July 3, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC— The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, applauds New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for launching an investigation into retail giants that use prepaid cards to pay their employees. Among the businesses being investigated are Walmart, McDonalds, Home Depot, and Walgreens. The investigation will examine the three ways in which these companies pay their employees: paper check, direct deposit, and prepaid cards. Under New York state law, employees must give their consent to be paid by payroll cards and acceptance of this form of payment cannot be a condition of employment.

Recent reports have shown that there are many additional fees associated with the use of such cards, including withdrawal fees, replacement fees, inactivity fees, and a fee for requesting a paper statement. According to the Federal Reserve, the prepaid card is the fastest growing non-cash method of payment. Banks are eager to partner with businesses that use these prepaid cards because of the fees associated with them.

“This is outrageous. Most of these employees are not paid a livable wage; the last thing they need is the additional burden of onerous fees further reducing their already meager wages. NCL encourages Attorneys General in other states to follow Mr. Schneiderman’s lead,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. 

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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.

June 27, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC–Today the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization praised the Senate for its vote on landmark immigration reform legislation (S.744). The following statement can be attributed to National Consumers League Executive Director Sally Greenberg:

“Today the Senate took a crucial first step towards ensuring the security of our borders and offering a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. The Board of Directors of the National Consumers League supports a principled, comprehensive immigration reform that treats all immigrants with respect and dignity, no matter their legal status in the United States.

“Earlier this year, NCL passed for the first time in its 114-year history a Board policy calling for comprehensive immigration reform that reflects both the League’s history and legacy–reform that supports workers and consumers, our interest and values as Americans, and is consistent with our nation’s commitment to fairness and equality.”

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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.

June 21, 2013

Contact: Ben Klein, NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League, America’s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, today expressed great disappointment that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has delayed yet again a Congressional order to improve standards in automotive rear visibility; this is the fourth time in two years such a delay has been announced. The Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, signed into law in 2008, included a rear visibility rule mandating auto improvements that would allow drivers to more easily see small children directly behind their vehicle. The rule was originally set to take effect on February 28, 2011, but the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a lobbying group for the auto industry, has successfully worked to delay implementation.

“I am extremely dismayed the Department of Transportation has yet again failed to institute a rule that would save hundreds of young children’s lives and prevent innumerable devastating injuries,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “The Auto Alliance cannot dispute the fact that four children die every week after being backed over because a driver could not see a small child in their blind spot. For more than two years, while this rule has been delayed time and again, hundreds of innocent children have been the victims.”

According to a KidsandCars.org report, 50 children are backed over by vehicles every week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates nearly 300 deaths a year and more than 18,000 injuries annually are a result of back-over crashes. NCL strongly urges the DOT to act to implement this rule and stop delaying this common sense, life-saving safety measure. 

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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.

June 17, 2013 

Contact: Reid Maki, (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The Child Labor Coalition (CLC) applauds Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) for introducing the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), H.R. 2342, on World Day Against Child Labor, June 12^th. The legislation would close loopholes that permit children in agriculture to work for wages when they are only age 12 or 13–and sometimes even younger. The bill would also limit hazardous work on farms by workers under the age of 18.

“Agriculture is the only industry governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they spend in the fields outside of the school day,” Rep. Roybal-Allard said in a press release this week. “We need this legislation because we know that agriculture is one of this country’s most dangerous occupations.”

“Children working for wages on farms are exposed to many hazards—farm machinery, heat stroke, and pesticides among them—and they perform back-breaking labor that no child should have to experience,” said CLC co-chair Sally Greenberg, the executive director of the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy organization that has worked to eliminate abusive child labor since its founding in 1899. “Child farmworkers deserve the same protections that all other American kids enjoy. We applaud Rep. Roybal-Allard’s leadership in introducing CARE.”

AFT Secretary-Treasurer and CLC Co-Chair Lorretta Johnson added that child labor and migration have a profound impact on the education of child farmworkers. “Fifty percent of children who regularly work on farms will not graduate from high school. That is unacceptable,” said Johnson. “Until all children, regardless of where they are born, have the same opportunity to receive an education, we will continue advocating and fighting on their behalf. 

“In the U.S., approximately 400,000 children are picking the very fruits and vegetables we eat today for low pay and with few protections,” said Norma Flores López, Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) and Chair of the CLC Domestic Issues Committee. “Through the protections offered by the CARE Act, we will ensure that farmworker children can break the cycle of poverty by providing them with healthy, happy childhoods.”

“For too long, children laboring in U.S. agriculture have been denied the protections they deserve to ensure their health and well-being. Too often, kids working on commercial farms are subjected to dangerous, unhealthy, work that’s detrimental to their education and far too often results in harm or even death. The CARE Act would address this problem and give children working on farms the same protections as children working in other industries,” said Bruce Lesley, president of the First Focus Campaign for Children, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization.

Passage of CARE is a priority of the CLC, whose membership includes many groups that work to protect child farmworkers in the U.S., including AFOP, Farmworker Justice, Human Rights Watch, Migrant Legal Action Program, the National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education, and the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association. The CLC, founded in 1989, has 28 organizational members, including several of America’s largest unions.

In addition to raising the minimum age at which children could work in the field, CARE would establish minimum fines and raise them for employers who violate agricultural child labor laws when those violations lead to serious injury, illness, or death of minors. The legislation would also strengthen regulations that protect minors from pesticide exposure.

The children of farm owners, working on their parents’ farms, will continue to be exempted from US child labor law even if the CARE Act is enacted.

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About the Child Labor Coalition

The Child Labor Coalition is comprised of 28 organizations, representing consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups. It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the American Federation of Teachers. Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad. For more information, please call CLC Coordinator Reid Maki at (202) 207-2820 [reidm@nclnet.org].

June 11, 2013 

Contact: NCL Communications, Ben Klein, (202) 835-3323, benk@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League, the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, has been notified by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) of the availability of grant funds to support its Script Your Future campaign. The multi-year groundbreaking national campaign (www.ScriptYourFuture.org) aims to raise awareness among consumers, family caregivers, and health care professionals about the importance of medication adherence. Nearly three out of four Americans do not take their medication as directed; one out of three people never fill their prescriptions. Poor medication adherence results in 125,000 deaths per year. Improving adherence could save $290 billion in unnecessary health care costs.

The recent Federal Register announcement that the FDA has committed to support the continued efforts of Script Your Future is welcome news to the campaign’s 130 Committed Partners, including health care professionals, pharmacies, patient groups, insurers, governmental agencies, and researchers. The grant will assist in the development of new online resources, provide additional support for counseling and consumer education, and increase awareness and understanding of medication adherence.

“We are excited that the FDA has recognized the Script Your Future campaign as a leader in taking on the nation’s medication adherence problem,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “Improving medication adherence among patients is a multi-stakeholder effort. Just as it takes a dedicated team of engaged patients, health care professionals, family caregivers, and support systems to improve adherence, Script Your Future’s ongoing success has been due in part to the support and collaboration by stakeholder organizations throughout the public and private sectors. We look forward to continuing to work with FDA on this campaign.”

Since Script Your Future’s national launch in May 2011, dozens of new partners have joined, and the campaign has generated hundreds of millions of impressions. Strong local coalitions in six cities nationwide have conducted community outreach and stimulated innovate and creative approaches for health care professionals to use as they encourage their patients to take their medications as directed. “The FDA’s support is further evidence,” Greenberg added, “of the seriousness of the adherence problem and of the importance of Script Your Future in addressing it successfully.”

On July 10, 2013, Script Your Future will hold its annual meeting of the Committed Partners in Washington, DC. United States Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin and Dr. Janet Woodcock, Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA will speak at the meeting.

To learn more about Script Your Future or to inquire about becoming a Committed Partner, contact Rebecca Burkholder at rebeccab@nclnet.org.

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About Script Your Future

Script Your Future is a campaign of the National Consumers League (NCL), a private, non-profit membership organization founded in 1899. NCL’s mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad.For more information about the Script Your Future campaign, visit www.ScriptYourFuture.org. For more information on NCL, please visit www.nclnet.org.