TicketDisaster.org coalition corrects reports on DOJ action on Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger – National Consumers League

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January 6, 2010

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

Washington, DC–In response to recent reports suggesting the imminent approval of the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger, the public interest and live event industry members of the TicketDisaster.org coalition released the following statement to correct the record and give further reason why the merger should be blocked.

“This is just the latest attempt by Ticketmaster and Live Nation to convince the public and the Department of Justice to ‘just trust us.’ Anyone who has been ripped off by their outrageous fees and inferior service knows that Ticketmaster does not have consumers’ best interests in mind,” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League, a founding member of the TicketDisaster.org coalition. “Thousands of consumers, fifty Members of Congress, and a broad and growing coalition of public interest groups and live event industry representatives oppose this merger as an attempt by one behemoth to snap up its only significant rival in the ticketing market and extend its market power into every level of the live event industry. DOJ should block this merger outright, and we have every hope that they will do so.”

“The reports that the merger will be approved, like the premature reports of Mark Twain’s death, are inaccurate and flawed, and are clearly timed to impact the shareholder vote on Friday,” said David Balto, former Federal Trade Commission policy director and counsel to the consumer and industry groups. “Ticketmaster may wish that the competitive problems from this merger can be solved through a piecemeal divestiture, but they are wrong. It is not unusual for merging firms to try to rescue a stranded deal with some type of last-minute remedy, but history has shown that consumers are better off when the antitrust cops reject those desperate pleas and protect the interests of a fair and competitive market.”

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About TicketDisaster.org

TicketDisaster.org is a coalition of public interest groups, ticket brokers, and independent venue owners and promoters united in opposition to the proposed Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. Coalition members include the American Antitrust Institute, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, I.M.P. Productions Chairman Seth Hurwitz (representing independent venue owners), the National Association of Ticket Brokers, the National Consumers League and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG).

Help us Protect Farmworker Children! Help Us Pass the CARE Act! – National Consumers League

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By Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition

2010 has begun with positive momentum building for the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), legislation that aims to protect the sons and daughters of migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Support for CARE, which is a priority of the National Consumers League (NCL) and the *Child Labor Coalition (CLC), which NCL co-chairs, grew rapidly in December. During the month, the number of members of Congress who have agreed to be co-sponsors of the legislation quadrupled. The legislation is now endorsed by 64 members of Congress as well as 30 national groups!

CARE would fix exemptions in U.S. child labor law—dating back to 1939 and the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act—that allow large numbers of kids to work for wages in U.S. agriculture at ages 12 and 13. Our belief is that although it’s okay for kids to work on their parents’ farms, children working for wages in agriculture should be subject to the same child labor laws as all other working children in the United States. Agriculture is consistently ranked by the U.S. government as *one of the most dangerous workplaces. Does it make sense to allow young children to work in an industry known to be dangerous?

In November, ABC’s Nightline found several children under the age of 10 working for blueberry farmers in Michigan. In 2008, staff from our campaign partner, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, conducted investigative visits to blueberry fields in North Carolina and found numerous children under 10 working. There are so many exemptions to current law that it’s often hard to tell if young children are working legally or illegally.

Often the sons and daughters of impoverished migrant and seasonal farmworkers, the children, who work mostly as hand harvesters of fruit and vegetables, pay a heavy price for their work. In addition to suffering health consequences from exposure to pesticides and dangerous farm machinery, these farmworker youth experience drop-out rates that are truly frightening: More than half of these kids do not graduate from high school! The work is often exhausting. Long hours in the hot sun after getting up at 3 or 4 a.m. are combined with constant bending over. Is it ethical to allow these kids to suffer so much so that we can enjoy lower-cost fruits and vegetables? Why should these children work under different protections than other children? It’s well known that child labor reduces wages for adult workers. Wouldn’t it be better to restrict this work to adults and pay them a living wage?

Please consider contacting your member of Congress and telling them that you would like them to cosponsor HR 3564, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment—CARE. The legislation has been endorsed by both of America’s largest teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, a co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition. The AFL-CIO, *Change to Win, the Teamsters, and the Communications Workers of America have each endorsed it. The United Farm Workers of America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee—the country’s two largest farmworker unions—have endorsed it. Farmworker Justice, the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, the National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education, and the National Farmworker Ministry have also announced their support for CARE. Human Rights Watch, Interfaith Worker Justice, and the International Labor Rights Forum—groups that monitor human and worker rights abuses—have endorsed it as well. Please help us pass the CARE Act.

If you would like more information about the CARE Act or the Children in the Fields Campaign or would like to receive updates about CARE, email Reid Maki at reidm@nclnet.org.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

Narrow New Year’s Day Escape from Blank TV Screens – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Talk about “brinksmanship.” This past week we saw an extreme example when Time Warner Cable and Fox almost failed to come to an agreement for recarriage of Fox content on the Time Warner Cable network. Had the parties not met the December 31st deadline—as Fox was demanding greater compensation from Time Warner for its New Year’s football and other programming, and Time Warner was asking that the parties go to binding arbitration—starting immediately with New Year’s Day programming, millions of Time Warner Cable customers would have lost access to the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Orange Bowl, as well as NFL playoff games.

Prior to last year’s digital transition, many consumers were able to put up rabbit ear antennas to receive programming. Senator John Kerry, as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communication, Technology, and the Internet, took the lead in calling for a resolution of the standoff. Senator Kerry said last week, “We do not want consumers waking up on the first day of the New Year wanting to watch football and instead finding that they have to take a trip to the electronics store to purchase a digital receiver in the hope that they receive a clear over the air signal.”

Senator Kerry, who has been a good friend to consumers throughout his tenure in the Senate, made this statement: “I have sought to place the interests of consumers at the center of our work. If both parties conclude that the best alternative to a negotiated agreement is to have screens go dark for consumers, then they will have neglected the core interests of the millions of households that subscribe to Time Warner Cable in affected markets. As leaders of major companies that are FCC licensees and are obligated to serve the public interest, I hope and expect that you will resolve this matter consistent with those obligations.” Well, Senator Kerry got his New Year’s wish. His staff also reached out to the National Consumers League and we issued a statement of support on New Year’s eve, as did others, including Public Knowledge and the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC.

A consumer guide to dietary supplements – National Consumers League

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Dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, herbs and other botanicals, and amino acids, are used by a growing number of people in the United States. They’re available at drug stores, specialty stores, even gas stations! Some of these products have a long history as traditional remedies, especially many herbal and botanical products, but others, such as amino acids and enzymes are fairly new to the marketplace.

Dietary supplements have gained mainstream popularity and are sold in major grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, and specialty shops, as well as through direct sales representatives, catalogs, and on the Internet.

NCL’s brochure, A Consumer Guide to Dietary Supplements, is intended to give you a better understanding of what dietary supplements are, the claims manufacturers can make about the products, and the information listed on the product labels. It also includes a glossary of commonly used terms, a list of questions to ask yourself and your health professional, and a resource section for additional information.

Foodborne illness making millions of Americans sick – National Consumers League

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Foodborne illness causes 76 million Americans to fall sick, 325,000 Americans to be hospitalized, and 5,000 Americans to die each year. Recent foodborne illness outbreaks linked to contaminated foods highlight the inadequacies of our current food safety system. Learn what groups like NCL are doing to help improve the safety of our foods.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, foodborne illness causes 76 million Americans to fall sick, 325,000 Americans to be hospitalized, and 5,000 Americans to die each year. Recent foodborne illness outbreaks linked to contaminated peanuts, cookie dough, and spinach – along with news coverage of illness and death from contaminated ground beef – highlight the inadequacies of our current food safety system.

Outdated laws, insufficient authorities, and inadequate resources prevent the Food and Drug Administration from ensuring the safety of the food supply. For these reasons, the National Consumers League supports food safety reform and is doing its part as a member of the Make Our Food Safe Coalition (www.makeourfoodsafe.org) to convince Congress to enact improved food safety legislation this year.

Student Loan System in Need of Reform – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

One thing that gets me really hot under the collar is that we’ve allowed so many banks, for-profit colleges, and other companies to make money from loaning students—at very high rates of interest—the tuition to attend college or graduate school. This should be an entirely government-run or nonprofit business in which no one is enriched in the process. There’s a place for making profits—ideally honest profits—in the United States. But student loans shouldn’t be one of them.

Today there are millions of students facing mountainous debts—some close to $100,000—after completing their undergrad and graduate educations. These debts govern what jobs students can take, and prevents too many community minded young people from entering public or government service because those jobs just don’t pay enough to pay off the crippling student loans. In other cases, students have been ripped off by schools that are phantom institutions, many for-profit entities that are more interested in the money they can make from student loans than in educating students.

Arne Duncan, President Obama’s Secretary of Education, writes about this issue in the Wall Street Journal recently. Duncan points out that the current system works to indemnify bank loans to students. If students don’t pay back their debts, the United States government covers the banks’ loss. Meantime banks charge the students high interest rates without taking on any risk.

But things have changed. The National Consumers League is part of a coalition of groups backing the inclusion of all private student loans under the jurisdiction of a new agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. This will allow these private loans to be reviewed for how well they protect student interests. Sadly, at a number of for-profit colleges, attended disproportionately by African American and Latino students, 42 percent of students took out private loans at high interest rates. Corinthian Colleges has told investors that it plans to make $130 million in loans to its students even though it expects 56-58 percent of these borrowers to default. Other for-profit colleges offer high interest open-end credit to their students. You get the picture.

On the federal government end, Education Secretary Duncan has announced that all student loans will come through the existing federal Direct Loan program. The federal government will save $87 billion annually by not backstopping bank lending to students. As Duncan points out, “We cannot in good conscience let $87 billion in subsidies go to banks when our students desperately need financial help to realize the dream of getting a college education.” We agree with Secretary Duncan: after many years, finally federal policy is focusing the attention on students, not on helping banks or companies make profits on the backs of students.

Times Warner Cable, Fox carriage dispute – National Consumers League

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December 31, 2009

Contact: Carol McKay, National Consumers League (412) 408-3688 or carolm@nclnet.org 

Washington, DC–In response to the carriage dispute between Times Warner Cable and Fox, the National Consumers League’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg has issued the following statement:

We support Senator Kerry’s effort to keep 4 million households, many of them minority households in California, New York, and Texas, from becoming collateral damage in the TWC-FOX carriage dispute. It is not necessary for screens to go blank for the parties to reach an agreement, nor should it be. We urge the parties to uphold their public interest obligations and keep signals on the air as negotiations continue.

For more information, contact Sally Greenberg at (202) 835-3323.

Don’t waste your money – or risk your health – on counterfeit drugs – National Consumers League

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When shopping around for prescription medications, watch out for fakes! You could throw your money away on drugs that don’t work, or — even worse — get sick by taking counterfeits that aren’t what they pretend to be.

  • Counterfeit drugs may not have the same active ingredients as the real thing. They may also be produced in unsanitary conditions. Counterfeits could actually make you MORE ill.
  • Only buy prescription drugs from safe, reputable sources. Check unfamiliar sellers with your state board of pharmacy or the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP). Go to www.nabp.net, click on “Who We Are,” then “Boards of Pharmacy” for a list, or call 847- 391-4406. When buying online, look for Web sites displaying the NABP’s VIPPS seal, indicating that the pharmacy meets state and federal requirements.
  • Don’t be fooled by the packaging. Know the size, shape, color, taste, and side effects of the drugs you take, and examine new packages to make sure everything is right. If you notice anything different about the packaging or the actual medicine, alert the pharmacist and your doctor immediately.
  • Also report your suspicions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If you bought the drug by mail, telephone, or in person, contact the FDA Medwatch program, 800-332-1088. To report counterfeit drugs purchased on the Internet, use the form at www.fda.gov/oc/buyonline/buyonlineform.htm or call the Medwatch number.
  • For more information from the National Consumers League about counterfeit drugs, visit Fraud.org.

Child Labor Coalition Celebrating 20 Years of Advocacy – National Consumers League

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Since its beginning, the National Consumers League (NCL) has cared deeply about the conditions under which consumer products are produced. In the early 1900s, NCL helped pass landmark state and federal laws that protected children from the ravages  of child labor.

In 1989, in NCL’s 90th year, it helped launch the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) to ameliorate the worst forms of child labor and to protect teen workers from health and safety hazards. This fall, the CLC, co-chaired today by NCL and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), marks its 20th anniversary, still going strong. The Coalition brings together 22 groups, including several of America’s largest labor unions, committed to reducing exploitative child labor and child trafficking.

“The CLC’s unique mission is what has made it successful for two decades,” said NCL’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg, who serves as co-chair of the CLC. “By bringing together both domestic and internationally-focused groups, our collective voice carries significant weight and attracts some of the nation’s leading human rights organizations.”

The idea for a coalition of nonprofits, unions, and other advocacy groups to fight child labor emerged rather suddenly in 1989. Several Washington, DC groups had participated in a Capitol Hill child labor forum organized by Bill Goold, a Congressional aide. The energizing forum prompted attendees including NCL’s then-President Linda Golodner and Pharis Harvey, the executive director of what was then called the International Labor Rights Fund (now the International Labor Rights Forum), who immediately saw a need for a collaborative approach to end child labor. A coalition of such groups, they believed, could leverage the resources of its members and speak with a stronger voice than each individual could alone.

Bill Treanor, the founder of the American Youth Work Center, along with Harvey and Golodner, became the original three chairs of the coalition. The AFL-CIO provided $10,000 in seed money, and the CLC was born. Attempts to fund the Coalition over the years have been difficult, noted Golodner, a co-chair of the coalition for 18 years. “It was hard then, and it’s hard today,” she explained, adding that for the most part, the foundation world has turned a “blind eye” to the child labor issue.

Over the last two decades, the CLC has enjoyed a number of successes. Coalition members wrote a model state child labor law that several states used in part. The CLC also worked to eliminate “timed delivery” within the fast food industry, successfully ending Domino Pizza’s 30-Minute Guaranteed Delivery, preventing driver deaths and injuries.

The CLC has hosted child labor forums and meetings, providing an opportunity for nonprofit advocacy groups and the federal officials charged with reducing child labor to coordinate their work and learn from one another. In its 20 years, the CLC has also issued a number of major reports, on such issues as trafficking, to draw the public’s attention toward the child labor issue and guide policy.

The CLC helped organize Global March Against Child Labor activities in North America, bringing much attention to the issue. Fifteen years ago, the CLC helped launch RugMark, the innovative, highly successful child-labor-free certification program for handmade carpets in South Asia.

“We became the voice for child labor advocacy from the United States,” said Darlene Adkins, a former NCL Vice President and the CLC Coordinator for 17 years. “In the early years, our focus internationally was on the consumer: ‘We don’t want products coming into the U.S. made by child labor.’ As the years went by, we got more involved in the global discussion of child labor—‘let’s end child labor globally…let’s make sure children have access to free basic education’.”

In 1999, NCL and the CLC joined the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs to launch the “Children in the Fields” Campaign to reduce child labor among migrant and seasonal farmworker children, who work long hours in the fields legally through exemptions in U.S. child labor law. Today, that campaign has several fulltime staff people; farmworker advocates are optimistic that a legislative remedy will  be passed under the new Administration.

In many industries, it takes the bright light of public scrutiny to bring about action on a problem like child labor. The CLC focuses that light. “The League has been one of the central voices for child labor for 110 years, and that is significant,” added Adkins. “It’s been a core, central part of our mission since the League was established. We are one of just a handful of groups that have had that concern, and I think that’s remarkable.”

In September 2008, Sally Greenberg testified in the United States House of Representatives on behalf of the CLC, urging the Department of Labor to greatly expand its number of child labor investigators. When Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis took office this year, adding labor inspectors was one of the first things she did. To learn more about the ongoing work of the CLC, visit www.stopchildlabor.org.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside – National Consumers League

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By Emily Walters, NCL Health Policy Intern

Happy Winter! My name is Emily Walters, and I am a Health Policy intern at NCL, assisting with our medication adherence campaign and on other health policy issues.  I have my B.S. in Journalism from West Virginia University and my M.A. in Health Administration from the University of Kentucky; before NCL, I worked in a wide range of fields outside of the non-profit world, including public works, government, hospitals and hospice.  I look forward to blogging about important consumer health issues, including tips to get through the winter season safe and healthy.

Here in the DC area, and throughout much of the United States, the temperatures are dropping and we recently had a record-setting snowfall.

It’s important to be prepared and to *stay warm and healthy throughout the season.  We at the Savvy Consumer blog thought we’d share some tips to keep you and your family, as well as your home and car, warm this winter.

There are many simple steps to take to ensure you and your family stay warm, healthy and safe.  These include:

  • wear a hat and cover your hands to help contain your body heat and ensure good circulation
  • dress as if it is 10-15 degrees warmer if you exercise *outside so that you won’t overheat
  • check babies often to prevent *overheating – feel their chest or the back of their neck to make sure their temperature is comfortable and normal.  Watch their behavior and note anything unusual and remember babies can’t tell you when they’re too hot.
  • use caution on icy surfaces – wear shoes with good traction and sprinkle cat litter or sand on problem areas

The CDC has tips on how to keep your home and car safe and warm during extreme winter weather.

Staying warm is essential to keeping your body healthy and your energy levels high throughout the season.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.