August 14, 2013

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

Washington, DC — The National Consumers League, the nation’s pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization, congratulates members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) who work at Patriot Coal plants in Kentucky and West Virginia for ratifying a settlement the union reached with the company.

“We are gratified for our UMWA brothers and sisters, active workers and retirees alike, that a settlement with the company has been reached. We applaud union members for making it clear that they are willing to do their part to keep Patriot operating, keep their jobs, and ensure that thousands of retirees continue getting the health care they depend on and deserve,” said Sally Greenberg, the League’s Executive Director.

“This agreement will provide a way forward for current mine workers to continue in their jobs, provide for their families, and be strong economic drivers of their local communities. We realize that the current agreement will not provide lifetime health benefits to retired worker, but we are hopeful that Congress will enact legislation that ensures the government’s promises to provide health care to retired miners is kept.”

NCL has long been allied with the cause of American workers and has a close and abiding relationship with the UMWA. In 2012, NCL honored UMWA President Cecil Roberts with the Trumpeter Award, NCL’s highest honor.

In April of this year, NCL joined a protest in St. Louis aimed at Patriot Coal’s bankruptcy that placed in jeopardy the pension and heath care benefits of UMWA retirees. NCL believes that Patriot was set up to fail when it was formed by Peabody with more liabilities than assets in 2007. We stand with our brothers and sisters at the UMWA and will continue to pressure legislators, Peabody, and Arch, to live up to the agreements they made with workers. There’s no harder or more arduous job than going down into the mines for 12 hours a day. The work results in ailments from breathing in coal dust and Black Lung disease to injuries caused by the hard labor involved in mining. It’s only fair that these miners and their families get good lifetime health care and a decent retirement plan.

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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.

August 12, 2013

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

Washington, DC—The National Consumers League joins with our consumer colleagues and all other Americans in celebrating this week the fifth anniversary of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 14, 2008 and was the first major update to the authorizing legislation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the federal safety agency created in 1974.

The Commission came into being after Congress concluded that thousands of injuries annually from consumer products – including those leading to deaths of infants and young children from such diverse products as ingested nonfood items, poisons under the sink and in the medicine cabinet, over the counter drugs, dangerous garage doors, or poorly designed cribs, high chairs, and toys – needed the attention of a federal safety agency.

The CPSC today conducts research, holds hearings, issues safety regulations, and recalls products. And like the CPSC, the CPSIA had the overwhelming support of a bipartisan group of Senators and House members. The reforms include:

CPSIA enabled several significant safety breakthroughs:

• The SaferProducts.gov database;
• Third-party premarket testing for children’s products;
• The reduction of lead in children’s products through lower lead limits;
• Strong mandatory standards for cribs and other infant and toddler products; and
• A mandatory safety standard for children’s toys.

“The reforms put in place by the CSPIA were long sought efforts by consumer advocates: a database for consumers to check safety before buying, a more effective recall system, mandatory testing of infant and toddler products before they hit the market, all of these sometimes seemed like impossible goals. It took a crisis and parents realizing that many children’s toys contained unacceptable levels of lead to get Congress to act.”

“NCL applauds the many consumer groups who worked overtime to get this law over the finish line, and thank the bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives who saw the need for these reforms and supported the bill. Today’s families are far less likely to face the terrible consequences of a toy laced with lead or a poorly designed crib,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL’s Executive Director.

“It’s hard to account for tragic events that don’t happen because of stronger safety standards. One statistic helps prove the point: 50 years ago, about 400 children a year died from unintentional poisoning, mostly from aspirin. Today, about 40 children a year die, still too many, but a 90 percent reduction in deaths that is due directly to CPSC regulations on packaging and child proof caps. And they work. We know that CPSIA reforms will work as well to save lives and prevent injuries. Happy Fifth Anniversary to this important legislation.”

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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.

August 1, 2013

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

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League expresses strong opposition to a bill the House will consider shortly that we believe will undermine critically important consumer protections. The so-called “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (the REINS Act),” “H.R. 367” is an ill-conceived measure that would undercut the ability of federal agencies to protect consumers from unsafe food, predatory financial products and schemes, and dangerous consumer products. The federal rulemaking process is already lengthy and difficult and this bill would only make it even more time-consuming, expensive, and burdensome for federal agencies to propose consumer protection measures. We believe the end result will be harm to American consumers.

The REINS Act requires that any agency that issues a rule with an economic impact of $100 million or more obtain approval from both houses of Congress of the entire rule without changes, within 70 legislative days of the rule’s being received by Congress. If both chambers do not approve the rule within this time frame, it cannot take effect and is tabled until the following congressional session.

This legislation affects all major rules, even the vast majority that are not controversial. With few exceptions, if Congress fails to act in the allotted time, the rule could not be brought up again until the next Congress and would not be implemented. This hurdle would be virtually impossible for important consumer protection rules to overcome.  The bill strips away the authority of federal agencies that Congress created to develop expertise on how to protect American consumers from dangerous products, tainted food and predatory financial products and services. Most agencies will simply give up trying to protect consumers. If an agency were to persist in its efforts, it would face the prospect of squandering enormous resources to research, write and evaluate an important consumer protection rule, only to be stymied by well-funded special interests able to bottle up the proposed rule in a single house of Congress over a short period of time.

In the Dodd-Frank Act, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, and the Food Safety Modernization Act, for example, Congress delegated rulemaking authority to regulatory agencies precisely because that is the purpose and function of these agencies. Congress has a critical role to play in holding hearings and enacting legislation to address national problems. The regulatory agencies have the expertise to then craft and adopt rules in the highly technical areas governed by each bill. If Congress were to now reverse course and put itself into the role of approving all new rules, the result would be regulatory gridlock at great cost to the health and well being of our citizens.

The REINS Act would add a significant impediment to a regulatory process that already is fraught with delays in the implementation of important consumer protections. Further, this bill would give a majority of members of one chamber of Congress the ability to prevent any consumer protection from becoming law even if the rule is not controversial, is supported by the public and is necessary to protect American consumers. This bill hijacks the process for protecting the health and safety of all Americans and must be stopped.  We urge members of the House of Representatives to oppose this unfortunate and ill-conceived legislation.

If adopted, the REINS Acts would waste federal resources, minimize the ability of federal agencies to do their jobs to protect the public and ultimately harm American consumers. We strongly urge you to oppose this bill.

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About the National Consumers League

July 31, 2013

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

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League commends the United States Senate for its votes to confirm five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), ensuring its ability to protect American workers with a fully functioning Board for the first time in a decade. The NLRB is an independent federal agency whose board members are appointed by the President.

The new NLRB Board members are: Mark Pearce (current Chairmen), Kent Hirozawa, Nancy Schiffer, Harry Johnson, and Philip Miscimarra.

The following statement may be attributed to NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg:

The role of the NLRB is to deliver to both private and union employees the right to bargain for a better work life, as granted by the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRB plays a vital role in the safeguarding of employees’ rights to organize and promoting civil and efficient union-management relations and collective bargaining.

For years, a politicized and understaffed NLRB has been on the brink of becoming inoperable and unable to render any decisions. Without the Senate confirmation of members, the cop on the beat would have been forced to abandon its post this August. We are pleased that the Senate was able to come to this overdue action, ending questions of legitimacy for the Board and ensuring its ability to protect workers and employers.

In the current era, in which workers from all sectors have been under attack, protections like those theoretically provided by the NLRA are more critical than ever. Conservative opposition determined to prevent the NLRB from being fully functional and to undermine the federal laws in place to protect workers has finally been overcome by a series of political moves, including the President’s recess appointments and, finally, this Senate confirmation vote. We are pleased at this bipartisan vote, a step forward for the American worker; and we hope it’s a sign of better things to come.

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About the National Consumers League

July 18, 2013

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

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League, the nations pioneering consumer and worker advocacy organization with deep roots in the labor history of this country, praise the Senate’s confirmation of Tom Perez as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Perez has spent many years advocating for America’s working families. 

As Secretary of Labor, Perez will serve the critically important role of overseeing the health and safety of workers through OSHA, encouraging cooperation between unions and management, promoting higher pay for the nation’s low-wage workers, and ensuring sufficient inspectors to monitor child labor practices. NCL recognizes the importance of having a strong presence at the head of the DOL. Previous labor secretaries, Robert Reich and Hilda Solis, were awarded NCL’s top honor, the Trumpeter Award. We fully expect that Perez will continue his work to protect workers’ rights and strive for greater opportunity in the workplace.

“We are very pleased that Tom Perez has been confirmed as head of the DOL,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “Workers around this country can sleep better at night knowing that the Secretary of Labor is in their corner. We look forward to working closely with Mr. Perez to address protecting low-wage workers against wage theft abuses and preventing the exploitation of child labor.”

NCL commends the president for this distinguished appointment and extends our congratulations to Secretary Perez.

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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.