosters sat down to testify, a small group of protesters arose from their seats, holding up a banner and chanting that factory farming egg production is corrupt and should be stopped. They were escorted out of the hearing room by Capital Police.

You can understand why I talked about the drama of politics. On a serious note, if anyone wonders why we need improved food safety rules, the harrowing stories of these two women – victims of a virulent salmonella strain – should provide the answer. Now if we could just get Senator Coburn to lift his hold on the bill.

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

At a recent meeting in downtown Washington, I heard an expert on teenage high school dropout prevention talk about new strategies for keeping kids in school or luring them back after they’ve dropped out. The expert told us that in some of the worst schools – “dropout factories” (schools where 60 percent or more of children graduate) most common in high poverty rural areas and inner cities – as many as 70 percent of the students drop out.

This issue touches the National Consumers League’s issues in several ways. First, it was the mission of Florence Kelley, our first leader, to get kids out of sweatshops, factories, steel mills, and mines and into school. Dropping out flies in the face of those fundamental goals. Secondly, NCL has a teenage financial literacy and consumer education program for teens called LifeSmarts, but most of our youngsters compete through their schools. As a result, kids who drop out have little chance of being able to benefit from all of the wonderful and practical education that LifeSmarts provides.

Finally, NCL is working hard to pass legislation that will provide rights and protections to farmworker kids. These children suffer much higher than average dropout rates. Their families travel from farm to farm, often in different states, picking crops; understandably these youngsters have a hard time staying in one school and graduating with their peers. The dropout rates for farmworker kids are perilously high. We need to have strategies to keep those kids engaged, learning, and graduating from high school.

In Minneapolis, the school system has launched the “We Want You Back” campaign, in which volunteers go door-to-door. In the Little Earth community in Minneapolis, largely American Indian, the graduation rate is a shocking 22 percent. The Minneapolis campaign is modeled on a Houston, Texas drive that has successfully brought 50-100 dropouts back to schools – which can include online courses, independent study or actual schools – each year. Dropouts need to feel wanted and valued and see a pathway to their degrees. According to one volunteer, “it’s news to people that we care.”

We at NCL support campaigns to keep kids in school and bring back into the fold those who’ve dropped out. These young people deserve all the support we can give them, and when they succeed, we can only believe they will be better informed and wiser consumers and citizens.

By Reid Maki, Director of Social Responsibility and Fair Labor Standards

After a four-month strike, 300-plus workers at the Mott’s applesauce plant in Williamson, New York, have won their battle and have avoided pay and benefit cuts the conglomerate that owns the plant was trying to cram down their throats despite earning huge profits last year.

In addition to Mott’s, Dr Pepper, and Snapple, Dr Pepper Snapple Group makes Sunkist soda, 7UP, A&W, Canada Dry, Crush, Squirt, Hawaiian Punch, Penafiel, Clamato, Schweppes, and Venom Energy.

According to the  New York Times, Dr Pepper Snapple Group–despite profits of over a half billion dollars in 2009–tried to slash workers’ wages $1.50 an hour because it felt that the facility’s pay was too high for the area, which is economically depressed after years of layoffs from firms like Kodak and Xerox.

“It used to be that corporations…moaned about how bad they were doing when they demanded givebacks. Now they don’t bother. ‘We’re doing great, we admit it…but we want more, more, more,’” said one observer.

In addition to the wage cut, the company wanted to eliminate pensions for future workers, freeze pensions for current workers, decrease its contributions to the 401 K plan, and increase employee contributions toward health care premiums and co-pays.

Hopefully, the workers’ “victory,” extensive media coverage it garnered, and the strong support the workers received from New York’s congressional delegation (29 members of which asked the company to return to the negotiating table) will serve as a signal to corporations that they should think twice before they cut workers’ wages and benefits while they are generating huge profits.

To add insult to injury, Larry Young, the CEO of Dr Pepper Snapple Group, made $6.5 million last year, and he’s averaged nearly 30 percent raises for each of the last three years. By contrast, veteran plant workers earned less than $40,000 a year without overtime.

It’s a sad comment on the current state of labor relations that a contract for level pay is considered a victory. We think the Mott’s workers deserved a raise and a share of the parent company’s success. At least the company’s arrogant and insulting attempt to drive down wages was beaten back.