By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

As our financial infrastructure implodes and home foreclosures pile up, the reputation of the Wall Street and the business community has never been worse. What an interesting time, then, for a conference that brings together entrepreneurs and companies who are in business for goals that go far beyond making profit. I recently attended the Social Venture Network’s (SVN) fall gathering in San Diego. The National Consumers League has been a passionate advocate of corporate social responsibility. The League’s President Emeritus, Linda Golodner, sits on the International Standards Organization’s committee that is formulating guidelines for companies who strive to be socially responsible. We at NCL see as part of our mission pushing companies to adopt socially responsible practices – e.g., treating workers fairly, minimizing environmental impacts, giving back to the communities where they do business, abiding by and even exceeding health and safety laws, and making safe products.

SVN has been around since 1987. The founders say that a book by economist and former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, Tales of a New America (1987), inspired  them to bring together business leaders committed to social change and to merging social values with their business goals. Familiar brands like Ben and Jerry’s and the Calvert Social Investment Fund were early SVN backers.

Today SVN’s membership includes hundreds of business who share a dedication to innovative social enterprises. They speak in a language that was new to me – “the triple bottom line– people, planet, profits.

Here are a few of the interesting people I met at SVN:

• Sarah Bratnober from Organic Farms, whose dairy products I’ve bought for years from my local grocery. The company serves small farmers and rural communities by combining two alternative business models—the family farm and the cooperative. Their 1,296 member farmers represent approximately 10 percent of the organic farming community in America.
• Joel Mendelsohn, CEO of New Leaf Paper, started a company that leads the industry in the development and distribution of environmentally superior printing and office papers. New Leaf uses ultra-high post-consumer waste content, chlorine free bleaching, and non-wood fibers, to minimize the environmental impact of consumer and business paper consumption. They got a coveted 2008 Social Capitalist award from Fast Money Magazine
• Adi Bemak, whose media education foundation produces independent films, showed “Consuming Children”  a documentary that shows an avalanche of food, clothing, and toy advertising to children starting at a infancy. The United States is the only industrialized country, apart from New Zealand, to allow corporate advertising aimed at children – and the film documents the violent games and toys marketed to young boys and the sexily-clothed dolls marketed to girls as young as five and six.
• Greg Christian, who calls himself “Chicago’s Conscious Caterer,” specializes in green, local, sustainable, and organic cuisine. Christian also founded the Organic School Project (OSP), a pilot program within Chicago Public Schools that seeks to transform Chicago-area children into healthier, more mindful eaters. He told me he uses only local and organic produce when possible, buys his dairy products from farms in Wisconsin, and purchases meat from farms in the Mid-west that are free of growth hormones. Christian also practices water conservation, offers re-usable living botanical centerpieces, provides invitations printed on recycled paper, uses biodegradable service ware and eco-friendly cleaning supplies and donates un-served foods to local food banks.

Listening to the stories about how these socially-conscious entrepreneurs got started – how they aligned their business goals with making a positive contribution to the community (and, by the way, created thousands of jobs in the process) – was inspiring and very much in line with NCL’s  mission to encourage business to align profits with a social mission. SVN has for years brought together socially-conscious business owners and start-ups.  In the current environment, when the reputation of business has hit rock-bottom, I wish that more of America could see these men and women who think about the “triple bottom line”  The excitement, the commitment, the energy, the ingenuity, and the hard work –  was nothing short of inspiring.

by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

I write from a US Airways flight traveling cross-country from Portland to Philadelphia. At the ticket counter this morning, I was chagrined to be reminded that checking my luggage – one piece – would cost me $15. This is the first time I’ve ever paid to check luggage. Getting out to the West Coast for a conference on Southwest Airlines recently, I didn’t have to pay to ship my bag, and I flew from San Diego to Portland on Alaska Air and didn’t have to pay for the bag then either. Despite my recent varied experiences, the US Airways employees at the checkout counter claimed “every airline” is charging for luggage.

Once on the plane, the flight attendant rolled the cart past with drinks and snacks and headphones, announcing that cans of soda pop would cost $2.00, headphones $5.00, and snacks were available for 5 or 10 bucks.

This conversation followed the pricing announcement:

Me: You guys at US Air are the worst on nickel and diming consumers
Flight Attendant: Don’t say ‘you guys.’ Our union fought management on all these charges.
Me: Who is your union?
Flight Attendant: Communication Workers

My ears perked up. The Communications Workers of America holds a seat on the National Consumers League’s Board of Directors. My curiosity piqued, I made my way to the back of the plane a little later and struck up a conversation with two US Airways employees. Turns out that the employees haven’t had a raise in years. In fact, they tell me they’ve taken a series of pay cuts over the past decade.

Yes, of course, we all know the airline industry has been hit very hard by the increase in fuel prices, but those same prices have fallen significantly in the past several months, and the airlines are still collecting the same fuel surcharges on international flights. USA Today reported on October 28 that, “Despite lower jet fuel prices, fuel charges on international tickets are much higher than a year ago.” Domestic fares – 60 percent – also have fuel surcharges averaging around $170 a flight, though Southwest Airlines doesn’t tack on a fuel surcharge, and USA Today says US Airways has reduced its domestic flight surcharges by 11 percent, noting that the prices still aren’t coming down in proportion to jet fuel prices. All of this has prompted U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to write to 11 airline CEOs, asking them to reduce fuel charges as soon as possible. Industry spokespeople defend the increases, arguing that fuel increases were significant and have been dropping only recently.

Meanwhile, US Airways is also pocketing more cash by demanding that consumers pay to check a single bag of luggage, and (talk about cheapskates!) asking me to pay two bucks for a soda! In 2007, US Airways executive William Douglas Parker raked in $5,444,996 in total compensation, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. While large airlines fuel surcharges are estimated to add $10-20 million a year, neither US Airway employees nor consumers seem to reap the added revenues. If the airlines need to charge more for tickets, do it. But don’t call it a fuel surcharge and double the amount when the cost of fuel is down significant. It is business practices like this – and paying the CEO a 5.5 million-dollar-salary while forcing airline employees to take pay cuts – that make consumers and workers cynical about business.

By Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition Coordinator

In the film “Pretty Woman,” Julia Roberts plays a glamorous prostitute whose life doesn’t seem so bad. But the ugly truth about prostitution is that it’s a very dangerous world to inhabit: violence is common and the health risks are grave. The Julia Roberts character seems more or less in control of her life. In reality—I learned at a Capitol Hill briefing October 21—many of the women who enter prostitution are actually young girls forced into the trade by their unscrupulous handlers.

I remember seeing the film “Taxi Driver” when it came out in 1976 and thinking that the 12-year-old prostitute played by Jodie Foster was too young to be realistic. I was wrong. In fact, the average age of girls getting into this profession today is 12 to 14, according to Rachel Lloyd, the founder and executive director of Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a New York-based group that is working to end the sexual exploitation and trafficking of young women.

These young prostitutes are often runaways from home who meet adults who coerce and manipulate them into selling their bodies. Rapes, beatings, and drugs are used to force the young people—an estimated 20 to 40 percent are boys—into prostitution. Many are vulnerable because they have been sexual assault victims in their own families. “Incest is boot camp for prostitution,” said Lloyd, quoting a phrase often used by advocates. Many young girls are “thrown away” by their families, struggle to survive on the streets, and turn to the sex trade for the income it provides. They find, however, that much of the money they earn goes to a procurer, or “pimp.”

Shaquana Blount, an outreach worker for GEMS, told the 200 or so audience participants that she fell victim to the industry when she was a teen. She recalled being in a car with a customer and waking up in the hospital with no memory of the terrible beating she survived.

Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) spoke about her efforts to stem sex tours to Asia. She recalled sending one New York City tour operator a letter requesting they desist from advertising sex tours only to have the company post her letter on their Web site and ridicule her efforts.

The police and judicial system often treat child prostitutes as criminals, when they are really victims, said Maloney, who has worked tirelessly to pass laws that fight sex trafficking. New York State recently passed legislation that prevents child sex workers under the age of 16 from being prosecuted and offers them help instead. “This is huge. We’re the first state to pass this legislation,” said Maloney. The bill increases the maximum amount of jail time a customer, or “john,” can get from three months to one year.

Governor Eliot Spitzer signed the bill into law—before he was forced to resign from office after a prostitution scandal.

I started this blog with a film reference. Perhaps I should close it with one. Earlier this year, I saw “Holly,” a drama about the trafficking into prostitution of a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl. I read recently that the inspiration for the film came to its writer and producer Guy Jacobson when he was on a business trip to the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh. “I was walking in the street in the middle of the day and found myself surrounded by a group of about 15 little girls, some as young as 5, who were very aggressively soliciting me for prostitution,” he said.

The film’s star, Ron Livingston, finds the moral dilemma presented by the film pretty clear: “To be cynical, if you want to say America stands for something, and we’re trying to make the world a better place and bring freedom and human rights everywhere, why don’t we start with the 12-year-old girls who are being raped in back alleys? Seems like that would be a good thing to fix.”

by Mimi Johnson, Health Policy Associate

Earlier this month, on October 2, hundreds of people interested in child and health policy convened in Beltsville, MD for the Food and Drug Administration’s public hearing on pediatric over-the-counter cough and cold (OTC) medicines.

You may or may not recall this past winter, when the FDA recommended that children under the age of two not use OTC cough and cold products. This hearing was part of the agency’s efforts to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of the products in older populations, chiefly those between the ages of 2 and 6. The panel consisted of eight medical experts from the Centers for Disease Control and FDA, and 30 people testifying – of whom I was one – representing pharmaceutical companies, public interest groups, physicians, and researchers with varying opinions. Prior to the hearing, a list of questions for those testifying to consider were made available.

The Issue

Are OTC cough and cold medications safe for children? According to the experts at the hearing, it is very difficult to study the safety and efficacy of these drugs in children. Children are not able to communicate as well as adults when it comes to symptoms. Parents, and a substantial number of doctors, feel that it’s appropriate to use OTC products to treat the symptoms of coughs and colds (there is no product that actually “cures” a cold). Still others feel that these products are not only ineffective, but also unsafe.

While the question over the safety and efficacy remains, one of the greater issues at hand is what will happen should the kid versions of these products be removed from the market entirely. Many argue that by removing these products, parents and caregivers may turn to the adult versions. Others might turn to non-traditional remedies, many of which are not regulated by the FDA at all. The unintended consequences are of major concern for all those involved in the decision making process.

Some Thoughts

So, what’s a parent to do? Regardless of what is decided by the FDA, everyone – providers, industry, public interest groups, and the government – needs to work together to educate parents, caregivers—and even kids—about the issue.

Nearly everyone agrees that first and foremost, parents and caregivers need to talk to their doctor before giving their child any form of medication or remedy. It is crucial to encourage communication between the provider and the parent, but it is also important to know that some people do not have primary care providers or their providers might be rather inaccessible. Many others might face language barriers that will prevent them from knowing if it is okay to dispense these drugs, how much they can give, what they should be aware of, etc.

Whatever (and whenever) the decision is made, we must remember that the consumer, whether a parent or caregiver, must be informed. We must tell them about the decision – why the FDA acted how it did, what this means for them and their children, and what alternatives they can turn to (which should never be adult formulations).

Post-Hearing

On October 7th, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) released a statement that its members would be making several voluntary changes to the labels of OTC pediatric cough and cold medicines. Through consultation with the FDA, CHPA decided to transition the labeling on these medications to read “do not use in children under four years of age.” They also stressed that antihistamines should not be used to sedate or make a child sleepy.

Their bottom line? Read and follow the label, and contact your doctor should you have any questions.

As we continue to wait for the FDA to weigh in, please check back with us – both via the blog and the health section on our Web site – for updates and resources.