April 24, 2017

Contact: National Consumers League’s Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (724) 799-5392

Pittsburgh, PA–Today in Pittsburgh, the 2017 National LifeSmarts Championship will come to an end with four state champion teams heading to the final matches to vie for the national title. LifeSmarts (LifeSmarts.org) is a national consumer literacy educational program and competitive scholarship opportunity, run by the National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer watchdog organization. LifeSmarts is celebrating its 23^rd season this year, and the 2017 National LifeSmarts Champions will be determined by noon today and crowned at an awards ceremony following the final match.

The four semi-finalists are:

Virginia: George C. Marshall High School, Coach Rebekah Glasbrenner
Michigan: Cranbrook Kingswood School, Coach Kurt Godfryd
Rhode Island: Barrington High School, Coach Samuel Schacter
Pennsylvania: Dallas High School, Coach Kevin West (returning 2016 national champions)

NCL hosts the National Championship each April, during Financial Literacy Month. This year, NCL brought the LifeSmarts National Championship to Pittsburgh. On Friday, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto welcomed 31 state champion teams from as far away as Hawaii and as nearby as the returning champion team from Dallas, PA to the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh to kick off the weekend of activities. On Saturday, the students participated in Earth Day activities, including a discussion of food waste audits and participated in a food recovery action.

The event will come to an end Monday with NCL crowning the 2017 national champion team at 12 noon EDT. The team from George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Virginia, will face off against Cranbrook Kingswood School from Michigan in the first match of the morning. Rhode Island’s Barrington High School and the 2016 champion team from Dallas, Pennsylvania will compete in the second semi-final. 

LifeSmarts is a free, competitive educational and scholarship program, in which teams of students begin competition online. Top-scorers progress to their state competitions, and state champion teams convene each April to compete in the National LifeSmarts Championship. For a complete list of state champions, visit LifeSmarts.org.

The 2017 National LifeSmarts Champion and other winning teams will walk away with prizes and scholarships. In addition to placing as a team, individual students have the opportunity to compete for scholarships for demonstrating knowledge in specific program topic areas. The top eight placing teams and top five individuals are recognized.

NCL thanks the sponsors who make the program possible including McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Western Union, Johnson & Johnson, LifeLock, UL, Comcast, Intuit, Experian, American Express, the International Dairy Foods Association, CARE, the Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU), and the World Wildlife Fund.

Throughout the 2016-2017 program year, more than 100,000 teens competed online for a chance to represent their states at the 2017 National LifeSmarts Championship. Players answered more than 3 million consumer questions in the online competition.

Streaming live online from Pittsburgh today, Monday, April 24

Watch this year’s final and semi-final matches live at LifeSmarts.org!

9 am EDT – Virginia vs. Michigan
9:45 am EDT – Rhode Island vs. Pennsylvania

The final match will begin immediately following the second semi-final match.

Follow the conversation on Instagram and Twitter at #LifeSmarts or Facebook.com/LifeSmarts

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About the National Consumers League and LifeSmarts

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.

LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. For more information, visit: LifeSmarts.org, email lifesmarts@nclnet.org, or call the National Consumers League’s communications department at 202-835-3323.

April 20, 2017

Returning 2016 champs from Dallas, PA will defend national title in Pittsburgh

Mayor Peduto to welcome state champion teams facing off at 23^rd annual national consumer literacy scholarship competition

For immediate release: April 20, 2017
Contact: Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (724) 799-5392

Pittsburgh, PA — In celebration of April’s Financial Literacy Month, the National Consumers League (NCL) has announced the 31 state champion teams that have earned a spot at the 2017 National LifeSmarts Championship, which will take place starting later this month in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mayor William Peduto will officially welcome the state champion teams arriving in Pittsburgh at the event kickoff Friday, April 21 at 5 pm at the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh.

LifeSmarts (LifeSmarts.org) is a national consumer literacy scholarship competition, celebrating its 23^rd season this year, hosted by NCL, the nation’s oldest consumer watchdog organization. The 2017 National LifeSmarts Champion team will be crowned on Monday, April 24.

Complete roster of state champions teams available here

LifeSmarts is a competitive educational program, in which teams of students begin online. Top-scorers progress to state competitions, and then state champion teams meet each April to compete in the National LifeSmarts Championship. This year’s lineup of state champion teams come from as far away as Roosevelt High School from Honolulu, Hawaii, and as near as the Pennsylvania team from Dallas, which returns to the National Championship to defend its title as the 2016 national champs. 

“We are so proud of this year’s state LifeSmarts champions, who have proven themselves to be the best and the brightest of the next generation of consumers,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “LifeSmarts is fun and fast, and the perfect vehicle for educating young consumers. Our program goes in-depth on the issues kids—and adults—are facing now: finances, health care, the environment, and technology.”

The 2017 National LifeSmarts Champion and other winning teams will walk away with prizes and scholarships. In addition to placing as a team, individual students have the opportunity to compete for scholarships by demonstrating knowledge in specific program topic areas. The top eight placing teams and top five individuals are recognized. Additionally, NCL will award scholarships to winning participants from its Safety Smart Ambassador program, conducted in conjunction with Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which offers high school students the opportunity to teach very young students environmental and safety lessons as a community service.

NCL thanks the sponsors who make the program possible including McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Western Union, Johnson & Johnson, LifeLock, UL, Comcast, Intuit, Experian, American Express, the International Dairy Foods Association, CARE, the Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU), and the World Wildlife Fund.

Consumer-savvy teens representing 30 states and the District of Columbia will compete at this year’s national event. Throughout the 2016-2017 program year, more than 100,000 teens competed online for a chance to represent their states at the 2017 National LifeSmarts Championship. Players answered more than 3 million consumer questions in the online competition.

MEDIA AVAILABILITY

Event kickoff featuring Mayor William Peduto

When: Friday, April 21, 2017 at 5 pm
Where: Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh, Allegheny Ballroom (third floor), 1000 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 

Final competition

When:  Monday, April 24, 2017
Where:  Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh Hotel, 1000 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Final and semi-final matches begin:  Monday, April 24, 9 a.m. Eastern Time
Awards Ceremony: 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Follow the competition online

Parents and teachers can follow the action at Facebook.com/LifeSmarts and via Twitter: #LifeSmarts

The semi-final and final competition matches will be streamed live at LifeSmarts.org.

Monday, April 24, 2017 starting at 9 a.m. Eastern Time

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About the National Consumers League and LifeSmarts

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.

LifeSmarts is a program of the National Consumers League. State coordinators run the programs on a volunteer basis. For more information, visit: www.LifeSmarts.org, email LifeSmarts@nclnet.org, or call the National Consumers League’s communications department at 202-835-3323.

April 04, 2017

Media contact: NCL Communications, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s pioneering consumer and labor advocacy organization, has announced its opposition to the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, citing concerning decisions he made as a federal judge that seem to always favor large corporations over the interests of workers and consumers.

“Indeed, Judge Gorsuch has displayed a callousness toward workers and consumers,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. “In one example, Gorsuch supported the firing of a truck driver who was forced to leave his broken down truck in order to avoid freezing to death in subzero weather after calling for help to no avail. In another case, in which an employee was killed by electrocution and the company had not given him full job safety training, OSHA decided the employer failed to properly train its worker, and fined the employer. Judge Gorsuch disagreed with the fine. His argument: that the case was an example of a health-and-safety watchdog agency having too much power.”

On consumer issues, Gorsuch ruled against a patient who was severely injured by a medical implant that was supposed to help her recover from spinal surgery. When the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was concerned that strong, small magnets in products were causing serious injury to kids who swallowed them and created regulations to reduce the risk, Judge Gorsuch sided with the manufacturer of the magnets, ruling that the CPSC could not regulate the products, in spite of the Commission’s evidence that kids were at risk.

Finally, Judge Gorsuch’s opinions have suggested that he fully supports the right of corporations to force employees and consumers who have been harmed into arbitration—through clauses in the “fine print” of lengthy contracts—preventing them from taking their cases to court. Gorsuch wrote that arbitration clauses should be enforced even when the parties don’t agree on the details of the arbitration. “There is significant evidence that arbitration in these situations almost always favors the employer or corporation, because the ordinary safeguards of litigating a case in court are not available,” said Greenberg.

Former President Barack Obama outlined what he believed made a person qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, and NCL agrees that fine academic credentials are not enough.

Obama noted the importance of having Justices with “experience that suggests he or she views the law not only as an intellectual exercise, but also grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people’s lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly changing times.”

“In both his labor and consumer decisions, Judge Neil Gorsuch fails the test of sympathizing with—and protecting the rights of—the average worker and consumer,” said Greenberg. “For these reasons, the National Consumers League opposes the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

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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.

March 24, 2017

Media contact: NCL Communications, Cindy Hoang, cindyh@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League (NCL) is welcoming the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corporation, in which the Court ruled that a bankruptcy settlement that effectively wiped out employee claims against a trucking company while paying off more junior creditors impermissibly sidestepped the U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s creditor priority.

“This is great news for workers,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of NCL, which submitted an amicus brief with the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in the case.

Jevic Transportation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being purchased in a leveraged buyout.

The amicus brief signed by NCL and NELP argued that:

“This case both illustrates and aggravates the pervasive problem of workplace injustices due to unequal bargaining power. Unlike many wage-earners, the nearly 1,800 truck driver employees of Jevic represented by petitioners have been able to sustain this lengthy and expensive litigation because they are well organized and have been well represented, including by pro bono counsel. However, they have still received no relief on their claim for accrued but unpaid wages and benefits more than seven years after they were laid off without notice in violation of state law. The structured dismissal order sanctioned by the Third Circuit has opened a bankruptcy loophole enabling their employer to escape without paying them. This represents an additional opportunity for wage theft – employers failing to pay employees what they have earned, without effective accountability – at a time when, as U.S. Department of Labor and independent studies collected by NELP reflect, wage theft has reached epidemic proportions nationwide. Unless this Court acts to close it, the bankruptcy loophole opened by the decision below is likely to result in many thousands of additional employees being denied what they have earned. Moreover, as with other forms of wage theft, the vast majority of those employees will not have the bargaining power to secure their rights or the resources to bring the problems to the courts’ attention.”

The workers’ priority claims entitle them to receive over $8 million, but collection is conditioned on the estate having those funds and it might not, so this is not a sure thing. Nevertheless, the principle behind the decision is what is critical.

“NCL believes that the Supreme Court has vindicated the claims of these workers,” said Greenberg. “And a 6-2 decision reversing the Third Circuit, with only Justices Alito and Thomas dissenting, sends a clear message that the Court recognizes the rights of employees under the U.S. Bankruptcy Codes.“

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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.

February 27, 2017

Groups release letter to Wells Fargo CEO Sloan, call on Wells Fargo to stop forcing customers and workers to surrender Constitutional rights

Contact: Rosemary Shahan, CARS Foundation, 530-759-9440; Joe Ridout, Consumer Action, 415-777-9648 ext. 705; Carol McKay, National Consumers League, 412-945-3242, carolm@nclnet.org

Washington, DC, Sacramento, CA, San Francisco, CA–In news events across the nation, in Washington, DC, and at Wells Fargo’s headquarters in San Francisco, consumer and activist organizations closed their accounts with Wells Fargo, to protest the bank’s refusal to stop imposing a “rip-off clause” forcing its customers and workers to surrender their constitutional rights, to obtain services or employment.

The organizations also released a letter from a broad-based coalition of groups calling on Wells Fargo’s CEO Sloan to cease forcing its customers and workers to submit to forced arbitration. The bank continues to resist calls from pro-consumer leaders such as Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA),  and the editors of leading newspapers for the bank to free its customers and employees to pursue cases before a court of law, particularly regarding millions of accounts set up without their permission, through identity theft, forgery, and fraud.

“After six years of banking with Wells Fargo, we’re switching to another bank that respects the the constitutional rights of its customers and workers,” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League, based in Washington, DC. The League already established a new account at Bank of Labor, which does not impose forced arbitration, and  is closing its account at Wells Fargo, withdrawing its working capital, of approximately $1.8 million.

The GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump administration are threatening to fire Richard Cordray, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who has a long record of protecting consumers.  Under his leadership, the CFPB has succeeded in forcing  banks to refund over $11.8 billion to consumers who were wronged.

“They want to replace Richard Cordray with someone who will let crooked banks like Wells Fargo get away with charging consumers billions of dollars through engaging in illegal practices. So it’s up to each of us to act, to protect ourselves and also send the message we won’t tolerate crooked bankers,” said Rosemary Shahan, President of the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety  (CARS) Foundation. The group unveiled a new website, at “We DO Count.org” focusing on the campaign to make the switch from Wells Fargo to more consumer-friendly banks or credit unions.

“Wells Fargo opened up a credit card account without my authorization, and it ended up harming my credit and making many purchases, like a car, and even utilities a lot more expensive, for about five years,”  said Aaron Brodie, who was a freshman college student when Wells Fargo opened a credit card account without his permission, then refused to close it, after he requested that it be closed. He has sued Wells Fargo, and instead of doing what is right, Wells Fargo is seeking to force his case into arbitration.

“As long as Wells Fargo requires mandatory arbitration, there is nothing to stop Wells Fargo from violating the privacy rights of its customers and engaging in fraud,” said Byron Cooper, who closed his accounts with Wells Fargo as soon as he discovered the bank had opened two new accounts and shifted $25,000 from his checking account to his savings account — all without his authorization, and despite his insistence he did not want the new accounts. The bank also changed his “free” checking account to one that charged $30 per month and required a minimum balance of $25,000 — also without his permission.

Joe Ridout, Consumer Services Manager for Consumer Action, personally hand-delivered the letter to the bank’s headquarters in San Francisco. Consumer Action also provided tips for consumers about how to find a banking institution or credit union that does not impose forced arbitration on its customers and workers, and also how to make the transition smoothly so that no payments are missed. “We believe many consumers will be pleasantly surprised to discover the higher interest they earn, and the fewer fees and abusive practices they face, once they switch to a more honest financial institution,” said Ridout.

Most credit unions don’t require arbitration. In 2015, the Pew Charitable Trust released a report that provides comparisons of banks, including whether they impose forced arbitration. While some of the policies may have changed, that report provides helpful guidance for choosing options that don’t impose arbitration.

Links to relevant documents:

“Wells Fargo Victims Deserve Their Day In Court,” Sacramento Bee Editorial, December 8, 2016

“Wells Fargo Blocks the Courthouse Door,” Des Moines Register Editorial, December 4, 2016

Consumer Action’s Tips for Consumers: How to Make the Switch from Wells Fargo

“Checks and Balances” by Pew Charitable Trust, May 2015

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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.