May 24, 2011

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC – As the academic year is winding down for teens across the country, many are in search of that elusive summer job. The nation’s oldest consumer organization is warning teens this summer that doing a little homework might save teens from a painful injury down the road: every day in the United States, about 400 teens are hurt on the job; every two weeks, a teen is killed at work.

In a new report on teen worker safety released this week, the Five Most Dangerous Jobs for Teens 2011, the National Consumers League (NCL) is alerting teen job seekers to specific jobs that are the most dangerous for youth workers and provides practical advice for teens and their parents about staying safe on the job.

“Job competition may lead working teens who are desperate for work to seek jobs that are unsafe,” said Reid Maki, NCL’s Director for Social Responsibility and Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition. Since 2000, the percentage of working teens has fallen 40 percent—in part because the federal government has cut back on funding for youth programs and in part because of the global economic recession.

“Job dangers are not always obvious,” said Maki. “When a teen takes a job with a landscaping crew, he doesn’t necessarily realize that the mechanical woodchipper he is working with could kill him or that the metal pole he lifts could hit an electrical wire and cause a deadly electrocution. Teens also get hurt on jobs that seem safe—like retail service positions—where lifting injuries and falls occur or workplace violence can be an issue. We want parents to talk to their kids about possible work dangers and empower them to ask their supervisors questions about their safety at work.”

NCL’s five most dangerous jobs for working youth in 2011 are:

• Agriculture: Harvesting Crops and Using Machinery

• Construction and Height Work

• Traveling Youth Sales Crews

• Outside Helper: Landscaping, Grounds Keeping and Lawn Service

• Driver/Operator: Forklifts, Tractors, and ATV’s

Advocates say teen and parents taking caution about workplace dangers is more vital than ever, as some states are alarmingly trending towards a reversal of protections for workers and specifically working teens. A measure in Maine would allow teens to work longer hours each week and work till 11 p.m. on a school night instead of the current 10 p.m., increasing the risk of becoming a victim of workplace violence or of being injured in vehicular accidents. One survey of teen workers cited in the report found that more 10 percent of teenagers had been physically assaulted on the job, and another 10 percent said they had felt sexually harassed.

“This is especially critical now because some states are trying to roll back protections for working teens,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director and co-chair of the NCL-coordinated Child Labor Coalition. “Missouri’s and Maine’s legislature are both considering bills that would seriously weaken child labor protections. The Missouri state budget recently eliminated child labor investigators.”

“Each year, the National Consumers League issues our Five Most Dangerous Jobs for Teens report to remind teens and their parents to choose summer jobs wisely,” said Greenberg. “We want teens to have a safe and productive work experience. We want teens to consider the safety of each job and to ask employers for safety devices and safety training. Even the best intentioned employers and federal child labor laws do not always protect young workers from dangerous tasks.”

NCL compiles the Five Most Dangerous Jobs for Teens each year using statistics and reports from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NCL also monitors reports from state labor officials and news accounts of injuries and deaths.

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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.

May 11, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—Today the National Consumers League (NCL) launches a new public education campaign, Script Your Future, to raise awareness among patients about the consequences of not taking medication as directed. Three out of four Americans are non-adherent, meaning that they fail to take prescribed medicines as directed by their health care professionals.

“There are many different reasons why people don’t take their medicine as directed, from concerns about side effects to the out-of-pocket costs of prescriptions. But the consequences for patients are the same. Non-adherence puts patients, especially those with chronic conditions, at risk for serious complications,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of NCL, the nation’s oldest consumer group.

The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, helped kick off the campaign at The George Washington University Hospital, calling America’s medication adherence problem a public health concern, significant enough to warrant the widespread interest of health care stakeholders that resulted in the launch of Script Your Future.

Medication adherence is part of the Surgeon General’s Prevention Focus. “Our national challenge is to prevent poor health outcomes and to become a healthy and fit nation. One way is for the health care community and patients to come together to address the serious issue of medication non-adherence,” said Dr. Benjamin. “As a family physician, I know that conversations between clinicians and their patients are key to patients understanding why taking their medication correctly is so important, particularly in chronic health conditions such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure. The tools offered through NCL’s Script Your Future campaign empower patients to talk with their health care teams about their medication questions and concerns.”

The centerpiece of the first-of-its-kind, multi-year campaign is a website, www.ScriptYourFuture.org, which provides tools to support patient efforts to adhere to their prescribed medicine. Tools include free text message reminders, 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. A companion campaign site with adherence tools for health care professionals, www.ScriptYourFuture.org/HCP, was launched in March.

Script Your Future is supported by a coalition of nearly 100 public and private partners and sponsors, 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 campaign was informed by research outlined in a new briefing paper, “Medication Adherence: Making the Case for Increased Awareness,” co-authored by Hayden B. Bosworth at Duke University Medical Center, and the National Consumers League. Bosworth is a research partner in the national effort and is based in Durham, N.C., one of six regional city markets where the campaign will pilot campaign activities, research and advertising. The other regional markets are Baltimore, Md.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Providence, R.I.; and Sacramento, Calif.

The briefing paper defines medication adherence and reviews specific research on the problems that occur with non-adherence; the growing focus on the issue by both the U.S. and global health communities; and the qualitative research commissioned by the National Consumers League that informed the Script Your Future campaign.

“Poor medication adherence is costing Americans their good health, and is costing our nation an estimated $290 billion each year in avoidable healthcare costs,” said Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE, chairman of the Board of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation. “Improved adherence will contribute to lower overall health care costs and increased quality of life. Script Your Future focuses national attention on this issue and helps pharmacists and other health care professionals support consumers in taking their medications as prescribed.”

Throughout the next three years, the campaign will provide materials through partnerships with pharmacies, hospitals, medical offices and clinics, and health insurance plans; host community events and health fairs; and evaluate medication adherence awareness through research.

To learn more about the campaign, view campaign advertising and materials, and the briefing paper, “Medication Adherence: Making the Case for Increased Awareness,” please go to www.ScriptYourFuture.org.

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About Script Your Future and NCL

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 www.ScriptYourFuture.org, and for more information on our other areas of focus, please visit www.nclnet.org.

April 28, 2011

Contact: 202-835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League is greatly disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday in the case of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. Both consumers and workers are frequently subject to mandatory arbitration clauses in the fine print of contracts they are often required to sign in order to get a job or buy goods or services. These clauses are ubiquitous. Yesterday’s unfortunate 5-4 Supreme Court decision, which included a strong dissent by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Ginsburg and Kagan, will allow companies to drastically curtail the fundamental right of consumers or workers to bring a class action when there is evidence of fraud, discrimination or other illegal practices.

Now, whenever a consumer or worker signs a contract to get a cell phone, open a bank account or take a job, they may can be forced to give up the right to hold companies accountable for a wide variety of illegal conduct.

Class actions are an essential tool used to vindicate the rights of workers and consumers, hold corporations accountable and balance the scales of justice. Brown v. Board of Education was a class action.

The National Consumers League does not believe that that the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 – a law that was intended to facilitate private arbitration between parties of equal bargaining power – was intended to serve as a shield against corporate accountability.

The National Consumers League will continue to oppose forced arbitration. Forced arbitration acts as a private system of justice – and too often injustice – and is largely controlled by corporate entities, whose goal is to block average citizens’ access to one of nation’s greatest democratic institutions: an impartial judicial system.

After yesterday’s very disappointing decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, we call upon those members of Congress who stand with consumers and workers to take up legislation ending forced arbitration in consumer and employment contracts.

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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.

April 14, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC–Labels for Del Monte Seafood Cocktail Sauce, Contadina Pizza Sauce, Classico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce, and other tomato sauces, spaghetti sauces, and purees deceptively claim they are “Made from California Vine-ripened Tomatoes,” contain “Select 100% California Tomatoes,” or use “only the finest tomatoes” when, in fact, they are reconstituted from industrial tomato concentrate.

In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Consumers League (NCL) urged the agency to warn the food industry that claims implying that products are made from fresh ingredients when they are actually made from concentrate are deceptive under federal law. NCL also reiterated its 2009 request that FDA require that all fruit and vegetable products remanufactured from concentrate state “From Concentrate” on the fronts of food packages.

Since NCL’s previous complaint to the FDA, the largest producer of tomato sauces, ConAgra Foods, has taken some corrective steps. The company’s Hunt’s brand removed the claim “Packed full of premium vine-ripened tomatoes” from its tomato sauce label, and the words “packed in season” were removed from the company’s Angela Mia Pizza Sauce label. Other misleading claims, however, remain. NCL has written ConAgra saying the company has “taken a step in the right direction” and urged further corrective actions.

“Consumers are paying premium prices for products that imply they are made from fresh ingredients, but are really remanufactured from concentrate,” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of NCL.

Products that NCL believes are still deceptively labeled include:

• Del Monte Seafood Cocktail Sauce that claims “Made from California Vine-ripened Tomatoes” on the front of the package when, in fact, it is made from concentrate (tomato paste and added water). An image of a vine-ripened tomato appears directly below the claim.

• Classico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce that states on the label “In colorful Naples, pasta sauces are pure and simple, with ripe, red tomatoes…” when the product is actually made from concentrate. The claim has been deleted from new “value size” 44 oz jars of the sauce, but still appears on the label of the smaller, 24-oz. product.

• Contadina Pizza Sauce and Contadina Puree that state “Contadina picks the Freshest Tomatoes,” and “Our vine-ripened Roma style tomatoes are grown to a rich red color before picking…” (a picture on the front label depicts vine-ripened tomatoes and a tomato field and the term “ROMA STYLE TOMATOES” appears on the front of the package below the Contadina brand name). The products, in fact, are made from concentrate.

Other products with misleading labels identified by NCL are Francesco Rinaldi Original Traditional Pasta Sauce and Gia Russa Tomato Puree.

“Companies making misleading claims should note that ConAgra, the industry leader, has changed some of its labels to ensure that their claims are honest and fair. We hope this sends a signal to other companies that taking corrective action is the smart thing to do given recent increases in regulatory scrutiny by federal and state authorities,” said Greenberg.

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About the National Consumers League

Founded in 1899, the National Consumers League is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Its mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org

April 1, 2011

Contact: NCL Communications, (202) 835-3323, media@nclnet.org

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League (NCL), the organization that helped write and enact the first child labor laws in states around the country a century ago is calling for an end to the “open season on young workers.” The League, which was formed in 1899 and co-chairs the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) in Washington DC, is crying foul in reaction to legislation in both Maine and Missouri to unravel hard-fought child labor protections.

“The Maine legislature is moving quickly to gut labor protections for youth workers and the Missouri House has just approved a new budget that would terminate ALL of the state’s investigators who look into child labor and minimum wage complaints,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director and Co-chair of the CLC. “In 2010, those investigators discovered more than $450,000 violations of child labor laws in Missouri and recovered more than $700,000 for workers from minimum and prevailing wage violations. So these investigators are extremely important for enforcing the law.”

In Missouri this February, Senate Republican Jane Cunningham introduced a bill, SB 222, that would eliminate the prohibition on employment of children under age 14.

“Labor crusader Florence Kelley would be rolling over in her grave,” said NCL’s Greenberg. “This is a new low. There are important historical reasons for the enactment of these basic protections for our young workers. And when they are enforced, these laws do the job, which is to punish those who hire underage workers or pay them a low wage or ask them to do dangerous jobs. These laws work but they must be enforced. Without the threat of investigations into violations of the law, there will be flagrant violations and young workers run the risk of suffering injury or even death on the job.”

The Missouri legislation:

• removes the restrictions on the maxium number of hours and time of day during which a child may work;

• repeals the requirement that a child ages 14 or 15 obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed;

• allows children under 16 to work in any capacity in a motel, resort, or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished; and,

• removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

“And now comes word that the new Missouri budget has eliminated all the investigators who look into child labor and minimum wage complaints,” said Reid Maki, coordinator of the CLC and NCL’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Fair Labor Standards. “This is madness. A state must not abdicate its responsibility to protect children from abusive child labor. This is like expecting people to obey the traffic laws after you’ve announced you won’t be enforcing them.

“Missouri’s Senator Cunningham is portraying these changes as common sense and innocuous amendments to current law, but they are really a full-frontal assault on child labor protections,” said Maki.

The proposed legislation in Maine—now under consideration in the state Senate—would also extend hours for teen workers, allowing them to work 24 hours a week during the school year—instead of the current 20—and allowing them to work till 11:00 p.m. instead of the current 10:00 p.m.

“There is substantial research suggesting that 20 hours is the maximum amount a teenager can work without having negative academic and social impacts at school,” said Maki. “Many teens are already sleep-deprived and this legislation means they would also be at greater risk of late-night driving fatalities and workplace violence.”

A second law under consideration by the Maine legislature would eliminate any cap on the number of hours a 16-year-old may work on a school day. The bill, introduced by Representative David Burns (R – Whiting), would abolish minimum wage protections for high school students under 20 – limiting their income to just $5.25 per hour in the first six months.

“Americans support the bedrock principle that children should not be exploited economically. We need to ensure that our children are treated fairly and allowed to flourish in school. Their future—and our future—depends upon it,” noted Greenberg. “NCL and other organizations fought for decades to achieve the protections that exist today for young workers. We cannot and should not roll back the clock.”

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization; its mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. NCL was led by anti-child labor crusader Florence Kelley, who served as Executive Secretary for 33 years. Kelley drafted and helped to enact many of the child labor laws in the United States. NCL currently co-chairs the 28-member Child Labor Coalition (www.stopchildlabor.org), which works to maintain and improve standards and protections for children working both in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.