Remarks by Linda Hilton at 2012 Trumpeter Awards – National Consumers League

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October 5, 2012

I am very honored and humbled to accept the Florence Kelley Award tonight, an award that bears the name of such an important social justice advocate in the history of our country. What an incredible legacy she left for advocates like me to try to emulate.

I am also proud to be here on UMW evening. For all of you out there who are not familiar with what UMW stands for, it stands for United Methodist Women. I find it rather ironic that I am in this room with so many members of another UMW, the United Mine Workers of America.

My roots go deep into mining history in the state of West Virginia, where my father was born and raised in the company-owned coal camp of Hutchison.  Since the end of the Civil War my forefathers have worked for companies like Westmorland and lived in places like Winding Gulf, Brush Fork and Sand Lick.

As has been mentioned, Florence Kelley was the first General Secretary of National Consumers League and an amazing leader and organizer. Many people rallied around her to make her work a success.

Although this year’s Florence Kelley Award bears my name, this award is also for the diverse, intelligent, dedicated team of volunteers behind me in Utah that has made achieving my goals possible.  Without them I would not be standing here tonight.

Teamwork among staff and volunteers at National Consumers League today contributes to the ongoing success of their work toward fair wages and against wage theft, food safety, consumer finance issues, and their recent spotlight on the plight of restaurant workers around the country.

Let us acknowledge all of the work that National Consumers League has done on behalf of everyone here.

Utah, where my coalition takes on the political establishment, is purported to be a family-friendly state, one where we value everyone, especially the children.

It should be a state where children get proper nutrition, where taxes are fair, where struggling families can count on reasonable interest rates when borrowing money and where a living wage is the norm, not the exception.

This would be the Utopian Utah. This is not the real Utah. The state where I live and work is hostile towards working families, the poor and homeless. For years Utah was in the top five states for childhood hunger. And we spend less per child for education than any other state in the union.

When the Coalition of Religious Communities was formed in 1995 as an advocacy project of Crossroads Urban Center one of our three founding issues was to remove the sales tax from all grocery purchases. Crossroads operated and continues to operate the busiest emergency food pantry in Utah.

We provided emergency services including food, baby formula, winter coats and bus passes to almost 90,000 people last year alone.

During the early years we did this work we came to realize that handing out food and clothing, while a quick fix to immediate problems did not address the root causes of poverty. Thus we were not fully helping to move our clients to self-sufficiency.

As I mentioned, removing the sales tax from food purchases was our first issue. We were laughed at by state legislators. We were dissuaded by fellow advocacy groups.

The sales tax on food had been put in place in the early 1930’s by Governor Blood as a temporary solution to budget shortfalls as a result of the Great Depression. That tax, nicknamed Blood Money, would not, nor has it ever been removed.

We worked hard to make a case that taxing a basic necessity of life was unacceptable, an unnecessary burden on the poor, an immoral and unjust act.

We educated candidates about the tax and made it a campaign issue year after year, we met with sitting officials, put together information sheets, made charts and graphs, held press conferences, and ran around Utah’s Capitol Hill with neon stickers reading, “It’s Simple, It’s Fair.”

We did this for the better part of ten years, gathering proponents little by little, until finally in 2006 we reached critical mass and got our first bill passed all the way through the legislature to remove a portion of the sales tax on food.

When we began our fight Utah consumers were paying between 6 3/8% and 8.0% in sales tax on their groceries. Today we have managed to bring that number down to a flat 3% statewide.

Another big fight we have taken on is the fight against payday lenders, who prey upon the poor. Payday lenders are ubiquitous in states where their business is legal.

However, in most states there are laws against usury, or at the very least interest rate caps on consumer loans.

Not in Utah! We have no usury laws, no rate caps on most types of small consumer loans. In fact, before we started running legislation to curb their practices payday lenders had only to take out a business license and put up a sign in order to open their doors.

Today in Utah payday lenders are required to post interest rates in their stores, there is a law giving consumers a 24 hour right to rescind a payday loan with no penalty, lenders MUST be registered with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions, they MUST submit annual reports to the Governor and state legislature and they MUST submit to annual inspections.  And there is more, but that is for another night. 

As we worked to regulate payday loan companies, it came to our attention that state and nationally chartered credit unions were leading unsuspecting customers to payday loan sites for sub-prime loans with triple digit interest rates. We found that to be unacceptable.

Our first strike was to send letters to CEOs of all credit unions with branches and/or headquarters in Utah asking them to stop the practice.

After accelerating our work, which culminated in a press conference outside a branch of America First Credit Union, we scored a victory for ALL America First Credit Union customers nationwide when America First agreed to withdraw direct, supported links from their website to a national payday loan company.

A year later we got Mountain America Credit Union to stop the practice as well.

Our latest victory came this past June when credit unions in Utah purchased by Chartway the year before posted notice that they would no longer offer links to or endorsements of online payday lenders. We couldn’t be more proud of this victory!

In addition we tackle other issues that impact low income Utahns.

Right now we are trying to convince our Governor not to opt out of Medicaid expansion so that 138,000 people in our state can receive the medical assistance they so desperately need. 

Next year we plan to pass legislation giving a Utah-state tax credit to businesses that hire the homeless.

One law we helped pass a few years ago has made it illegal for any company in America to send a Utah resident a check that upon endorsement constituted signing a contract for another product or service.

We had seniors who by endorsing what looked like a $3.00 rebate check from a phone company entered into a contract to buy internet service from a national provider for 24 months.  And our victims at the time lived in subsidized housing and didn’t even own computers!

Although advocacy work is not sexy, not glamorous, not something that gets much attention, it is the core of social justice, something I believe in strongly and am passionate about. The fight isn’t fair.  Sometimes our adversaries will stop at nothing to discredit what we do.

In the past year someone has used my name to post comments in favor of payday lending on a local newspaper reader comment site.

And, the manager of a local payday loan company, using my name, bought lindahilton.com and started a website promoting the business of triple digit lenders.

Our coalition goals in coming years include stopping sub-prime small loan lenders in Utah from charging triple digit interest rates, that right now average 521% APR, removing the remaining sales tax on groceries and going after the Utah state law that prohibits, yes, PROHIBITS individual cities and towns from being able to set their own minimum wages that are higher than the current federal minimum wage.

Our budget is small, yet we go up against industries that have millions for advertising and campaign contributions.

If there is one lesson to be learned here, it is that David MUST continue to battle Goliath.

The key to our coalition’s success is that we stay focused and we keep showing up to educate, to question, to testify, and to shine the light on legislation that keeps Utah’s poor and working families living in poverty.

Some legislators call me a pain. Some call me a nightmare. A group of majority leaders call me the Witch on Capitol Hill.

Put any label on me that you want but as Winston Churchill once said, “Never, Never, NEVER give up”. I will not, and I hope that you won’t either.

 Thank you again for this most prestigious award. I am honored to have had this time with you tonight.

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NCL honoring Linda Hilton with Florence Kelley Award – National Consumers League

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At Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City, Utah for the past 14 years, Linda Hilton has served in a dual position. Her two posts include Director of Community Outreach and Director of Coalition of Religious Communities (CORC), a statewide interfaith social justice advocacy group with members from 17 diverse faiths founded to lift the state’s sales tax on groceries. Through Hilton’s efforts, CORC has helped to repeal more than half of the state sales tax on food, which hit those with the lowest incomes the hardest, and continues to push for complete repeal. Through this coalition, Hilton has led efforts to provide food to the hungry and advocated for better access to health care for the poor.

In 1999, CORC launched a campaign to regulate the booming payday loan industry, which operated in Utah with few restrictions or accountability. Hilton blew the whistle on a Utah-based credit union that was making payday-type loans, leading to an investigation by the national trade press; the loan program was ultimately discontinued. Hilton also co-authored a manual on local zoning and ordinances to curb payday lending.

Hilton’s advocacy includes working for funding of critical needs for low-income and homeless residents of Utah, fairer tax rates for low-income citizens, and to reverse a Utah law prohibiting cities and towns in the state from enacting “living wage” requirements. She speaks frequently to community and religious groups about the struggles of low-income and homeless families; she trains students and members of faith communities to advocate for low-income citizens; and she conducts community workshops on the need for increased wages for the working poor.

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Hilton is the recipient of a number of local awards, including the Church Women United, United Nations Office, Human Rights Award for social activism in Utah. Hilton is passionate about volunteerism and social justice, and has made an impressive career out of advocating for those who cannot speak for themselves. She embodies perfectly the spirit of the namesake of this award, NCL’s leader, Florence Kelley, who, like Hilton, tirelessly championed the rights of the working poor and forced policymakers to address their needs for better wages, working conditions, housing, and health care.

NCL honoring labor legend Cecil E. Roberts with 2012 Trumpeter – National Consumers League

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For more than 30 years, NCL’s Trumpeter Award has recognized leaders who are not afraid to speak out for social justice and for the rights of consumers. NCL Trumpeter Award recipients are honored for their commitment to raising the voices of consumers and workers to ensure they are heard. Meet this year’s most deserving Trumpeter recipient, International President of the United Mine Workers of America.

On October 4, the National Consumers League will honor Cecil E. Roberts, International President of the United Mine Workers of America, with the 2012 Trumpeter Award. In presenting President Roberts with the prestigious Trumpeter Award, NCL recognizes his incredible efforts to champion the rights of working Americans by organizing on both the grassroots and national levels. His leadership is founded on a passionate conviction to keep workplaces safe and healthful while ensuring fair compensation for workers.

Cecil Roberts, a sixth-generation coal miner and one of the labor movement’s most stirring and sought-after orators, became President of the United Mine Workers (UMWA) of America on October 22, 1995, having served as Vice President of the union since December 1982. Roberts succeeded Richard L. Trumka, who was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO (and who will help present Roberts with the award).

Growing up in a UMWA household on Cabin Creek in Kanawha County, WV, Roberts heard the stories of his family, including a great-uncle, Bill Blizzard, who was a legendary organizer during the West Virginia mine wars of the 1920’s and a UMWA District President under John L. Lewis. Both of his grandfathers were killed in the mines.

After military service in Vietnam and college, Roberts worked for six years at Carbon Fuels’ No. 31 mine in Winifred, West Virginia, where he served as a local union officer. In 1977 he was elected Vice President of UMWA District 17 by a 2-to-1 margin. In May 1981, he was reelected without opposition.

On November 9, 1982, Roberts was elected Vice President of the UMWA International Union, again by a 2-to-1 margin, running on a slate headed by Trumka and including John J. Banovic, who was elected Secretary-Treasurer. The Trumka – Roberts – Banovic team was reelected without opposition five years later.

In 1989, Roberts was the on-the-scene leader, often referred to as field general, and day-to-day negotiator in the UMWA’s militant 10-month strike against the Pittston Co., which had cut off health benefits to its retirees and was trying to walk away from its obligations to the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds. For his role in that successful strike, Roberts received the Rainbow Coalition’s Martin Luther King award as well as awards from Citizen Action and the Midwest Academy.

On November 10, 1992, Roberts was reelected by an 80-percent margin to his third term as Vice President.

In December, 1995, Roberts assumed the UMWA Presidency upon the resignation of Richard Trumka.

In 1996, he reopened the UMWA’s National Agreement for the first time in the union’s history and made significant improvements in the wage agreement.

In August 1997, Roberts was elected by acclamation to the Presidency of the UMWA.

In 1998, he negotiated a new National Agreement that was ratified by the highest percentage in the Union’s history. The agreement included an historic 20-year and out pension provision which has benefitted approximately 5,000 UMWA members to date.

In July of 2001 he became a member of the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council. He serves on the Civil and Human Rights Committee; Labor and the Environment Committee; Manufacturing and Industrial Committee; Safety and Occupational Health Committee; Senior Action Committee Strategic Approaches Committee; Political Education Committee; and Article XX Appeals Committee. In October of 2005, he was appointed to the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council.

In 2000 he was again elected by acclamation as President of the United Mine Workers of America, and in 2001 he negotiated a new National Agreement that provided a first ever 30-year and out pension provision regardless of age which has benefitted approximately 3,000 UMWA members to date.

In 2004 he became the first President in the history of the United Mine Workers of America to be elected by acclamation by the membership for three consecutive terms.

At the end of 2008, he became the 2nd longest standing President of the UMWA, second only to John L. Lewis.

In August 2009, Roberts was once again re-elected by acclamation to his fourth full term as International President.

He is on the board of the American Income Life Insurance Company.

Roberts graduated from West Virginia Technical College in 1987, and received an honorary Doctorate in Humanities from West Virginia University of Technology in 1997.

Roberts is married to the former Carolyn Stewart. They have a son, Kyle, a daughter, Melissa, two grandsons, Aaron and Brandon and two granddaughters, Savannah and Kathryn.