Labor Day reflections: Challenging time for U.S. workers – National Consumers League

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As another summer winds down, and we plan for one last extended weekend before turning the page onto fall, Labor Day offers a time to reflect on the increasingly challenging environment that working families face securing fair wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Currently 16,000 members of the United Steelworkers union are waiting to hear whether they’ll be going on strike when their employment contract with U.S. Steel expires in just days. Union and management are reported to be at a near-stalemate over a new contract that the union has described as “extremely insulting” and would offer marginal wage increases for workers, who would be locked into a proposed 7-year term.

For the first time, incarcerated workers are courageously raising their voices, and are in the middle of a multi-week, nation-wide strike organized in response to the slave-labor wages they are forced to accept as further punishment for their lives behind bars. It’s shameful that we treat prisoners like chattel.

And the courts continue to batter workers, spurred on by a Chamber of Congress and a business community that attack working folks’ right to organize at every turn. Earlier this summer, a narrow 5-4 anti-worker and anti-union ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME, found hat unions cannot collect “fair share fees” from workers who have not joined the union but receive the benefits of organizing—a major blow to unions in their efforts to improve working conditions for all employees.

In Washington, DC, where NCL is headquartered, we are fighting alongside restaurant and other hourly workers to preserve Initiative 77 from being rescinded by the D.C. City Council. Initiative 77, a worker-led campaign that passed by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin, would raise the paltry $3.89 hourly tipped wage by $1.50 a year until it reaches $15 by 2025. After its passage, seven members of D.C. City Council pledged to overturn the initiative, undermining the 46,000 DC voters who supported it.

Wage theft, misclassification, and other employer abuses continue to plague our workforce, but at the National Consumers League, which was founded by a group of Progressive-era women concerned about factory conditions for workers—including children’s—we will continue to fight for worker protections alongside our allies to ensure that protections for America’s working families are strengthened, not eroded.

Earlier this year, we observed the 80th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act with a national conference. This landmark legislation—which NCL helped to pass in 1938—provided our nation’s basic minimum wage and overtime pay laws, lifted wages, and improved working conditions. But advocates agree that the FLSA is in dire need of updating, and many of the problems facing workers today could be addressed by an FLSA for the 21st Century.

This Labor Day, we are grateful for the improved quality of working conditions for many of our nation’s employees, but we lament the constant attacks on unions, workers’ rights, and fair and equitable working conditions for so many. The struggle continues, and we are proud to be part of it.

NCL statement on CFPB student loan watchdog chief’s protest resignation

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August 28, 2018

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC – Yesterday, Seth Frotman announced his resignation as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) Student Loan Ombudsman. The following statement is attributable to Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League:

“Every day Seth Frotman went to work, he valiantly fought for the 44 million Americans that are struggling with student loan debt. As Frotman wrote in his resignation letter, the Bureau under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has abandoned its Congressionally-mandated mission to protect consumers from predatory lenders. Instead, current CFPB leadership seems to believe that its goal is to empower some of the most powerful financial interests in America to continue victimizing vulnerable students.

“Unfortunately for consumers, Frotman’s assessment of Mulvaney’s tenure is spot-on. Making matters worse, the current nominee to become the permanent CFPB Director, Kathleen Kraninger, has given every indication that she will continue Mulvaney’s work to undermine the CFPB’s ability to protect consumers. NCL urges Congress to only confirm a CFPB director who will fulfill the intent of Congress for the Bureau to protect consumers.”

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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.

A lesson in sautéing up nutrition: the coconut oil debacle – National Consumers League

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Last week, a Harvard professor made headlines after calling coconut oil “pure poison.” I can’t help shaking my head at such an outlandish statement. The idea that foods can cause cancer—or the opposite, that one superfood can cure disease—is a false claim we see time and again in news. We see it particularly in headlines, serving as “clickbait.” Food is neither a pure poison nor a panacea.

Like the many food “scandals” before (remember 2015’s bacon-gate?), the coconut oil debacle does reflect substantial data on its potential dietary fat harms. Before describing the data on coconut oil, it’s necessary to describe changes in the study of dietary fat over the last few years. In June, the British Medical Journal published a consensus statement on dietary fats. The image below from BMJ captures the evolution of the relationship between nutrition science, dietary fat intake, and heart disease. Essentially, eating foods high in saturated fats is not what causes high LDL (the “bad” blood cholesterol) or coronary heart disease—what most people had thought for decades. Instead, it’s a combination of nutrients, dietary intake, and other health conditions that lead to heart disease.

Amid these developments, consumers gained unprecedented access to new cooking oils in the food marketplace. It is now commonplace to see avocado, cottonseed, groundnut, and other vegetable oils alongside canola and olive oils in the grocery store; and the growth in demand is even stronger in Asian countries. Globally, the market is expected to grow by 5.5 percent from 2017 to 2026, representing $65 million annually.

As the market boomed, researchers began testing the differences in the nutritional profiles between the many new varieties of cooking oils available for mass consumption. Coconut oil stood out, high in saturated fat content and, coincidentally, touted by many media influencers as a cure all to everything from skin and hair care and as an alternative to canola oil for frying foods.

Several longitudinal studies found that coconut oil raised LDL to levels similar to those found in butter, beef fat, and palm oil. In 2017, the American Heart Association awarded coconut oil a presidential advisory warning against its consumption. Alternatively, coconut oil also has the lowest polyunsaturated fat among the many varieties of cooking oil—a mere 2 percent, as compared with the 78 percent of safflower oil.

But authors reporting on the coconut-oil-is-poison story seemed surprised at the notion that the popular item could be detrimental to health. This makes sense, given that we—broadly as consumers—generally think coconut oil is … healthy. According to Cargill’s annual FATitudes survey (see table below), perception of coconut oil healthfulness grew from 44 percent in 2015 to 52 percent in 2017. At the same time, canola oil—tying with olive oil for first place in monounsaturated fat levels, which is linked to HDL (the “good” cholesterol in the bloodstream)—hovered around 35 percent.

The good news is that any consumption of vegetable oils seems to be preferable to animal cooking sources (e.g., lard, butter, or red meat). As the cooking oils market continues to grow, we must do a better job at reducing the power of clickbait. Flashy headlines should not take the place of facts.

A Senator John McCain remembrance – National Consumers League

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Washington is a funny place. Ordinary people ­–congressional staffers, lobbyists, or in my case, public interest lawyers­– often find themselves mingling with very prominent, famous people at receptions, cocktail parties, testifying at hearings, attending press conferences, or walking down the halls of the Russell Senate office building. It was on several of those occasions that I saw Senator John McCain in action.

In the 1990s, Senator McCain chaired the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee. For many consumer advocates, this is the most important body because it oversees the work of the consumer protection agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission. I was a lobbyist at the time for Consumer Reports, charged with improving product and auto safety. It was a constant battle to get the auto industry to accept safety as one of its mandates and to make cars safer for the traveling public.

Senator McCain, while chair of the committee, unlike so many of his Republican counterparts, admired my fellow consumer advocates and said so. He called my boss Gene Kimmelman, who was director of Consumers Union in Washington and an expert in antitrust and telecom, “a remarkable young man.” He praised Joan Claybrook, head of Public Citizen and instructed his staff to work with consumer advocates on auto safety measures.  I sat through hearings where he excoriated the auto industry witnesses for putting cars on the market with obvious safety defects and for their history of opposing safety measures, as he noted, “including seat belts and airbags.”

He wasn’t always supportive of consumer rights. The Senator had a conservative voting record and opposed a lot of consumer initiatives; for example, in 2001 we successfully defeated the nomination of Mary Sheila Gall for chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She was wholly unfit for the job, blaming “negligent” parents instead of manufacturers when a product injured or killed a child. McCain was very angry about her defeat. But what made the Senator different is that he wasn’t single-minded,  marching to the beat of the industry mantra that any regulation is bad regulation, and was actually willing to take them on publicly.

As luck would have it, one day some years ago I found myself waiting for a taxi after a Washington event. Standing next to me happened to be Senator McCain with his mother in tow. She was youthful and full of spunk. He introduced us. We started chatting and, although I can’t remember details, it was like talking to the guy at the dry cleaner or the grocery store. We had a laugh; I remember him as fun and friendly. Then he and his mom got into the car and sped off. I came home and told my son I had just spent a few minutes chatting with John McCain. He didn’t believe me. After the Senator ran for President and lost, I’d see him in the halls of the Russell Senate Office Building ,and I always said hello and thanked him for his service and for his integrity.

Senator McCain continued to fight for his beliefs up until the last possible moment. He was a prisoner of war for five years and suffered torture and beatings, but maintained his dignity and strength until his release and always said he liked and admired the Vietnamese people. He served in the House and Senate and ran for President twice. He had a kind of integrity that is in short supply today. For instance, he once told a lady at one of his campaign stops in Minnesota that she was wrong, Senator Barack Obama wasn’t an Arab and was a “decent man and a family man.” He was one of the few—and most importantly, decisive votes—to oppose killing the Affordable Care Act. He called out President Donald Trump time and again, at great risk to losing his Republican base, while most of Senator McCain’s Republican colleagues remained silent. The country has lost a brave and important voice, and we should all mourn his passing.

Senators Duckworth, Markey to receive highest honor from nation’s pioneering consumer watchdog org – National Consumers League

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August 21, 2018

Identity Theft Resource Center’s Velasquez to be honored with Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, has announced it will honor Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) with its highest honor, the Trumpeter Award, on Tuesday, October 16 in Washington, DC.

This year marks the 45th anniversary year of the Trumpeter Award, which honors leaders in the fight for consumer and worker rights. Past honorees include: Senator Ted Kennedy, the award’s inaugural recipient, as well as Labor Secretaries Hilda Solis, Robert Reich, and Alexis Herman, Senators Carl Levin and Paul Wellstone, Delores Huerta of the United Farm Workers, and other honored consumer and labor leaders. Last year’s recipients were the legendary social justice leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and then-Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Richard Cordray.

The Trumpeter Award is given to leaders who have dedicated their lives to social justice and to fighting for those who cannot defend themselves. This year’s Trumpeter recipients, Senators Tammy Duckworth and Ed Markey will join this esteemed group as true American heroes.

“Senator Tammy Duckworth embodies America’s best values throughout her career, as an Iraq War Veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, and former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “She is an inspirational leader and justice-minded policymaker on civil rights, standing up for immigrants and veterans, and speaking out on behalf of consumers on healthcare and justice reform. We are thrilled to honor her this October with this historic award.”

“For nearly five decades, Senator Markey’s leadership has been a model for Americans of all generations,” said Greenberg. “Whether on issues dealing with commerce, protecting the environment, or in defense of privacy, healthcare, and cybersecurity, Markey’s commitment to policy that serves consumers and workers is exemplary.”

In addition to the Trumpeter Award, NCL will the honor the recipient of this year’s Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award: Eva Casey Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

“Eva Casey Velasquez’s leadership at the Identity Theft Resource Center and her commitment to broadening public education and awareness about important issues that affect almost every consumer have earned her this honor,” said John Breyault, NCL vice president on public policy, telecommunications and fraud. “Eva’s work has helped to put consumers at the center of ID theft prevention, and we are delighted to present her with this award to honor her commitment to consumer education and protection.”

This year’s Trumpeter Awards will feature a reception, dinner, and speaking appearances by NCL leadership and the honorees, as well as Maria Cardona, CNN/CNNE Commentator & Principal of Dewey Square Group. To learn more, visit nclnet.org/about-ncl/trumpeter-awards_awards.

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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.

How tariffs hit home for low-income consumers – National Consumers League

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Earlier this year, I examined how 25 percent tariffs on a range of Chinese goods would impact smartphone users, particularly low-income consumers who rely on their phones as their primary means of Internet access. As new data comes out about the impact of tariffs, it’s becoming clearer that these tariffs will hit low-income consumers particularly hard.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at the humble thermostat. If you grow up living through Virginia summers like I did, you quickly learn what a potent combination heat and humidity can be. Stepping out of that sticky mess into a cool home makes you appreciate what a marvel modern air conditioning can be. While many of us take heating and air conditioning for granted, for millions of low-income consumers, home energy costs eat up a big chunk of their budgets.

It’s for this reason that home energy waste can be such a problem. A surprising amount of money is wasted because homes are heated and cooled in an inefficient manner. Think of all those hours you pay to heat and cool an empty home while you’re at work and the kids are at school. While middle- and upper-income households may spend as little as 1 to 5 percent of their incomes on heating and cooling, it is estimated that low-income consumers often spend anywhere from 10 to 35 percent of their incomes home energy bill. For consumers whose budgets are already stretched thin, wasting money on heating and cooling can make it even harder to make ends meet.

This is where the humble thermostat comes in. These relatively simple devices — turning on the heating and cooling when it’s needed, turning it off when it’s not — play a key role in regulating home energy costs. In recent years, technology companies have begun to market dozens of different “smart” thermostats to help make heating and cooling more efficient. Thanks to smart thermostats, consumers in Minnesota can return home to pre-warmed homes in the winter or turn up the heat remotely from work if their kids get sent home from school early due to an impending snow storm.

The savings can be significant, with smart thermostat makers like Nest and Honeywell claiming more than $100 in annual household savings. Smart thermostat prices running in the $150-200 and with many utility companies offering rebate programs, the upfront cost can get paid for in a relatively manageable amount of time.

According to International Trade Commission statistics, the majority of thermostats in the United States come from China. Hiking up the price of smart thermostats by 25 percent through tariffs makes it less likely that price-conscious consumers will be able to justify that up-front cost, leading to less efficient homes. It’s for this reason that tariffs on smart thermostats from China could have an especially negative impact–not just on household managers who are thinking of buying one, but even on those who don’t. The costs of energy waste hit everyone in the form of higher energy prices and the environmental impacts stemming from excess power generation to run all those air conditioners and HVAC systems.

While middle-and-upper income consumers may not feel this pinch, low-income consumers will. The indirect impacts of higher prices on thermostats is just one way that low-income consumers, in particular, are affected by tariffs. As President Trump considers slapping yet more tariffs on Chinese goods, these impacts should give the Administration pause and, hopefully, lead it to reconsider this harmful trade policy. Fortunately, the Administration recently announced that it is considering excluding certain products from tariff action. Let’s hope that it considers the effects that anti-trade policies will have on the most vulnerable and exclude thermostats from further tariffs.

LifeSmarts recognizes student scholarship recipients from ‘Year of Health and Safety’ project – National Consumers League

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August 14, 2018

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—LifeSmarts, a national consumer literacy educational program and scholarship opportunity for students in grades 6-12, has announced this year’s student leaders who have been awarded scholarships for their outstanding participation in the LifeSmarts OTC Medicine Safety Mentoring Project, a program offered during LifeSmarts’ Year of Health and Safety.

The OTC Medicine Safety Mentoring Project was unveiled in 2017 and offered as a community service opportunity to this year’s LifeSmarts participants and was underwritten by a grant from Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. Through the program, LifeSmarts provided materials and curriculum, bolstered by educational resources produced by Scholastic, that enabled high school students to become mentors for middle school students to help them understand the wise use and safe storage of over-the-counter medicines.

“We are so pleased with the success of the ‘Year of Health and Safety’ and the OTC Medicine Safety Mentoring Project,” said national LifeSmarts Program Director Lisa Hertzberg. “We know LifeSmarts gives students the skills they need to succeed as adults, and we see students applying what they learn immediately at home and in their communities. We were thrilled to see our students participate in this program and the enthusiasm and creativity they exhibited in serving as student mentors to pre-teens on these crucial health and safety lessons.”

2018 Safety Mentoring Scholarship Winners

More than 500 LifeSmarts students participated in the program making presentations and holding events that reached tens of thousands of middle school students and community members across the country. Student participants submitted applications about their experiences to the National Consumers League. Scholarship criteria included the number of presentations, community impact, and a personal reflective statement, with the winners receiving a $1,000 post-secondary education scholarship. This year’s recipients are:

  • Victoria Lowrance: LaFayette, GA (12th grade)
  • Samantha Martinez: Waterbury, CT (10th grade)
  • Kejsi Ozuni: Waterbury, CT (10th grade)
  • Raymond Perez: Dallas, PA (11th grade)
  • Hannah Wolfe: Dallas, PA (10th grade)

Besides health and safety, LifeSmarts focuses on four other main content areas: consumer rights and responsibilities, personal finance, technology, and the environment. Students are quizzed on their knowledge of these subject areas during online competition. Top-performing teams then advance to statewide competitions, and state champion teams advance to the national championship held each year in a different American city. The 2018 National LifeSmarts Championship took place April 21-24 in San Diego, where the state champion team from Pennsylvania was declared this year’s national champion team. Scholarship recipients Raymond Perez and Hannah Wolfe were on this year’s national champion team.

Last year, students answered more than 3.5 million consumer questions about credit reports, recycling, nutrition, social media, state lemon laws, and everything in between. More than 140,000 students participated in the program in the 2017-18 season. LifeSmarts is active in all states and the District of Columbia, where NCL is headquartered.

“Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. is proud to be a long-standing supporter of the LifeSmarts program and thrilled about the OTC Medicine Safety Mentoring project. As a manufacturer of over-the-counter medicines, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. believes that the LifeSmarts OTC Medicine Safety Mentoring Project can help instill a healthy respect for all medicines in adolescents by teaching core concepts on the responsible use and safe storage of medicines. In doing so, we are building a healthier future for our adolescents, and helping to prevent medicine misuse, errors, and adverse events,” said Ed Kuffner M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Johnson & Johnson Consumer.

Visit LifeSmarts.org for more information.

LifeSmarts: Learn it. Live it.

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About LifeSmarts

LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. For more information, visit: LifeSmarts.org, email lifesmarts@nclnet.org, or call the National Consumers League’s communications department at (202) 835-3323.

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.

NCL statement on Trump Administration’s finalization of Short-Term Plan rule – National Consumers League

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August 1, 2018

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League (NCL) is deeply disappointed by the finalization of the Short-Term Limited Duration Insurance (STLDI) Plan rule, which allows the sale of short-term health insurance plans that do not comply with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

The following statement may be attributed to Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director:

“The ‘short-term plan’ final rule will allow insurers to offer junk insurance policies to millions of consumers that fail to meet their healthcare needs. Short-term plans exclude coverage for critically important healthcare services; vary premium rates by gender, health status, and age; and put individuals and families at significant financial risk from unpaid medical bills.

In addition, allowing the expansion of these types of plans for periods up to 364 days (and renewal for up to 3 years) undermines the individual market by pulling healthy individuals away and leaving an older, sicker risk pool behind. As a result of this rule, we fear that many who rely on comprehensive coverage – including women, older adults, and people with chronic conditions – will be left without affordable, comprehensive coverage options.”  

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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 https://nclnet.org.

NCL’s statement on Trump Administration’s proposed rule on Title X – National Consumers League

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August 1, 2018

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—In response to the Trump Administration’s proposed rule on the Title X health care program, the National Consumers League (NCL) has issued the following statement, which may be attributed to Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director:

As a long-time supporter of the Title X Family Planning Program, the National Consumers League (NCL) has significant concerns about the Trump Administration’s Title X “Compliance with Statutory Program Requirements” proposed rule, that would restrict the ability of millions of patients to obtain contraception and preventative care. The proposed rule would also make it significantly more difficult for physicians to explain reproductive health care options, such as family planning services.

NCL strongly believes that the Title X Family Planning Program is integral in providing women and teenagers with reproductive and preventive healthcare services across the United States. In fact, Title X centers have helped to prevent 1 million unintended pregnancies each year. These centers are important because they provide a wide range of preventive healthcare services, such as: wellness exams, birth control, contraception education, and lifesaving cervical and breast cancer screenings.

If HHS implements the proposed rule, there will be extremely detrimental effects on patients in regions of the United States with limited access to health care, as well as economically distressed adults and teenagers without health insurance. If implemented, the proposed rule would seriously restrict the ability of clinicians to explain contraceptive and reproductive healthcare options to their patients. Healthcare education and information is key in order for consumers to make informed choices.

Furthermore, NCL is very concerned about the implications of this proposed rule when it comes to the millions of patients that use Title X services. This proposed rule could result in 40 percent of patients that currently visit Title X centers losing their healthcare services.

NCL urges HHS to analyze all the possible effects that this proposed rule could have on vulnerable populations in the United States before making such sweeping changes to the Title X health care program.

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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 https://nclnet.org.

Trump and Undermining Public Sector Unions – National Consumers League

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By NCL Public Policy intern Melissa Cuddington

This summer has been rife with razor-thin 5-4 Supreme Court rulings. Many of these have been one-vote margins because of the newly added conservative justice and Trump appointee, Neil Gorsuch.

For example, a 5-4 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME at the end of June delivered the dreaded but anticipated blow to public sector unions and the Trump Administration’s goal of weakening the bargaining power and influence of working men and women. Janus, an employee at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, asked the court to overrule a 40-year-old Supreme Court decision, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, requiring public sector workers to contribute to union dues toward collective bargaining costs, such as contract negotiations, but excuses them from paying dues to support political advocacy. Janus argued his $45 monthly fee to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was unconstitutional. He said that the fees infringed on his First Amendment rights, and that, in the case of public employees whose contract negotiations are with the government, the fees were a form of political advocacy.

The Court agreed with Janus and reversed the requirement.

In the wake of the very unfortunate Janus decision, the Administration has issued several executive orders to restrict union activity in the federal government. These include restricting the time that employees can spend on union activity, implementing rules about day-to-day operations and changing government policy at the agency level.

Union leaders at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) have objected loudly, filing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to protest his executive order regarding “official time.” Trump’s executive order addresses the use of “official time” to compensate union workers for time spent on representational work.  

Why is it okay for a worker to benefit from better wages, working conditions, benefits like time off and sick leave and not have to help pay for the costs of negotiating those benefits?  Janus and the subsequent Executive Orders have understandably sparked outraged from federal government unions and other advocacy groups like NCL that support working families. One strategy could be, per the OpEd in the New York Times, having state and local governments directly pay unions for their expenses.

Unions are critical to the smooth operations of the federal government, effectively fighting for worker benefits and increased bargaining power for the many hardworking federal employees. The NCL has a long history of fighting for consumers, workers and public sector unions. We regret the Janus decision and its effect of undermining union bargaining power. We join with AFGE and all federal workers in supporting their voice in the workplace.