Group praises Marlboro move to ban child work under 16 – National Consumers League

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December 17, 2014

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC – In a major step towards eliminating child labor in American tobacco production, the largest tobacco company in the United States announced that it will require its suppliers to prohibit children under 16 years of age from working in their tobacco fields. The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, is praising Altria, the parent company of Phillip Morris USA and makers of Marlboro cigarettes, for taking a leadership role on this important issue. These changes will be implemented in 2015.

“This decision by Altria is a significant step towards protecting American children in our tobacco fields,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of NCL. “The negative health consequences for children working in these fields are well documented. Thousands of children routinely suffer from vomiting, dizziness, and headaches symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning. Other tobacco companies including R.J. Reynolds, America’s second-largest tobacco producer, must follow Altria’s lead.”

“We believe that no one under 18 should work in tobacco fields in the United States or abroad,” said Greenberg. “While we applaud this step forward, Altria has a lot of work to do to ensure that its suppliers enact the policy effectively. We’d love to see a detailed plan from the company on how it hopes to carry out this difficult task.”

Under US law, children as young as 12 can legally work unlimited hours in agriculture if that work does not interfere with school. It is time we close the loopholes that allow these glaring injustices.

The Child Labor Coalition, a group of more than 35 organizations working together to end child labor domestically and abroad, was founded and has been co-chaired by NCL since 1989. 

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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 applauds confirmation of Dr. Murthy as ‘Nation’s Top Doctor’ – National Consumers League

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December 16, 2014

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC – The nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization is lauding the confirmation of Dr. Vivek Murthy as U.S. Surgeon General after a 17-month political battle. On Monday, the Senate voted 51-43 to confirm Murthy to a post that had been vacant since July 2013. The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, works closely with the Surgeon General’s office on a variety of public health policy initiatives.

“Murthy, a great public health champion, is a strong advocate for the Affordable Care Act and, like the majority of Americans, for including reasonable gun policies as part of our nation’s health agenda. This vote was long overdue. Dr. Murthy is a widely respected physician and public health expert who can nobly fill the duties of the office of the Surgeon General. He is a leader, innovator, and entrepreneur in promoting public health,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director. “For more than a year, many in Congress held the Surgeon General post hostage as confirmation votes were continuously delayed. We are pleased to have an ally and highly qualified public health expert occupying post as important as the nation’s top doctor.”

The National Consumers League has worked closely with the Surgeon General on medication adherence through its Script Your Future medication adherence campaign. Then-acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak spoke at the Script Your Future annual meeting in Washington, DC this November.

“Americans are fortunate to have someone of Dr. Murthy’s passion, creativity, and effectiveness in the job as Surgeon General,” said Greenberg. “We look forward to his tenure, to our continued joint work on medication adherence, and to supporting Dr. Murthy’s current and future initiatives as Surgeon General.”

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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.

2015 Data Security Policy Agenda Urges Incoming Congress to Enact Stronger Protections – National Consumers League

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December 9, 2014

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Expert panel examines rising levels of fraud, identity theft and steps policymakers must take to confront the threat

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League (NCL) today released its 2015 data security agenda for policymakers at a Capitol Hill briefing, where a panel of experts discussed actions the 114th Congress should take to improve data security at retailers, financial institutions, and government agencies.

“With the holiday shopping season in full swing after a year of seemingly endless data breaches, consumers are more concerned than ever about criminals stealing and exploiting their personal information,” said John Breyault, NCL’s Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “We want government, and particularly Congress, to address our nation’s data breach epidemic.”

Today’s discussion focused on NCL’s policy agenda, which lays out a series of measures lawmakers and regulators should take to protect consumers. It builds on the recommendations in NCL’s 2013 “State of Identity Theft” report and on innovative research NCL conducted this summer with Javelin Strategy and Research. Both studies found that the consumer impact of data breaches is severe, and that consumers urgently want government to act to protect their personal information from hackers and other criminals.

“Americans are losing confidence in our nation’s data security infrastructure as it fails again and again to protect our personal information,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “Right now, the bad guys have the upper hand. We can win this fight, but it won’t happen without leadership from Washington.”

Panelists at Tuesday’s briefing included Al Pascual, Director of Fraud and Security at Javelin Strategy and Research; Larry Clinton, President and CEO of the Internet Security Alliance; Jared Bomberg, Associate at Hogan Lovells LLP; Justin Brookman, Director of the Consumer Privacy Project and Center for Democracy & Technology; and Sam Simon, Senior Counsel to U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. 

Tuesday’s policy briefing was the latest event in NCL’s #DataInsecurity Project, an ongoing campaign to raise awareness and push for action on data security in light of an historic period of data breach incidents around the globe. The initiative continues tomorrow, December 10th, when the National Consumers League will join cyber security expert and investigative journalist Brian Krebs to discuss his new book, Spam Nation, and the rising occurrence of data breaches. More information can be found here.

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About the NCL #DataInsecurity Project

In 2013, there were 614 data breaches, which led to more than 550 million identities compromised. New data breaches means more identity theft and other fraud, and more consumers facing financial loss, great inconvenience, and a loss of trust in the marketplace. NCL’s #DataInsecurity Project raises awareness about the need for reforms aimed at better protecting consumer data and calls on our policymakers to act now to strengthen cybersecurity standards. 

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.

The time to protect pregnant workers is now – National Consumers League

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Sometimes I really hate what lawyers do to parse the plain language of the law. Last week was a case in point. I attended Supreme Court argument in the case of Peggy Young vs. UPS. Young challenged her treatment as a UPS worker expecting a baby and needing to go on light duty but the company refused to reassign her. The statute in question is the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA). 

As it happens, I worked on getting that bill passed as a Congressional staffer. In 1978, Congress rushed into action to overturn a blatantly absurd finding by the Supreme Court in a case called Gilbert vs. GE where the Court actually said that not making physical accommodation for pregnant women in the workplace while accommodating all sorts of other disabilities wasn’t sex discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act but simply discrimination against pregnant people.

Ahem. Pregnant people are ALWAYS women so in fact the finding in Gilbert is in fact discrimination against women. So why were we back at the Supreme Court again last week 36 years later re-litigating this case?  The PDA is very simple. It says:

To amend Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that section 701 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

“(k) The terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the basis of sex’ include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes, including receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work, and nothing in section 703(h) of this title shall be interpreted to permit otherwise.

In other words, pregnant women should be treated the same for all employment related persons as those with similar in their ability or non ability to work.

Peggy Young simply wanted light duty at UPS late into her pregnancy, as ordered by her doctor. UPS wouldn’t accommodate her. But men with other similar disabilities, including those with DUIs who couldn’t drive a truck, were accommodated. This doesn’t seem like rocket science. But the Supreme Court seemed to think interpreting the PDA was very complicated. What did each word mean and why was it there? As Lyle Denniston of SCOTUS Blog commented on the case: “ The Justices probed deeply into what that section’s words — and punctuation — convey, even to the point of trying to sort out whether a semi-colon made a difference.  There did not appear to be a consensus on the meaning.”  I mean really! There was a great deal of consensus in Congress when the PDA was enacted.

Peggy Young’s plight is not isolated. Appearing before Congress earlier this year, Armanda Legros testified that she was sent home by her manager at an armored truck company, indefinitely and without pay, when she was six and a half months pregnant and had to avoid heavy lifting. She also testified that a co-worker who injured his back on the job was granted the accommodation that she was denied. UPS claims that the comparisons are between those who are injured on the job and those injured outside of the workplace, in which case UPS claims it has no duty to accommodate them and pregnant women fall into that category. 

I can tell you that when Congress enacted the PDA, it was meant to cover exactly Peggy Young’s case – if men at UPS had disabilities that are accommodated, so should Young. I’m told by Supreme Court scholars pregnant women might lose this case. How sad. In fact, UPS has changed their employee practices to ensure that pregnant workers have a right to light duty when needed. But we have to go thru this slow tortuous process to protect pregnant women’s rights nevertheless.

NCL filed an amicus brief in support of Young, joining the ACLU and many other groups. Among the arguments in the brief is that when women are forced to leave the workplace because of pregnancy-related conditions, while other workers with similar limitations are provided light duty, women suffer the very discrimination that Congress sought to eradicate. They lose income, economic security, and benefits, including health insurance, often with devastating results.

I found that listening to the case – I was in the overflow room at the Court reserved for members of the Supreme Court bar –infuriating. Why are we still debating these basic rights for working women. I only hope that the Supreme Court will look at Congressional intent in passing this bill and finally, 36 years later, give Peggy Young and all pregnant women who work the kind of accommodation Congress intended them to have when it passed the PDA. That’s good for women and good for families.

Young Americans are saddled with debt – National Consumers League

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It’s not surprising – but it is worrisome – that  young Americans aren’t saving. The generation under 35, known as millennials, have a savings rate of under 2%. They are burning through their assets and going into debt. The ramifications of this are myriad:No money to move out of parents’ house, no cushion if they want to switch jobs, no money for homeownership, not to mention no money for saving for a 401k or other retirement benefits.

But this has larger implications for our economy. “They are truly a vulnerable group. They don’t have assets to buffer themselves against shocks, and they have to manage debt,” said GWU economist Annamarie Lusardi.

Yes indeed, millennial student debt is a huge drag on these young people. In 1995 borrowers under 35 had a median student debt of $6100; now that number is almost three times that size – $17,200.

It’s no wonder that millennials don’t compare well to Generation X-ers in another category  – the median millennial has a net worth of $10,400; the median Gen-Xers has $18,200 net worth, according to the Federal Reserve.

This is a sleeper issue that is going to wreak havoc on the economy in years to come. We need to support legislation like that introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren to let millennials reduce their student debt and get them out of from under this albatross and allow them to move out from the parents, save for a house and even for retirement. 

FANS Act promises to put brakes on cable bill increases – National Consumers League

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December 4, 2015

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, benk@nclnet.org, (202) 835-3323

Washington, DC – In testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today, the National Consumers League is calling on legislators to adopt pro-consumer legislation that could slow the rising cost of cable and satellite television bills. The FANS Act, sponsored by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would condition professional sports leagues’ antitrust exemptions on agreements to reduce programming blackouts and increase opportunities for fans to access sports over the Internet.

“Fans and non-fans alike are right to be outraged that rising sports programming costs are driving their cable and satellite bills through the roof,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “As the leagues enjoy huge profits, taxpayers are right to question what they receive in return the tax breaks, antitrust exemptions and public subsidies lavished on professional sports teams.”

By placing conditions on sports leagues’ antitrust exemptions, the FANS Act would incentivize sports leagues to ensure that games remain on the air when broadcasters and cable and satellite companies cannot come to agreement on retransmission costs. In addition, the bill would encourage leagues to make games available online in areas where consumers are unable to acquire programming due to teams’ overlapping broadcast territories. Finally, the bill would help put an end to the decades-long policy of blacking out games on local television when they don’t sell out, a goal that has already been endorsed by a unanimous vote at the Federal Communications Commission.

“Consumers are the ultimate supporters of professional sports teams,” said Greenberg. “The FANS Act is an important step in recouping some of the public benefits that the leagues have long enjoyed at taxpayers’ expense.” 

Read Greenberg’s testimony here.

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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.

An early holiday gift from the FDA: menu labeling – National Consumers League

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Ever wonder just how caloric that notorious grande mocha frappuccino is or how many calories are lurking in your Auntie Anne’s cinnamon pretzel? Well those questions just got a lot easier to answer.  Today, the FDA released final menu labeling rules for retail food chains and vending machines with 20 or more locations. Movie theaters, pizza parlors and convenience stores are also covered under these new regulations. While some cities and states already have menu labeling requirements (New York required chain restaurants to start labeling in 2006), the FDA’s rule is nationwide making it a huge win for consumers.

What really made us consumer advocates giddy though was the inclusion of alcohol beverages on restaurant menus, an unexpected and tough measure. Alcohol is the six largest source of calories among Americans, with the average individual consuming a shocking 3.8 percent of all calories from alcohol. The rules also applied to convenience stores and grocery stores for foods that are intended to feed one person. Foods like bread and rotisserie chicken, which constitute as more than a meal, were not included.

The jury is still out on how menu labeling affects total calorie consumption, with some studies showing reduced consumption and others showing no change. What has become very clear is the consumer desire to make calorie amounts more visible. The National Restaurant Association had great foresight in advocating for the federal standard alongside consumer advocates in an effort to avoid varying laws put in place by cities and states.

Labeling calorie counts on menus is a strong consumer education tool. According to the FDA, one third of the calories American’s eat or drink are consumed away from the home. While the long term outcomes of menu labeling are unknown, consumers’ ability to access information that affects their health is the first step in the direction of a healthier America.

Consumers can expect to see the rule take effect a year from now for restaurants and two years for vending machines.  It is likely these rules will continue to face legal and political challenges in some parts of the food industry.

Outrage! End child labor in American tobacco fields – National Consumers League

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They are far too young to legally purchase cigarettes, yet children as young as 7 are being permitted to work in American tobacco fields and to be exposed to acute nicotine poisoning. Momentum is building to ban child labor from U.S. tobacco fields, as news is spreading of this American disgrace. Learn what is being done about this and how you can get involved.

 

For decades, advocates at the National Consumers League (NCL) and the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), which NCL co-chairs, have called for closing the loopholes that allow young children to work in agriculture. Exemptions to U.S. child labor law permit children to work long hours in the fields.

In May, CLC member organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented the dangers in a report, Tobacco’s Hidden Children: Hazardous Child Labor in United States Tobacco Farming, finding that three-quarters of more than 140 child workers in tobacco fields interviewed in several states reported falling ill. Many of their symptoms—nausea, vomiting, appetite loss, headaches, and dizziness—are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, or “Green Tobacco Sickness.”

In July, 53 groups signed onto a CLC letter urging the largest tobacco corporations to take voluntary action to ban children from tobacco fields. Last month, 50 organizations wrote President Obama to urge greater protections for child tobacco workers.

In September, the New York Times profiled child laborers in tobacco fields, exposing the horrific working conditions. Following the story, the Council for Burley Tobacco, an industry group that represents 5,000 tobacco growers, publicly distanced itself from child labor in tobacco fields: “We do not condone the hiring of anyone under the age of 16 for work in tobacco anywhere in the world.”

Congress has responded to advocates’ cries. In July, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) introduced legislation that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to eliminate child labor on tobacco farms. In September, Rep. Matt Cartwright (P-PA) called for regulatory reform that would strengthen the laws that protect these child workers. In the Senate, a 16-member coalition led by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) wrote a letter to the largest tobacco corporations asking them to ban work by minors.

Advocates are hoping the recent media attention will raise awareness about the plight of these working minors and contribute to the momentum needed to enact reforms.

“As a nation, we have turned our backs on some of America’s most vulnerable workers. In tobacco-producing states, children as young as seven years old are facing Third World conditions,” NCL Executive Director and CLC Co-Chair Sally Greenberg wrote in an editorial that appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal. “Toiling in the hot sun, these child workers must don black plastic trash bags with holes poked for their head and arms to avoid contact with tobacco leaves. Without it, their skin absorbs nicotine — a lot of nicotine. On a humid day, when tobacco leaves are dripping with dew, a tobacco worker may be exposed to levels of nicotine equivalent to smoking three dozen cigarettes. Nearly a two-pack-a-day habit.”

For decades, health and child labor advocates have called for reforms to our laws to better protect the children working in American fields across all of agriculture. In 2012, they experienced a devastating setback when the Obama Administration buckled to the agriculture lobby and legislators from tobacco-producing states, withdrawing rules that would have increased protections for child farmworkers. The rules would have specifically banned tobacco work for children under 16.

“So often, we condemn labor abuses on the other side of the world,” said CLC Coordinator Reid Maki. “But we have a national disgrace right here in America. We must hold ourselves to the same or higher standards and no longer turn a blind eye to the scourge that is child labor in American tobacco. We must enact regulations to protect the nation’s most vulnerable workers—our children—from this dangerous work.”

What you can do

HRW has created an online petition calling on companies, urging them to require that growers in their supply chain hire only workers who are 18 years or older to work in hazardous jobs on tobacco farms, including any tasks where they have direct contact with tobacco plants or cured tobacco, and to develop an effective monitoring mechanism that ensures these rules are understood and respected. Get involved! Sign the petition and share it with friends today!

Script Your Future celebrates successful three years of raising medication adherence awareness – National Consumers League

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November 20, 2014

Contact: Ben Klein, National Consumers League, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC— Upon completion of its initial three-year program to raise awareness among patients about the consequences of not taking medication as directed, the Committed Partners of the Script Your Future campaign gathered for their annual meeting yesterday. Three out of four Americans are non-adherent, meaning that they fail to take prescribed medicines as directed by their health care professionals. Coordinated by the National Consumers League and launched in 2011, the innovative, multi-stakeholder effort campaign has educated millions of patients, family caregivers, and health care professionals about the importance of adherence.

At the annual meeting, representatives from the campaign’s 130+ Committed Partners and other supporters gathered to celebrate the program’s accomplishments, examine “Lessons Learned” from years of campaign planning and implementation, hear from our pilot city field organizers, and present the awards for our Medication Adherence Team Challenge to the winning student teams from schools of pharmacy and health professions.

As former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop once said, ‘Drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them.” “The National Consumers League’s Script Your Future campaign gets to the heart of the issue as to why patients fail to take their medications,” said Acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, M.D., M.P.H. “Raising awareness about the importance of medication adherence is a priority for the Office of the Surgeon General.”

“The Script Your Future campaign has made a difference in the collective fight to increase awareness about this serious public health problem and has helped lay the groundwork for a healthier future for patients and our health care system,” said Janet Woodcock, MD, Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration. “The involvement of dozens of organizations, significant grass-roots support in the six pilot cities, and participation by health care professionals of the future through the Adherence Team Challenge has contributed to the success of this campaign.”

At the meeting, Script Your Future organizers presented awards to the winners of the 2014 Medication Adherence Team Challenge, who traveled to the meeting to represent their colleges and universities and receive the national honors. The month-long competition engaged health profession students and faculty in developing creative ideas for raising awareness about medication adherence as a critical public health issue.

This year’s awardees are: Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Touro University California College of Pharmacy, Northeast Ohio Medical University College of Pharmacy, and University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Pharmacy.

In its three years, the Script Your Future campaign has reached 12 million patients, distributed more than a million wallet cards for managing multiple medications, and provided direct counseling to 60,000 Americans.

“We are delighted to see how this campaign has grown over the years, as its messages on the importance of adherence have resonated with both health care professionals and patients,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “Through our Adherence Team Challenge, we are seeing a new generation of health care professionals who appreciate the value of putting the patient at the center of care, and we expect this will yield immeasurable improvements in patient-provider relationships—and ultimately in medication adherence—in the years to come.”

Script Your Future is supported by a coalition of more than 130 public and private partners, including health care professional groups, chronic disease groups, health insurance plans, pharmaceutical companies, business organizations, consumer groups, as well as researchers and government agencies. The Script Your Future pilot cities are Baltimore, Md.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Providence, RI; Raleigh, NC; and Sacramento, Calif.

Since its launch in 2011, the campaign has represented the interests of consumers and patients in providing materials in numerous languages through partnerships with pharmacies, hospitals, medical offices and clinics, and health insurance plans; hosted community events and health fairs across the country; partnered with local officials, and evaluated medication adherence awareness through research. The centerpiece of the first-of-its-kind, multi-year campaign is a website, ScriptYourFuture.org, which provides tools to support patient efforts to adhere to their prescribed medicine. Tools include free text message reminders, videos, sample questions, medication lists and charts to keep track of medicines, and fact sheets on common chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.

To learn more about the campaign, visit ScriptYourFuture.org.

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Script Your Future is a campaign of the National Consumers League (NCL), a private, non-profit membership organization founded in 1899. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. The National Consumers League serves consumers across the country by providing government, businesses and other organizations with the consumer’s perspective on a range of concerns – including health care and medication information. As an advocacy organization, NCL is working to educate consumers and key health stakeholders on the importance of taking medication as directed. For more information about this campaign, visit ScriptYourFuture.org, and for more information on our other areas of focus, please visit www.nclnet.org.

Banks too expensive for many low-income Americans – National Consumers League

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Consumer advocates often lament the number of consumers who are “unbanked.” It’s true that having a bank account is a sign of stability and that having your money attached to a checking account and ATM card can help build credit and promote long term saving. But it appears that banking fees have driven millions of low income customers away; 25 million Americans are unbanked. Another 63 million are under-banked, which means they may have bank accounts but rely on some alternative financial services. These include check cashers, payday lenders, prepaid cards, and lending and saving circles instead of banks. 

I happened to see one of my relative’s Bank of America statements; this relative doesn’t earn much of an income. He opened a bank account with a $100 deposit and three months later there was only $25 left. He hadn’t spent any of money; the $75 went toward a $25 monthly fee to maintain the account. Thank god he didn’t bounce any checks; his account would have been wiped out.

Several years ago the New York Times Magazine, in a story about payday lenders, quoted a low-income customer who used Payday lenders because their fees were predictable. He said he couldn’t trust bank fees because he never knew what they would cost. He closed his bank account after bouncing two checks at $39 a pop.

This week’s New York Times featured an op-ed written by Lisa Servon, a profession of urban politics in New York who worked for a short period at Check Center a payday lender in Berkeley, CA. Her customers found that bank fees had increased 25 percent in one year, that only 39 percent of noninterest bearing checking accounts were free, down from 76 percent in 2009, and the average overdraft fee is $32.74, and low income people bounce checks because they have little or no financial cushion. Some of the payday lenders charge less for a money order than the post office. And Servon points out that bank overdraft charges could amount to 5,000 percent if viewed as a seven day loan. Servon concludes that the problem isn’t the unbanked. It’s the banks that have become too expensive.