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.

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.

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.

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The U.S. House of Representatives *recently passed the most sweeping overhaul of our financial regulatory system, the Wall Street Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act, since the Great Depression. Unfortunately, not a single Republican supported the 223-202 roll call vote. For those of us interested in consumer protection, the centerpiece of the bill is the creation of a federal agency whose job it is to police the financial landscape for systemic risks, begin to oversee the largely unregulated derivatives market, and give shareholders a larger say in the executive compensation. The House bill also sets aside billions to assist unemployed homeowners.

The new agency was the brainchild of Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, who observed that if you buy a toaster, it’s assumed to be safe. As an individual consumer, you’re not expected to detect a defect by reading the 30-page manual; just the same, Warren argued that a financial instrument like a mortgage or car loan can be—and  too often is—filled with tricks and traps that result in consumers being ripped off.

The bill has yet to pass the Senate, but we are encouraged by the House action and believe it’s past time that consumers receive the protection from a federal financial agency, filling a gap that exists today because agencies like the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have fallen down on the job so miserably in the past. This new agency — whose mandate it will be to focus on protecting consumers and the financial markets from dangerous financial products (like certain types of derivatives or subprime home loans that were packaged by the millions and sold to banks with no one concerned about whether the homebuyer could actually pay the mortgage) — will now fulfill this critical role.

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

On Tuesday afternoon, I took the 7-minute stroll over to the White House from our offices in downtown Washington to be part of a group that received “exclusive” nontransferable invitation to the White House to celebrate this festive season and enjoy the White House’s beautiful and diverse rooms and halls filled with holiday decorations. Indeed, during a “Meet the Press” interview in December 2008, President-elect Obama said, “Part of what we want to do is to open up the White House and remind people this is the people’s house.”

Since the election of Mr. Obama last year, he has made good on that pledge. These days, the White House is a very different place—a welcoming place—for those of us in the nonprofit and public interest world. We are not the well-heeled lobbyists who make large campaign contributions and yet, though they may not always take our advice, members of the White House staff have invited us into their offices often to talk and to share our views. The National Consumers League and our consumer and labor colleagues have also been invited to the President’s speeches on mortgage fraud and the overhaul of our financial markets, been a part of bill signings for the credit card and mortgage reform bills. But yesterday was a little different because we weren’t there to work—we were there to enjoy the beauty of the “people’s house.”

Finding colleagues from across the public interest world at this lovely White House gathering, we spent an hour walking through the various rooms in the house—including one filled with portraits of first ladies, another painted a very bright red with beautiful hand carved chairs and tables. White House staff was there greeting us—high level staff including Valerie Jarrett, the president’s close advisor and longtime friend.

The food was delicious – blini, little Russian pancakes, sat next to potato latkes or pancakes, a traditional Hanukkah offering. There was a table with the best egg nog you’ve ever tasted. Of course, when the First Couple finally arrived, I was in the wrong room. A roar went up, and the crowd quickly moved toward the President and Michelle. I didn’t have a prayer of seeing them—I’m far too short—but I did ask the very tallest reveler to take a photo for me, and it’s included here. I caught a few glimpses of the First Couple when some taller visitors took pity on me and brought me up to the cordon where we were all shaking hands. Alas, by then the First Couple were moving toward the door. Nevertheless, I was struck by how much fun the President was having – it seemed remarkable that in the midst of all the many issues he has on his plate, he can lighten up and laugh and enjoy his guests.

Out we went just after 5 pm into the darkening streets of Washington, grateful that consumers, civil rights, environmental, and disability groups have the chance to share this beautiful place with the new President, our public interest colleagues, and the White House staff.