Trumpeter Honoree: Barbara Ehrenreich – National Consumers League

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Did you know that Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of more than a dozen books on a variety of social issues, was a chemistry major at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon? The daughter of a miner in Butte, Montana, Barbara got into grad school at Rockefeller University with the intention of studying theoretical physics. She bounced around, switching to molecular biology, and, later, cell biology, which she got her PhD in.

According to an “About Barbara” page written by the author at her Web site, it was the anti-Vietnam war movement that made her realize that she wasn’t made for a life of laboratory work after all. She joined a New York-based nonprofit org, where she got involved in investigative journalism, and the rest is history – an amazing biographical history of Barbara’s transition to author and activist. Today, she is the author of 14 books

Tomorrow night, the National Consumers League will honor Barbara with its highest honor, the Trumpeter Award, for her career of service to consumers and workers. Barbara has lifted the voice of workers’ concerns with years of activism on health care, peace, women’s rights, and economic justice, and we are thrilled to honor her tomorrow night. Her 2001 book, Nickel and Dimed, is an examination of working-class poverty, following her own attempt to live on minimum wage, and it is now required reading at more than 600 colleges and universities.

For those of you who can’t join us, we’ll take pictures! And check back tomorrow to learn more about Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and why we’re honoring him this year as well.

2008 Trumpeter Awards: National Consumers League to honor Ehrenreich, Blumenthal for careers in service – National Consumers League

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September 30, 2008

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

Washington, D.C.—The National Consumers League will honor author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal with its highest honor, the Trumpeter Award, this week on Capitol Hill. The event will bring together a diverse group of representatives of the labor unions, advocates, legislators, organizations, and industries touched by the two advocates’ esteemed careers.

“The Trumpeter Award is NCL’s highest honor, given to leaders who are not afraid to speak out for social justice and for the rights of consumers. No one fits that description better than Barbara Ehrenreich and Richard Blumenthal,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “Their dedication to improving the quality of life for workers and consumers in the United States has earned them this year’s Trumpeter Award.”

The event will feature a reception, dinner, and speaking appearances by the two honorees, as well as:

Hon. Ann Brown, Former Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Chair
Esther Lopez, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Civil Rights and Community Action Director
Jane King, NCL Board of Directors, Chair
Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Event Details

What: National Consumers League’s 2008 Trumpeter Awards Dinner
When: Thursday, October 2, 2008 | 6 p.m. Reception | 7 p.m. Dinner and Presentation of Awards
Where: Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

Questions or to RSVP: Larry Bostian, National Consumers League 202-835-3323

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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.

NCL’s Trumpeter Awards – National Consumers League

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Every year, NCL honors an individual or two who stand out as leaders in the fight for consumers and workers with our Trumpeter Awards. This year, we will proudly honor writer, activist, and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Check back here to learn more about what we think is so great about each of these guys in the coming days.

NCL applauds House Calling Card Consumer Protection Act – National Consumers League

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September 26, 2008

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

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League today issued the following statement regarding the passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of H.R. 3402, the “Calling Card Consumer Protection Act.” The statement is attributable to Sally Greenberg, Executive Director at the National Consumers League:

“We applaud the House for taking action to protect consumers from the deceptive practices of prepaid calling card companies.  While we support federal action in this area, we have concerns related to the bill’s reliance on disclosure—in place of stronger action—to prevent some of the most egregious anti-consumer practices related to these cards.  We are also troubled by the addition of language preempting states from protecting consumers by requiring additional disclosures, particularly given the leading role that many states, including Florida, New York, and Texas, have taken in this area.  We look forward to working with the bipartisan supporters of the Senate version of this bill to craft stronger legislation that protects consumers of these cards.”

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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.

 

NCL welcomes John Breyault, Vice President, Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud – National Consumers League

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September 25, 2008

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

Washington, D.C. — John Breyault, formerly of Amplify Public Affairs (APA) in Washington, DC, has joined the staff of the National Consumers League, where he has been named Vice President, Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. At NCL, Breyault will advocate for stronger consumer protections before Congress and federal agencies and serve as director of NCL’s Fraud Center (www.fraud.org).  Additionally, Breyault will coordinate the Alliance Against Fraud, a coalition convened by NCL of consumer and business organizations, government agencies, and companies that are committed to winning the fight against consumer scams.

The National Consumers League is the nation’s oldest consumer group. In 1992, NCL founded the National Fraud Information Center to fight the growing menace of telemarketing fraud, and in 1996, NCL created the Internet Fraud Watch in order to expand its watchdog activities to cover online scams. Today, NCL’s Fraud Center works with more than 200 law enforcement agencies that subscribe to its Fraud Alert system, and it is the sole consumer organization that engages directly with consumers, law enforcement, and industry to document cases, identify emerging trends, and execute consumer education efforts. In recent years, NCL has led the fight against cons such as fake check scams (fakechecks.org) and has collaborated with government agencies, businesses, and other groups to spread the word to consumers about avoiding these scams and decreasing financial loss.

“We are thrilled to have John join our staff,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “His expertise in and dedication to the issues of telecommunications and consumer fraud and his commitment to advocating on behalf of consumers will benefit NCL.”

“I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to join the National Consumers League in its fight on behalf of consumers,” said Breyault. “The current marketplace is complex, even without the pitfalls posed by predatory scam artists. I am very much looking forward to helping NCL educate—and advocate on behalf of—the consumers who need it most.”

Before joining NCL, Breyault spent five years at APA, where he focused on public policy research for APA’s telecommunications, energy, environmental, and health care clients. He was instrumental in helping launch APA’s Web 2.0-related services, including its blogger relations, online social network, and virtual worlds-based practices. Concurrent with his work at APA, Breyault served as Research Director at the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC), advocating on behalf of residential consumers of wireline, wireless, VoIP, and other IP-enabled communications services.  Prior to joining APA and TRAC, Breyault worked at Sprint in its International Carrier Services Division and at the American Center for Polish Culture in Washington, DC.

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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.

NCL to House Committee: Are we adequately protecting our child workers? No! – National Consumers League

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September 23, 2008

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

WASHINGTON, DC – At a subcommittee hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor, where members gathered to consider this question: “Child Labor Enforcement: Are We Adequately Protecting our Children,” Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League (NCL), issued a resounding “no.” According to Greenberg, who spoke to the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections for NCL, whose history has deep roots in concern for the welfare of child laborers, “much more can and must be done to better protect our young people from the hazards and dangers they confront in the workplace.”

Greenberg cited federal government statistics that reveal a harrowing reality: every 10 days in America, a young person is killed on the job. Every day, more than 100 young workers under the age of 19 are seriously injured or become ill from their work. Greenberg’s testimony focused onthe U.S. Department of Labor’s poor enforcement of the federal child labor laws and recommendations for reforms—both at the department and in legislature to be considered by Congress—to strengthen protections for America’s working children.

“Enforcement of the child labor law is no longer a high priority for DOL,” Greenberg said, citing declines in both the number of investigations and time spent on them by DOL. Further, Greenberg argued, the penalties imposed by DOL aren’t strong enough to deter corporations, especially large companies, from violating child labor law, and agriculture, an industry that employs an estimated half-million minors and poses some of the biggest dangers to working youth, sees disproportionately low enforcement.

Greenberg’s called for increases in DOL investigations and in penalties for violators, updated, tougher regulations, and investigations specifically into two industries: agriculture and meatpacking. Referring to recent investigations into child labor abuses at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, Greenberg urged DOL not to “look the other way,” as abusive employers have been revealed to do. “Given that meat processing plants tend to attract an impoverished, mostly immigrant work force, the possibility that child laborers may be employed in slaughterhouses around the nation should be investigated by U.S. DOL with vigor.”

Read the full statement submitted by NCL’s Greenberg, which contains further recommendations for DOL and legislators, as well as examples of the decline in enforcement.

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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.

Child Labor Enforcement: Are We Adequately Protecting our Children? – National Consumers League

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This morning on Capitol Hill, NCL’s Sally Greenberg and Dave Strauss from the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs will testify before a subcommittee hearing on Workforce Protection on the issue of domestic child labor, including the Department of Labor’s inadequate enforcement of child labor laws and the need for reform of agricultural child labor laws. They’ll be joined by former child field worker Norma Flores, who will tell her story of growing up in a farmworking family in Texas.

If you’re not going to be on Capitol Hill yourself this morning, you can listen to the live Web cast at the committee’s Web site, or you can read Sally Greenberg’s testimony at our site.

Prepaid Calling Cards Under Scrutiny – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Prepaid calling cards—those colorful cards you find at your local convenience store or gas station for $2, $5, $10 that advertise cheap per minute rates for calling countries all over the world—are a $6 billion industry that promises to grow in the years to come. But it turns out that the cheap rates these cards offer—1 or 2 cents a minute to call Nigeria or El Salvador, for example—often fail to deliver the bargain they promise.

Immigrants calling family and friends back home, students, military families, and others who don’t have long distance phone service or a wireless phone often buy these cards because the international rates they offer are cheaper than calling from a pay phone or a home phone. I use these cards to call the friends I made while living in Australia several years ago.

In the last two weeks, I testified on behalf of the National Consumers League before Committees at hearings in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives about new legislation introduced to help curtail the abuses in the prepaid calling card industry:

In the Senate, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, had a hearing chaired by the bill’s author, Senator Bill Nelson of FL and in the House, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce Trade and Consumer Protection, chaired by Rep Bobby Rush democrat from Illinois. The problem with many of these prepaid cards are the myriad charges they impose: connection fees, maintenance fees, hang up fees, taxes and extra charges that the per minute rates—when combined with the fees—end up to be much higher than what is promised on posters advertising these cards. At the hearing in Senate, a blow-up poster of one card’s fees elicited laughter from the audience when Senator Nelson read aloud that off peak rates were offered only when calls were made between “2 am and 4 am” in the morning.”

The House hearing proved interesting because Professor Emeritus Julia Marlowe from the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia discussed her study of calling cards and what they ultimately deliver. (see link above to Committee hearing and her testimony). She and her colleagues tested more than 200 cards. What Professor Marlowe found is that these cards—though they have dizzying numbers of fees and charges—can indeed be a bargain if used wisely. Her study found that if you buy the cheapest card – $2 or $3—and use it all in one call—you get the best bargain for your money. The problem with these cards is that they often diminish in value quickly after the first use (once the many weekly maintenance fees and other charges kick in), so word to the wise for savvy consumers: use as many minutes as you can your first call.

The League supports both the Senate bill—S. 2998, introduced by Senator Nelson of Florida—and its House counterpart, HR 3402, introduced by Congressman Eliot Engel of New York, to require better disclosure of rates and charges and to allow the Federal Trade Commission to carry out more oversight and investigation of the calling card industry. Passage of both bills looks very promising before Congress adjourns in a few weeks—and without much opposition, we may indeed have a new law curbing prepaid calling card abuses before the year’s end. However, NCL also called for review by the FTC in one year if, after the legislation is in force, the stronger disclosure rules aren’t doing enough to curtail the abuses in this industry. It may be appropriate to take further steps to ensure consumers are getting the bargain they paid for in supporting this billion dollar industry.

A Community Reeling: NCL’s Visit to Postville, IA – National Consumers League

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In May, immigration officials raided the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, uncovering health and safety violations and illegal, dangerous employment of minors.

Last month,  NCL sent Reid Maki, our child labor expert, to Postville to observe a community still reeling from the upheaval. Reid observed the community’s reaction to the events through the eyes of the residents: a local radio deejay, a former underage worker at the meat plant, the religious community that’s keeping the affected immigrants afloat.

Read about his visit here.

Happy Birthday, LifeSmarts! – National Consumers League

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Today the National Consumers League is celebrating the start of the 15th program year of LifeSmarts, the Ultimate Consumer Challenge! LifeSmarts is an exciting, hands-on educational competition program, run by NCL, that prepares teens to be the savviest consumers. In LifeSmarts, high school aged students (and now their younger middle school brothers and sisters, too!) gain real-world knowledge about the kinds of consumer issues they’re parents encounter daily: credit cards, banking, and personal finance; the environment, global warming, and energy issues; technology, spam, and email scams; health and safety, nutrition, and medication issues; and consumer rights and responsibilities, voting, the role of government agencies, and more!

LifeSmarts begins online, where teams compete for a chance to go to their state championship and — ultimately — represent their state at the National LifeSmarts Championship. NCL has partners in more than 30 states voluntarily running state programs across the country. This year, we welcome Kevin and Sheila Butts, two certified credit professionals, who have joined us as coordinators of the Michigan LifeSmarts program!

Help us celebrate LifeSmarts’ 15th year by logging on and taking a practice quiz today!