Death of two 14-year-olds girls in an Illinois field underscores the need for an overhaul of U.S. child labor laws, groups condemn new laws that weaken protections for young workers – National Consumers League

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August 1, 2011

Contacts: Reid Maki, Coordinator, Child Labor Coalition (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org & Nick Grisewood, Executive Director, Global March +353 61921685, nick@globalmarch.org

Washington, DC—The tragic death of two 14-year-old girls while detasseling corn in Tampico, Illinois last week stands as a painful reminder that U.S. child labor laws are inadequate and efforts by states to weaken current protections are further endangering the lives of American children.

Hannah Kendall and Jade Garza, two friends from Sterling, Illinois, were electrocuted while they worked with a crew of about 70 others, including workers as young as 13. Ten workers were injured in the electrocution incident whose cause is still unknown. According to news reports, the girls were employed by Monsanto Corporation, which was acting as a contractor. They worked in a muddy field, detasseling corn—a common job for many teenagers in the Midwest that involves removing tassels to encourage cross-pollination—when they received a shock from a nearby center pivot irrigation system. Fourteen-year-old Delanie Knapp, was taken to a Rockford hospital and listed in “serious” condition. Seven other workers were taken to the hospital and released.

“We are devastated by this terrible news and our thoughts go out to the families of these young workers,” said Sally Greenberg, the co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) and the executive director of the National Consumers League (NCL). “Across the nation, legislators in Maine and Wisconsin have weakened child labor laws by allowing teens to work longer hours in recent months. In Missouri, the state’s child labor inspection team was eliminated. Legislators need to know that child labor laws save lives and any weakening of protections has very serious potential consequences.”

Agriculture is consistently ranked as one of the two or three most dangerous industries in the U.S. Each year, NCL produces an annual report titled, “The Five Most Dangerous Jobs for Teens” and agriculture regularly tops the list. “Young teen should not be allowed to work in the fields, given the dangers posed by chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as heavy machinery and razor-sharp tools,” said Reid Maki, coordinator of the CLC, which believes that 14- and 15-year-olds should only be allowed to perform agricultural jobs deemed safe for them by the Secretary of  Labor after careful evaluation. In March of this year, two 18-year-old Illinois teens were electrocuted as they worked with irrigation piping.

“As a child, I spent every summer since the age of 12 detasseling cornfields in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa,” said Norma Flores López. “This work is grueling and puts children’s health at risk, yet exemptions to U.S. child labor laws allow 12- and 13-year-olds to perform back-breaking farm labor for very low pay.” Flores López is the Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign for the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and the chair of the CLC’s Domestic Committee.

The CLC strives to protect children around the world, including the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the U.S. who work long hours in the fields. The CLC is working to help pass the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), HR 2234, federal legislation to remove the child labor exemptions for agriculture and prohibit farm work for kids under 14 (unless children are working on a family farm for their parents). The proposed law would require the U.S. Secretary of Labor to determine if specific farm jobs like detasseling corn are safe enough for 14-and 15-year-olds to perform and would prevent 16- and 17-year-olds from doing agricultural jobs already determined to be hazardous.

“Children working as farm laborers suffer serious educational impacts in addition to the physical health threats,” said Toni Cortese, the Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 1.5 million public service employees. “They drop out at rates several times that of other kids because they miss so much school and experience so many disruptions in their education. They are sacrificing their futures to put fruits and vegetables on our tables and it isn’t right.”

“The U.S. has worked diligently to reduce child labor around the world, but it must address its own child labor problem,” said Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson of the Global March Against Child Labor. “Internationally, child labor in agriculture is the most frequent type of child labor, experienced by 60 to 70 percent of child laborers around the world. The conditions experienced by migrant children in the U.S. are not much different than the conditions experienced by child laborers in the cocoa fields of Ghana or the school children who are forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan.”

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About the Child Labor Coalition. The Child Labor Coalition is composed of 28 organizations, representing consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups. It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the American Federation of Teachers. Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad.

About the Global March Against Child Labor. The Global March Against Child Labour was established in 1998 to plan and coordinate a worldwide social mobilisation effort involving thousands of organisations and people in all four corners of the globe to raise awareness of child labour and to support the adoption of ILO Convention No. 182 on worst forms of child labour in Geneva in 1999. It is a global network of trade union, teachers’ and civil society organisations that work together towards the shared development goals of  eliminating and preventing all forms of child labour and ensuring access by all children to free, meaningful and good quality public education. Global March mobilises and supports its constituents to contribute to local, national, regional and global efforts and support for a range of international instruments relating to the protection and promotion of children’s rights and engages with UN and international and inter-governmental agencies on the same.

In support of the “Bittman tax” – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Last year, DC City Councilwoman Mary Cheh introduced legislation to place a one-penny tax on sugary drinks sold in the District.  NCL supported Cheh’s bill, which passed the DC City Council unanimously. The proceeds from the tax would have been directed to fighting obesity in the District.  The sugar lobby went all out to defeat the bill, throwing millions of dollars into ads on billboards, television and radio. I even received a robo call message on my home answering machine warning me about this “dangerous” legislation. This industry onslaught succeeded in killing the bill. The defeat occurred despite these facts:

  • 43% of students enrolled in DC public schools are overweight or obese — one of the highest rates in the nation.
  • The District government spends more than $400 million annually to treat obesity.
  • For children, each extra can or glass of sugar-sweetened beverage consumed per day increases their chance of becoming obese by 60 percent
  • Of the 278 additional calories Americans consumed on average, per day between 1977 and 2001, more than 40% came from sugary drinks.

In a recent New York Times article, Mark Bittman, the food writer and chef, proposes something similar to Cheh’s legislation: a 20% increase in the price of sugary drinks, which would cause a 20% decrease in consumption, which would prevent about one and half million Americans from becoming obese and 400,000 cases of diabetes, saving an estimated $30 billion.

His proposal makes a lot of sense to me. The average American consumes 44.7 gallons of soft drinks annually, including diet drinks. The Bittman tax would add $1.44 cents to a six-pack of Pepsi. That money would be used to subsidize the purchase of staple foods like seasonable greens, vegetables, whole grains, dried legumes and fruit. Bittman argues that the government should play a much stronger role in public health. He’s right. This country is facing a public health crisis, with rapidly rising rates of obesity among adults and sadly, children. Why not make it more expensive to consume the stuff that’s nutritionally bereft and use those funds to subsidize the provision of healthy foods, especially in those communities where fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to find? The only thing stopping us is the junk food lobby, but in time, a strong enough push from a groundswell of Americans who are convinced we need to take strong steps to reverse obesity rates – and the diseases that rise – can overcome even that junk food juggernaut.

NCL urges ACIP to consider the routine early childhood vaccination with the meningococcal vaccine – National Consumers League

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August 1, 2011

Washington, DC- In a letter sent today, the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer organization, founded in 1899, urges the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to give serious consideration to recommending “routine” vaccination of children under age two with the meningococcal vaccine when it considers meningococcal vaccine at its upcoming October 25-26, 2011 and February 22-23, 2012 meetings.

To read the full letter, please click here.

 

 

Labor Day: Demanding legal wages for hardworking Americans – National Consumers League

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End-of-summer barbecues, final trips to the beach, and the hectic start of the school year are usually what come to mind with the arrival of Labor Day. But with an increasingly erratic economy, high unemployment rates, and attacks on unions making headlines, this year’s Labor Day is the perfect time to examine the many challenges currently facing the American workforce.

Labor Day was originally started by the labor community not only as a means to celebrate their union accomplishments, but also as a day for workers to air grievances and discuss strategies for securing better working conditions and salaries. Labor advocates certainly have their fair share of grievances to air this season as major corporations continue to rake in $100 billion profits while reducing employee health benefits and pensions; workers are being forced to go on strike to demand fair treatment; and employee class-action lawsuits are stacking up in courts.

One troubling labor issue that hasn’t received much attention is wage theft, in which an employer illegally underpays or fails to pay an employee at all. Wage theft affects all sectors of the workforce; both white and blue-collar workers in industries across the board are vulnerable to this particular type of violation.

Wage theft can occur in a variety of different ways, all of which illegally rob employees out of what’s rightfully theirs. Wage theft tactics include:

  • Unpaid overtime
  • Employee misclassification
  • Minimum wage violations
  • Forcing employees to working off the clock
  • Making illegal deductions from pay
  • Not paying employees at all

Employee misclassification is one of the most common forms of wage theft and has incredibly far-reaching consequences, victimizing everyone from workers to Uncle Sam. With employee misclassification, an employer illegally mislabels an employee as an ‘independent contractor’ instead of an ‘employee,’ in order to be exempt from paying payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation—resulting not only in diminished capital to federal and local governments but saddling employees with additional IRS taxes in the process.

A typical misclassification scenario works like this: a Plano cable TV installation company in Texas was paying its workers on a piece-work basis and offering a flat rate for every cable installation they completed. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division conducted an investigation and determined that installers should have been classified as nonexempt employees, entitled to time-and-a-half their regular rate of pay for overtime hours worked. DOL sued on the workers behalf and the company has been ordered to pay $270,696 in back over­time to the 114 workers it illegally classified as independent contractors.

While wage theft can occur in any industry, certain industries are notorious for paying their workers below the legally required minimum wage. Restaurants, hotels, and janitorial and construction companies have a high frequency of underpaying their workers for both minimum wage and overtime.  Unfortunately, it’s still legal to pay someone below the minimum wage if they’re working in agriculture or are mentally disabled.

This Labor Day, let’s honor America’s workforce by demanding that all employers, regardless of industry or color of their workers’ “collars,” pay each and every worker the compensation they’ve rightfully earned.

To bring some much needed attention to this critical issue, NCL has launched a year-long Special Project on Wage Theft to raise awareness about the nature of wage theft in the United States and educate consumers, workers, businesses, and governments about wage theft issues. Stay up-to-date on the latest wage theft battles by following us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Heading off to college? Banking 101 Part II – National Consumers League

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By Alex Schneider, NCL LifeSmarts and Public Policy Intern

Let’s pick up right where we left off—college is expensive and making smart banking choices can save you a lot of cash in the long run. Here are a few more tips:

Put your dollars to work
Sometimes, despite college loans and large expenses, students find they actually make some spending money.  If that applies to you, you may want to consider saving some of it for long-term planning.  While interest rates today make savings accounts, money market accounts, and CDs unappealing for student investors with modest savings,  stock and mutual fund investing is more promising.

As an aside, a general rule of investing is that your first $5,000 – $10,000 of investments should be mutual fund investments, due to the risk involved with individual stocks.  But putting a few hundred dollars per quarter or per year into stocks can be a valuable way to learn about the stock market.

When opening a brokerage account, make sure to review all fees and investing rules.  Some discount brokers don’t charge monthly fees and don’t require customers to make regular purchases.  Before opening an account, consult a fee schedule and decide whether you can afford to pay the fees listed.

Don’t give in when studying abroad
I recently had the chance to study in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I am proud to report I never paid a bank fee to do so.

So how’d I do it?

American banks and credit card companies like to charge foreign transaction fees of 1%-4%, and they also tack on fees when withdrawing money at an ATM abroad.

Some banks have special deals for travelers, but many of those deals are for prominent bank customers, not students without much money in savings.

When heading abroad, I used information at https://www.flyerguide.com to decide which bank to use.  As of this writing, TD Bank, a northeast bank chain, offers banking with no foreign transaction fees, as do all Capital One credit cards.  Starting in March, a few months after my return home, TD Bank started charging $2 per ATM transaction.  Still, by taking out larger sums of money at a time, students abroad can avoid paying the withdrawal fee too often.

Bank of America has a network of banks that includes Barclays in the UK and BNP Paribas in France and does not charge fees to use those affiliated ATMs.

In general, search for a bank with the lowest transaction fees and ATM fees.  And if you have to decide between a 3% transaction fee or a $2 ATM withdrawal fee, save yourself some money and – as long as you can do so safely – pay with cash. 

Avoid at all costs
For all the savings already listed, students will save the most if they remember to say one thing when opening their bank account: opt-out.

Under new federal guidelines, banks must allow customers to opt-out of overdraft protection.

Overdraft protection is a service that costs customers about $40 each time they become overdrawn, or spend more money than they actually have in their checking account. By opting out of overdraft protection, you won’t just save on overdraft fees, you’ll learn to manage your money and only spend what you actually have in your account.

NCL calls on the FDA to investigate misleading labeling on David Sunflower Seed products – National Consumers League

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July 28, 2011

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

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League (NCL) today sent a letter to Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D. Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), calling on her agency to review the misleading nutrition facts labeling of David Sunflower Seed products, manufactured by ConAgra Foods, Inc.

“The David Sunflower Seed nutrition panel is terribly misleading,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “The sodium listed is for the kernels only – not for the whole seed. But the back of the package instructs consumers to put the whole seed in their mouth, and in the process, they consume far more sodium than indicated on the panel.”

The fine print on the package, tucked below the list of ingredients, makes clear that when calculating the salt content of both the seed and the shell, the sodium count rises 833% to 1260mg of sodium per serving. A 5.25-ounce bag has 2.5 servings. Consuming a single 5.25 bag would mean a sodium intake of 3,150 mg. Current dietary guidelines recommend that healthy adults should consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Thus, consuming a single 5.25-ounce bag of sunflower seeds would put one’s sodium intake at 850 mg over the recommended daily amounts.

NCL’s letter asks the agency to require the company to indicate a far higher content than is currently listed for sodium and to do so in the place where consumers expect to find it.

“These David Sunflower seeds, when consumed in the way the package recommends, are loaded with sodium. Excessive sodium intake is a leading cause of hypertension or high blood pressure. Hypertension, in turn, greatly increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in the United States.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two out of three (66%) adults in the United States are at especially high risk for health problems from too much sodium – three groups in particular are at risk: those over 40 years old, African Americans and those with high blood pressure. CDC recommends eating less sodium as a means of preventing, lowering or controlling blood pressure.

“With so many Americans suffering from hypertension or pre-hypertension, we need clear and accurate labeling of products so consumers can make healthy choices. We call on the FDA to require that David Sunflower Seed packages indicate clearly – in the place where consumers expect to find it – the sodium content in the seeds and not simply in the kernel.”

Click here to view NCL’s letter to the FDA.

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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

Heading off to college? Banking 101 Part I – National Consumers League

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By Alex Schneider, NCL LifeSmarts and Public Policy Intern

For high school students heading off to college, there’s a lot to think about.  There’ll be new friends, new classes, and for many, a new place to call home.

Researching what bank to choose probably won’t be high on the list of priorities.  But when you consider all the expenses that build up throughout college, not to mention the difficulty of securing even a minimum wage job in this economy, every penny counts. Taking some time to consider your options could save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Ask about fees
The rumors are true: free student checking accounts still exist.  Don’t even think of walking into a bank unless they have a free student account.  It doesn’t matter how conveniently located the bank is or how many lollipops they have in the lobby, it just is not cost effective for students to pay banking fees when so many other banks offer free student accounts.

When opening that free account, remember to ask about the basics so you won’t be caught with hidden fees: What is the cost of out-of-network ATM withdrawals?  How much does it cost to order checks? Are there any minimum balance requirements?  Is a debit card free with the account?  Are you required to have a savings account, too? Are there other costs associated with the checking account?

When it comes to fees, weigh the positives and negatives.  Purchasing 100 checks for $4 isn’t a big deal, but a monthly $8 fee – which amounts to $96 a year and $384 for four years of school –  can be a considerable, easily avoided expense.

Think local
Most students entering college will find they already have a bank account. The best way to ensure easy access to your money, however, is to open a new account with a local branch near your school.  You’ll have free access to local ATMs and you’ll be able to cash checks more easily. If you try using an Anytown Bank debit card at the ATM on college, you might face fees of upwards of $4 per transaction, half paid to Anytown Bank, half paid to the local bank. Avoid the fees and open a new account.  As a bonus, finding a new local bank will get you off campus to see and learn more about the neighborhood around your school.

Open a credit card
The literature on credit cards is lengthy, but the basic benefits are clear: if you open a student card with no annual fee, you’ll build up your credit history while benefiting from purchase protections offered by credit card companies.  If you know you won’t be able to pay your bills on time, however, don’t open the card.  Graduating college with a poor credit history is the worst financial mistake a student can make.

Stay tuned for the next blog post on college banking later this week!

NCL denounces H.R. 2587 which would eliminate key worker protections, legalize retaliation against workers for exercising their rights – National Consumers League

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July 26, 2011

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

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League’s Sally Greenberg issued the following statement denouncing the introduction of H.R. 2587, ‘Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act’ which would allow companies to eliminate or outsource work in violation of workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act:

The National Consumers League (NCL), which has been protecting and promoting social and economic justice for workers and consumers in the United States and abroad for 112 years, opposes H.R. 2587, ‘Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act’.

H.R. 2587 would remove the only meaningful remedy available to workers if a company illegally moves operations or eliminates work because workers engaged in protected activities such as organizing a union. An employer can outsource for any reason, except for an unlawful reason. Retaliating against workers for exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act is one unlawful reason.

The National Labor Relations Board plays a historic and invaluable role as the body mandated to interpret our nation’s labor laws.  H.R. 2587 would strip away a critical tool in the board’s mandated to safeguard employees’ rights to organize, and to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by employers and unions.

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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.

National Consumers League hails the launch of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; first ever agency to provide consumers with protections in financial transactions – National Consumers League

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July 25, 2011

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

Washington, D.C.— Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act one year ago. This was a sweeping financial reform law designed to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system.  On July 21, 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created through the Dodd Frank Act, opened its doors.

This is the first federal agency solely devoted to fighting for the financial protections of average Americans. CFPB has already stood up for consumers by fighting to make lending terms clearer and advocating for commonsense disclosures that plainly detail fees and penalties.

“The tricks and traps in mortgages, credit card agreements, cell phone contracts and so many other documents consumers must sign to get goods and services will now be subject to scrutiny from an outside consumer protection agency,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL’s Executive Director. Greenberg continued, “Predatory mortgage lending was central to the housing crisis and the hardest hit consumers were lower income and communities of color. As consumer advocates, we welcome the oversight that CFPB will provide over products and services that can help families secure financial stability.”

NCL strongly backs the nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the agency, however members of Congress made it clear they would not support her nomination. Today NCL supports the newly nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the agency. Cordray has a reputation as a spirited advocate for families, and in the past has taken on deceptive mortgage servicing practices that were robbing people of their homes. In the process, he also recaptured $2 billion dollars for retirees.

“NCL decries efforts to block Cordray’s nomination or dilute CFPB’s authority by handing decision-making power to a commission. This will only harm American consumers and hinder the ability of CPFB to deliver relief to so many families,” said Sally Greenberg.

“CFPB must not fall victim to politics. We need a strong CFPB to enforce our nation’s consumer protection laws and help put consumers on a level playing field with banks and other financial institutions,” Greenberg noted.

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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.

We should have listened to Sheila Bair – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The New York Times Magazine recently ran a profile of outgoing Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair. Its written by a business columnist whom I’ve come to revere – Joe Nocera. I blogged a while back about Nocera’s wistful interview with a heroic banking CEO who believes that his industry has become greedy and exclusively interested in making money by engaging in transactions for fees, and not by ending money.

In this piece, Nocera talks about why Bair played a heroic role in the finance world over her five-year term. “Alone among the regulators… the FDIC began to home in on subprime lending. By 2006 the subprime industry was running amok, making loans – many of them fraudulent – to just about anyone with a pulse. Most subprime loans had adjustable interest rates, which started low but then jumped significantly after a few years, making the monthly payments unaffordable for many homeowners. The lenders didn’t care because they sold the loans to Wall Street, which bundled them into mortgage-backed bonds and resold them to investors.”

I don’t think I’ve read such a clearly stated, short, and concise description of what caused the collapse of our financial system. Nocera makes all the critical points in the span of a few sentences:

a) none of the regulators but FDIC were paying attention to subprime loans

b) there was fraud involved in many subprime loans – for eg, paperwork altered to make the buyer appear to have a higher salary and take out a bigger loan

c) the adjustable interest rates that kicked up high after a year or two and made the mortgages unaffordable

d) no one had skin in the game – or cared that the loan couldn’t be paid back – because the risk-riddled mortgages were sold to Wall Street almost as soon as the loan was issued

But Sheila Bair and her staff at FDIC knew and they tried to blow the whistle. They called industry players together, pushing them to raise their standards. They wouldn’t do it. She opposed new rules that that allowed reduced capital requirements to cushion against losses. She lost that battle. Bair tried in a number of ways to stem the tide of subprime loans.

Sheila Bair has always stood out to me as a lone voice for strong oversight and regulation of the markets. You cannot live in capitalist economy without strong regulation. Bair maintained her standards and never tired of raising her concerns, even though she often lost her battles. Her term expired on July 8 and she is moving on. With her departure, we lose a highly skilled, outspoken and principled public servant; had we listened to her from the beginning, we might have avoided the terrible economic calamity of the last three years.