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

/in imported/by

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

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

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

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

Just Born

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

Jelly Belly’s Candy Company

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

Necco (New England Confectionery Company)

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

Ghiradelli Chocolates

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

Gimbals Fine Candies

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

Hershey Products

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

See’s (all)

American Licorice

  • Black & Red Vines
  • Strawberry Ropes

Sconza Candies

  • Jawbreakers
  • Chocolate Covered Cherries
  • Chocolate

Nestle

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

Pearson’s Candy Co.

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

Anabelles Candy Company

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

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

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

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

/in imported/by

By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety & Nutrition Fellow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/in imported/by

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

Following ‘pink slime’ hysteria? – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

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

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

/in imported/by

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

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

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

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

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

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

Health care in America on trial this week – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

This is a very big week for health care in America. The constitutionality of Affordable Care Act is being argued in the Supreme Court. This landmark legislation that provides near universal health care in America after many decades of failed attempts – and that groups like NCL have been working for throughout our history- is in hot dispute. Despite the fact that the United States remains the only Western country that doesn’t provide universal health care for its citizens, this one issue has generated more noise – on the right in particular – than practically anything else.

This highly unusual argument is going to be spread over three days. Tuesday the court will hear from proponents and opponents on the individual mandate’s constitutionality.

The law’s opponents include 26 states that are arguing that Congress has no power under the Constitution to order people to buy anything-and that if the law stands, Congress will have sweeping new authority to dictate our behavior. Also on the table is whether – if the individual mandate is struck, and I hope it isn’t because the law really doesn’t work without it – whether the rest of the law falls down.

One lower court has ruled that individual mandate is unconstitutional, but several others said it could remain. The thing is, the public wants people to be covered even if they have a pre-existing condition and parents want their kids covered til 26, especially since many young people don’t have jobs. Both are guarantees in the ACA.

The Court will also review requirements that poor people be covered by the states, and imposes new requirements on the states to ensure that this coverage is available. I agree with those who believe that this case may be the most important set of rulings since FDR’s New Deal legislation was challenged at the Supreme Court.

Florence Kelley, NCL’s first leader, was stymied in many of her initiatives – minimum wage, maximum hours and child labor laws when the Court struck such laws she worked so hard to get enacted. (though she – and Justice Brandeis won the right for women to be covered by maximum hours laws in Muller v. Oregon) But ultimately, justice won out and all are laws and protections we cherish today. I can only hope that the Affordable Healthcare Act withstands the challenges and survives intact.

But if we lose this round, and I don’t think we will, I expect that justice will ultimately win out and Americans will enjoy universal health care at long last.

NCL urges AG Holder to do more to protect consumers from fraud – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

By John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

Earlier this month Executive Director Sally Greenberg and I, along with representatives from several national consumer groups, met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.  The meetings, part of the task force’s Consumer Protection Summit, were an opportunity for NCL to discuss emerging fraud trends and recommend solutions to the country’s highest law enforcement officer.

Greenberg called on Attorney General Holder and the members of the task force to do more to protect consumers from fraud on a number of fronts.

First, she urged the task force to bring Internet scammers to justice, particularly those fraudsters operating overseas.  NCL’s Fraud Center staff routinely hears from fraud victims who are as frustrated by international fraudsters’ seeming immunity from justice as they are by the crime itself.  Greenberg called on the task force to publicize high-profile extraditions and prosecutions of overseas scam artists to serve as a warning to those who would victimize American consumers.

Second, Greenberg called for revisiting consumer education initiatives to measure the effectiveness of different strategies for getting consumers to change their behavior.  Too often, she said, there appears to be a diminishing return on the consumer education dollar and rarely do consumer protection agencies have good visibility into what works and what doesn’t.  She urged the task force to consider making more government-owned complaint data available to the general public so that emerging fraud trends can be identified earlier.

Finally, she highlighted the frustration that advocates feel at the seeming ubiquity of advertisements for dubious or outright fraudulent products and services on television and radio. She called on the task force to work with broadcasters and cable channels to ensure that they are doing their due diligence when vetting potential advertisers so as to keep fraudulent ads off the airwaves.

President Obama created the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force in the wake of the 2008-09 financial crisis.  Its goal is to bring financial scammers to justice, get restitution for victims and address financial discrimination on Wall Street.  More than two-dozen federal law enforcement agencies participate in the task force.  The task force maintains a website at StopFraud.gov with news on recent law enforcement actions, tips on avoiding scams and information for victims of financial fraud.

Considering raw milk? This might spoil it for you – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

A recent outbreak of foodborne illness caused by raw milk has made headlines lately, sickening at least 80, and drawing more attention to a pretty controversial issue.

Raw milk advocates claim it has increased health benefits that commercially pasteurized milk doesn’t. Here’s one raw milk enthusiast’s blog. But experts like those at the FDA say not so fast. With all the rhetoric surrounding the topic, it can be difficult for consumers to get a straight answer about raw milk. NCL has recently published a Q and A for consumers considering switching to what fans call “real milk.” Check it out.

Business lobby seeking the repeal or end of anti-wage theft laws – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

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

Incredible! The old adage “one step forward, two steps back” may soon apply to the groundbreaking New York Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2010 and the Miami-Dade County (Florida) Wage Theft Ordinance. These laws were designed to give workers stronger protections against employers who commit wage theft violations, usually in the form of unpaid wages.

New York

In the New York legislature, some state Republican senators are calling the Wage Theft Prevention Act “a burdensome, costly mandate on every employer in the state” and a “misguided job-killing regulation”. Unfortunately, these same state senators have been able to pass their bill, repealing the law, in the State Senate and are working to have the State Assembly pass a similar bill. The component that state senators seem to have the biggest problem with is the requirement that employers provide employees annually with a written notice on their wages in the primary language of the employee. How is a written notice that explains a person’s wages, in their primary language, be a job killer? The National Consumers League urges the New York Assembly to recognize this thinly veiled attempt by business groups such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Business Council to repeal a law that protects workers from an illegal action used by employers to help pad their bottom line and not support this GOP-sponsored bill.

Florida

In the Florida legislature, the Florida Retail Federation has joined forces with some state Republican House Members to pass a bill prohibiting all local governments from passing anti-wage theft ordinances. The bill is aimed at stopping counties and cities from following the lead of Miami-Dade County, which passed an ordinance in 2010 protecting workers from wage theft and set up procedures for workers to recover their unpaid wages.

Since the implementation of the anti-wage theft ordinance, the Miami-Dade County Small Business agency has recovered nearly $400,000 in unpaid wages for 313 workers who unlawfully had their wages withheld from them. According to the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy, the US Department of Labor recovered just under $16 million for more than 24,000 workers in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Broward, Palm Beach, and Orange counties. With all the rampant wage theft violations, especially in Florida’s key industries of tourism, retail trades, and construction, why would state legislators seek to prohibit the strengthening of protections for its workers?

In both states the business lobby seeks an end to the crack down on wage theft violations and the strengthening of worker protections. Do they care more about their bottom line than their employees? The answer seems clear.

Want to make $2 an hour? Neither do tipped workers – National Consumers League

/in imported/by

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

You think your pay is low? You should check out the federal minimum wage for tipped workers – $2.13 an hour.

While nearly all of the non-agricultural jobs in the U.S. must pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, tipped workers (servers, bartenders, bussers, etc.) make the federal minimum wage of $2.13 an hour – frozen since 1991 due to the strong-arm tactics of the restaurant industry tapping down the calls for change. Employers are allowed by law to pay $2.13 an hour to tipped employees as long as tips make up the difference between $2.13 and $7.25, however surveys and interviews with workers indicate that employers frequently ignore this requirement – a clear example of wage theft.

Now you may think – ‘That’s low but okay since most tipped workers are teenagers looking for pocket-money.’  That’s not true – the restaurant industry employs 10 million workers in one of the largest and fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy. It offers some of the country’s lowest paying jobs, with little to no access to benefits and career advancement.

A report, Tipped Over the Edge: Gender Inequality in the Restaurant Industry by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), paints the disturbing picture of gender exploitation and abuses throughout an industry that is set to make record profits, even in this current economy. Women make up nearly two-thirds of workers in tipped occupations and are more than 71 percent of wait staff – the largest group of tipped workers. According to Terry O’Neill, President of the National Organization for Women Foundation, the gender wage gap is stark: women servers are paid only 68 percent of what men in the same job are paid ($17,000 vs. $25,000 annually) and African-American women are paid only 60 percent of what their male counterparts are paid. The poverty rate for women, in tipped occupations, is nearly three times the poverty rate for all workers. According to ROC United, ‘servers rely on food stamps at nearly double the rate of the general population’ – meaning, after serving customers food all day they can’t afford to eat.

Is there any light at the end of this long tunnel and what can we do about it? There maybe some light, Congresswoman Donna Edwards has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, the WAGES Act (H.S. 631), which seeks to raise the federal minimum wage for all tipped employees. Unfortunately, she only has 27 co-sponsors, to date, and with the powerful restaurant industry – mostly run by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) – it will be an uphill battle.

For more information on the federal tipped minimum wage please check out ROC United, National Women’s Law Center, and the National Employment Law Project.