Consumers willing to sacrifice for worker welfare – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Michell K. McIntyre, Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft

Consumers care. That simple idea can terrify businesses and start the waves of change for workers across the nation and around the world.  It can topple oppressive industries and pull back the curtain to show the ugly side of life in factories, restaurants, and stores.

With the National Consumers League’s newly commissioned survey, conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, consumers have once again shown that they feel strongly (87 percent) about the products in their lives and they do not want products to be manufactured in unfair, overly harsh, or dangerous working conditions – and they are willing to make some sacrifices for it.

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of responders agreed that they would be “willing to wait longer to get the latest electronic gadgets if [they] knew it was produced under humane working conditions.” Thus taking a torch to the electronic industry’s excuse of using overseas factories to appease an ‘imagined’ consumer not willing to wait a few extra months for the latest devices and therefore, have their products produced in factories who employ overly harsh overtime policies and dangerous working conditions.

As evidenced in the recent Fair Labor Association’s report on Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer for Apple, Sony, Nintendo and other technology giants, and the recent headlines concerning Apple, corporations are being forced to take a fresh look at they way they conduct business and who they work with.

Besides the technology giants, the restaurant and retail industries should be on notice to treat their workers fairly and not to try to cheat them out of their wages.  An overwhelming majority of respondents (91 percent) said it was important or very important to them “that the stores [they] shop in and the restaurants [they] eat in pay their workers fairly for the wages they are owed.” While 93 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “employers who cheat their employees out of the wage they have earned should be fined or punished in some way.”

With the Department of Labor’s recent crack down on the retail, hospitality, restaurant, and construction industries, wage theft (any time an employer illegally underpays or does not pay their employee) has been an increasingly hot topic amongst workers, local and state governments and workers’ rights groups.  With a loss in state and local tax revenue, state and local governments have seen how wage theft affects their bottom line and are looking for ways to help workers combat wage theft.

The National Consumers League’s Special Project on Wage Theft has been devoted to furthering the battle against wage theft, striving to educate workers, consumers, businesses, and governments on the effects of wage theft and is building an increased awareness about the nature of wage theft in the United States.

Baby steps towards cell phone cramming progress – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Cell phones and “cramming”: we have had some – and I stress “some” — progress for consumers in recent weeks. After years of pressure from consumer groups – which NCL helped to lead – and hearings in the U.S. Senate, first Verizon and then AT&T agreed to block most unaffiliated third parties from adding charges onto landline phone bills. For years consumers have been discovering unauthorized charges on phone bills and to get rid of them, have had to go through 1-800 hell to get the charges removed. I’ve been through this: sometimes you get a sympathetic operator who cancels the charges without a fuss, and sometimes you have to fight up the supervisory ladder to get the charges dropped. For an extra $9.99 how many consumers are willing to devote sometimes an hour or more to fighting with some anonymous operator. Furthermore, many consumers either don’t realize the charges are unauthorized or never look at the bill.

So I said above “some” progress – while consumers won on blocking charges for landlines, what about blocking unauthorized charges on your cell phone?

David Segal’s “The Haggler” columns recently asked the question, why don’t the cell phone providers block third-party charges on cell phones too? Why isn’t there an opt-in requiring consumers to say “yes” when a third-party wants to charge for an added service? Instead of forcing us to opt out if they don’t want any third-party charges? Segal also notes that the carriers get up to a third or half of the revenue so it may not be in their interest to block crammers from adding on charges.

I have to agree with Segal; the pro-consumer angle is surely to give consumers the chance to opt-in if they want a third-party service and not require them to block all services on a case-by-case basis. Some consumers may actually want services, like weather updates or sports scores. Let those consumers provide an affirmative “yes” and the rest of us won’t have to get on the phone to cancel a service they didn’t order and don’t want.

NCL mourns passing of union leader – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

April 9, 2012

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League is saddened by the passing of a tireless leader in the workers rights movement, Mark Ayers, an AFL-CIO Vice President and President of the Building and Construction Trades Department. We mourn Mr. Ayers’ death as someone committed to bettering the lives of working families across the nation. As a US Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, Mr. Ayers took great pride in chairing the AFL-CIO’s Union Veterans Council, a group devoted to increasing veterans’ access to good jobs and quality health care. Our thoughts are with his family and friends and we honor a life devoted to fighting to restore the American dream to working families.

###

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.

Peep this: union-made candy for spring holidays – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Michell K. McIntyre, Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft 

With another candy-centric holiday right around the corner, let’s give a shout-out to union-made candies and remind consumers of the opportunity to support pro-worker efforts (collective bargaining for a fair wage and decent benefits) of unions. Below is an extensive list, complied by the good folks at Union Plus. The lists represents the products produced by the hard-working efforts of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM); the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); and the fruit and nuts from members of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

Included on the list are Hershey and Nestle – two companies that have recently been in the news regarding accusations of child labor in their supply chains. Hershey has pledged to do better, and Nestle has recently partnered with the Fair Labor Association, an independent third party that will monitor Nestle’s supply chains as they did with Apple’s Chinese manufacturer, Foxconn, and launched an investigation into child labor in their supply chains. With this in mind, consumers should have the knowledge to arm themselves in the candy aisle to make informed and responsible choices.

With all the attacks facing unions, please support the efforts of these hard-working men and women and buy union-made holiday candy.

Just Born

  • Peeps
  • Mike & Ike
  • Hot Tamales
  • Peanut Chews
  • Jelly Beans

Jelly Belly’s Candy Company

  • Jelly Bellies – also made in a non-union plants in Chicago/Taiwan
  • Chocolate Dutch Mints
  • Chocolate Temptations
  • Dimples
  • Goelitz Confections
  • Goelitz Gummi
  • Pet Rat
  • Pet Tarantula
  • Sweet Temptations
  • Candy Corn
  • Licorice
  • Malted Milk Balls
  • Chocolate Coated Nuts, & Sours
  • Sunkist Fruit Gel Slices

Necco (New England Confectionery Company)

  • Sweethearts
  • Mary Jane Peanut Butter Chews
  • NECCO Wafers/Necco Wafer Smoothies
  • Sky Bar
  • Clark Bar
  • Canada Mints
  • Candy Cupboard
  • Thin Mints
  • NECCO Assorted Junior Wafers
  • Clark Junior Laydown Bag
  • Mary Jane Laydown Bag
  • Haviland
  • Mallow Cups
  • Necco Peanut Butter Kisses

Ghiradelli Chocolates

  • All filled & non filled squares
  • Non Pariels
  • Chocolate chips

Gimbals Fine Candies

  • Jelly Beans
  • Cherry Hearts
  • Scotty Dogs
  • Jelly Beans

Hershey Products

  • Hershey Kisses*
  • Hershey Syrups
  • Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar*
  • Hershey Milk with Almond Bars
  • Hershey Special Dark Bars
  • Hershey Nuggets
  • Rolo
  • Hershey Kissables
  • Kit Kat Bars
  • Carmello Bar
  • Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar
  • Cadbury Roast Almond Bar
  • Cadbury Royal Dark Bar
  • Cadbury Dairy Milk Bar
  • Jolly Ranchers
  • Hershey Symphony Bar with Toffee

See’s (all)

American Licorice

  • Black & Red Vines
  • Strawberry Ropes

Sconza Candies

  • Jawbreakers
  • Chocolate Covered Cherries
  • Chocolate

Nestle

  • Nestle Treasures
  • Laffy Taffy
  • Kathryn Beich specialty candy
  • Baby Ruth*
  • Butterfinger*
  • Pearson’s Nips
  • Famous Old Time Candies (gourmet chocolates)
  • Nestle Crunch Butterfinger Crisp

Pearson’s Candy Co.

  • Salted Nut Roll
  • Nut Goodie
  • Mint Patties
  • Bun Bars

Anabelles Candy Company

  • Boston Baked Beans
  • Jordon Almonds
  • Rocky Road
  • U-Nos
  • Look
  • Big Hunk
  • Abba-Zaba
  • Yogurt Nuts & Fruit

*Some products made in Mexico; check the label for country of origin.

For more information on the above list of union-made candy, please visit Union Plus and if you’d like a mobile version of the Union Plus list sent to your phone, please text CANDY to 22555.

Protesters call foul on new poultry inspection rules – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety & Nutrition Fellow

On Monday, I joined the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Food & Water Watch (FWW) and the Government Accountability Project (GAP) in front of USDA to protest proposed changes to poultry slaughter.

Currently, USDA inspectors from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) monitor every plant in the United States that slaughters poultry. They inspect slaughtered animals to ensure that only wholesome product is entering commerce. In a few poultry plants, a new model project called the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (or HIMP for short) has changed this model. In HIMP plants, some government inspectors have been replaced with plant employees. The government now proposes to expand this model so that all poultry plants will have the option to participate.

NCL is concerned about several aspects of this proposed rule, which is why we joined Monday’s protest. As part of the proposed changes, plants would be allowed to increase their line speeds to up to 175 birds per minute, or close to three birds per second.

Our first concern is that the new program will negatively impact food safety. With fewer government inspectors on the line, ensuring food safety will be left up to the plant employees. Unfortunately, the proposed rule does not mandate training for these employees. This means that well-trained government inspectors will be replaced with plant employees who may have varying levels of expertise, depending on the level of investment each plant chooses to make. This is not a recipe for uniform, consistent food safety outcomes.

Additionally, NCL is concerned about the impact of increased line speeds on worker safety. We are concerned that with lines moving ever faster, workers may be at increased risk for injury. While the proposed rule includes a study on worker safety, NCL feels that it is important to understand the impact on workers before changes are widely enacted, not after.

It was with these concerns in mind I joined AFGE, CFA, FWW, and GAP to protest the proposed changes. The fact that we were joined by dozens of inspectors speaks to the importance of this issue. We hope that USDA will hear our message and change their approach to updating poultry inspection. In this instance, the proposed changes are extreme and more research is needed on the efficacy of HIMP before we can think about expanding it to all plants.

Danish fat tax won’t fly in the US (but it should!) – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director
According to Consumers Union, Denmark has launched an effort to improve public health with a “fat tax” – it’s $1.50 a pound on food such as bacon, butter, and pastries, that contain more than  2.3 percent saturated fat. Right off the bat, I can tell you this wouldn’t fly in the United States. Consumer and health care advocates couldn’t get any traction on a bill to put a penny tax – a penny! – on sugary drinks. Not only that but the sugar industry waged an expensive campaign to kill the proposal and succeeded. They made it about “freedom,” a brilliant PR strategy that worked. So $1.50 a pound on fat ain’t happening anytime soon in the United States.
That said, this Danish tax has its good points. Fats – even healthy ones –  add a lot of calories per gram compared to carbohydrates and proteins – 9 grams vs 4 respectively, and with 2/3 of Americans being overweight or obese, nothing raises awareness like raising the price on unhealthy foods.
Some fats are good for you, but saturated fat isn’t among them. It’s unhealthy because it encourages the body to produce more cholesterol. In contrast, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in foods such as salmon and trout, nuts, avocados and vegetable oils can actually cut heart disease. The Danes are not for taxing those fats.
Time will tell if this Danish tax on saturated fats will help to reduce the intake of unhealthy fatty  foods. Even if it’s a nonstarter in the United States, creative ideas like what the Danes are implementing deserve serious consideration.

Cramming fraudsters take notice: AT&T to end wireline third-party billing – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

March 30, 2012

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League, the nation’s oldest consumer organization, today welcomed AT&T’s announcement that it will end most third-party billing on wireline telephone accounts by August of this year. AT&T joins Verizon, which last week announced that they would cease providing third-party billing services on wireline phone bills for so-called “enhanced” services – a major component of cramming fraud.

“AT&T and Verizon’s actions to protect consumers should put fraudsters on notice. Their days of profiting off consumers’ phone bills are numbered,” said John Breyault, the League’s Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “We urge CenturyLink and other phone companies to follow AT&T and Verizon’s lead and put crammers out of business once and for all.”

NCL also reiterated its support for comprehensive federal legislation to prohibit third-party billing for non-telecommunications services on wireline telephone bills. “While we’re glad to see two major telecommunications companies take this important step voluntarily, it is important that there be a clear protections be put in place to protect all consumers,” said Breyault. NCL has also again called on the Federal Communications Commission to act on its pending rulemaking on this issue to ensure that the cramming problem is fixed permanently and consumers, businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies are protected.

With regards to cramming on wireless telephone bills, NCL urged regulators and legislators to remain vigilant. “We cannot allow the crammers to simply migrate from landline phones to wireless phones,” said Breyault. “With millions of consumers ‘cutting the cord’ and using cell phones exclusively, we cannot take our eye off the ball and let cramming fraud proliferate on wireless bills.”

###

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.

Following ‘pink slime’ hysteria? – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

You may want to read this recent blog post to clarify the concerns and uproar over so-called “pink slime” and how this unfolded. NCL also recently issued a statement, joined by several other food safety groups, including STOP and CFA, on the unfortunate loss of jobs as a result. Thanks to all consumers who read this with an eye to the science and whether this is a safe and nutritious product and not judge the product by how it looks in the production.

Statement of Sally Greenberg, NCL ED, on Lean Finely Textured Beef – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

March 28, 2012

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington,DC–NCL believes that the announcement by Beef Products Inc. that the company will suspend operations at three plants is unfortunate. BPI and its CEO, Eldon Roth, have been forced to close the plants because of business the company has lost to very serious misinformation, widely disseminated by the media, about its product, lean finely textured beef (LFTB). The misinformation has unduly harmed a company—and its employees– that is recognized as an industry leader in food safety.

Food scientists and consumer organizations agree that LFTB is safe:  BPI pioneered food safety interventions to significantly reduce the risk of pathogens  inthe meat  they produced. Their use of ammonia in small amounts was used to reduce the risk of pathogenic E. coli in their product, and these levels never have posed a health risk to consumers.

BPI also pioneered “test and hold” which ensures that nothing leaves the plant until it has passed rigorous safety testing. BPI was one of the first companies to voluntarily test for six additional deadly strains of pathogenic E. coli. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has now adopted test and hold for products the agency tests, and last year FSIS announced that it would consider the six additional strains of E. coli as adulterants in ground beef.

BPI employs  around 3,000 employees,  whose jobs either have been or will be lost with the suspension of operations.  Seven hundred employees have already lost their jobs. This is tragic, as they have been harmed by a completely unfounded conclusion that their product is not safe.  The beef that will replace BPI’s product will most likely come from overseas and thus the closing of the plants will ship jobs overseas∙

NCL, whose mission is to protect consumers and workers, believes that both have been seriously harmed by the assault against its integrity that BPI has suffered.  NCL is in agreement with the Consumer Federation of America that manufacturers of hamburger patties may replace LFTB with something that has not been processed to assure the same level of safety. CFA also expressed concerns that NCL shares about the potential effect this recent controversy may have on companies who seek to apply innovative solutions and new technologies to enhance food safety.

From NCL’s standpoint, the record must be corrected.  The public has been ill-served by faulty information about this product that was based on conclusions of those who are not experts in food safety. An estimated 3,000 people could lose jobs as a result of BPI going out of business. The company has suspended the jobs of 650 workers to date.

###

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.

DOL considering giving 2 million home care workers basic labor protections – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Michell K. McIntyre, Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft

It’s amazing. It’s amazing that — during last week’s House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on the proposed Department of Labor’s rules narrowing the definition of “companionship” that would give more than 2 million home care workers basic labor protections — a witness had the audacity to claim that he was opposing the rules as a way to protect his workers. The congressional hearing centered around the home care industry and the workers who perform the invaluable job of taking care of our fast-growing elderly and disabled populations.

The home care industry has enjoyed the loophole in labor law that was originally carved out to exclude occasional babysitters and “elder sitters” (companions) from minimum wage and overtime laws. This loophole allowed them to skirt the basic protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These employers do not have to pay their employees minimum wage nor overtime – allowing an employer to legally pay their workers $2 an hour with no legal recourse for the employee. Due to this loophole the home care industry has enjoyed record profits, for example in 2009 the industry made $84.1 billion in profits, and is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors in today’s economy. Yet the industry has cried ‘foul’ and ‘poor house’ when faced with the possibility of having to pay their workers the basic rights and protections of minimum wage and overtime.

Almost all home care workers are female, and the vast majority are minorities. These women are often the sole breadwinner for their families and are struggling at poverty level wages. In order to survive, a large percentage of home care workers have to depend on social safety-net programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. With the home care workforce projected to grow by nearly 50 percent again by 2018 and be the major source of growth and jobs in the U.S. economy by adding 1.3 million jobs by 2020, something needs to be done to cover these workers under the most basic labor protections.

Yet this witness claimed that having to pay his employees minimum wage and overtime, would adversely affect the workers’ pay. If an employee is already working 50-hour-weeks with no minimum wage and overtime, how would earning an increased wage plus time and a half overtime hurt them? Even at the median wage of $9.34 an hour, with no overtime, a worker would only make $19,427 a year – far below a basic self-sufficiency income for a single adult, let alone someone supporting a family.

Ted Kennedy once said, “No one who works for a living should live in poverty.” It’s time to value the incredible work home care workers do and respect them enough to cover them under the very basic protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act and give them the right to get paid the minimum wage and overtime.