Maryland takes 2012 national LifeSmarts title – National Consumers League

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April 24, 2012

Contact: Carol McKay, (724) 799-5392, carolm@nclnet.org

Philadelphia, PA—The student team from Frederick, MD was crowned national LifeSmarts champions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, April 24. After a tough final match against the second-place team from Jacksonville, FL, the teens from the Maryland Home Schoolers outscored their opponents and did it with great sportsmanship. Teams from Pennsylvania and Rhode Island placed third.

“We are so proud of these students from Maryland, who represented their state program with class and pride,” said LifeSmarts Program Director Lisa Hertzberg. “They played hard and demonstrated their consumer smarts throughout the four-day event. They are true LifeSmarts champions.”

LifeSmarts is a program run by the Washington, DC-based National Consumers League (NCL), the nation’s oldest consumer advocate. It competitively tests high school students’ knowledge of coansumer awareness, with subjects including personal finance, health and safety, consumer rights and responsibility, technology, and the environment.

Teens from each of the 32 state champion teams represented at nationals competed as individuals, and the top five scorers received $500 scholarships from NCL. This year’s winners were:

 

  • Environment: Morgan Macumber, AZ

 

  • Personal Finance: Christopher Carsey, AZ

 

  • Health and Safety: Maura Taylor, MD

 

  • Consumer Rights and Responsibilities: Noah Shute, AZ

 

  • Technology: Nathaniel Anderson, TN

“NCL’s LifeSmarts program is allowing us to rear a generation of consumer-savvy teenagers who often outsmart their parents on issues related to avoiding fraud, credit and debt, and complicated health care decisions,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg. In the 18 years that LifeSmarts has been educating high school and middle school teens on consumer issues, it has grown dramatically, with more than 3 million consumer questions at www.lifesmarts.org in the online competition during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden addressed the consumer savvy state teams and helped crown Maryland the 2012 National LifeSmarts Champions. “I’d like to start by congratulating the winners from the state of Maryland who I had the privilege of sitting with. Congratulations, Maryland.”

Biden applauded the state champion teams for “being so engaged and educated about your finances and how to be a good consumer and how to teach your brothers and sisters and classmates and sometimes your parents. You have to know what your rights are, and what you’re entitled to. We deal with people all the time who don’t feel empowered to question the negative answer or nonresponse. Behind the 10,000 or so complaints my office receives are, I’m confident, many times more citizens who don’t know what their rights are. That’s why what we do here is so critical, not just for young people but for old people.

For team photos, event schedules, grid standings, and more, log on to the official event blog.

All winners at the national LifeSmarts Competition received valuable prizes donated by sponsors to the National Consumers League, including scholarships, savings bonds, gift cards, and more. To learn more about the program, contact NCL’s Lisa Hertzberg at 202-835-3323. For a complete listing of this year’s prizes, visit www.lifesmarts.org.

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About LifeSmarts and the National Consumers League

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. 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.

Saving Children’s Lives on American Farms – National Consumers League

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April 19, 2012

Contact: Ayrianne Parks, AFOP, parks@afop.org (202) 579-7445

Washington, DC—Today, the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) held a press conference to dispel some of the misinformation surrounding the Department of Labor’s recently proposed safety updates to the rules governing child labor in agriculture.  The updates would be the first change in 41 years. A panel of experts from the advocacy, education, health and agriculture communities discussed the rules’ potential impact on children’s health and safety. Testimony was also shared by Catherine Rylatt, the aunt of Alex Pacas, a young man who was killed in the 2010 grain engulfment that killed 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread.

Ms. Rylatt recounted the details shared with her by a friend of her nephew who survived. She said that as the boys were working to break up the corn, “Wyatt started sinking; he was yelling ‘Help me, help me!’” His young coworkers tried to save him. Alex, her nephew, lost his life as well. She went on to note that after the tragedy, “Chris, the 15-year-old who witnessed the death of his 14-year-old friend, kept saying ‘I should have stayed; I should have stayed and helped.’ He doesn’t understand if he had stayed, he would have been dead, too.”

Other experts who provided insight on the proposed updates, included:  Lorretta Johnson, Co-Chair of the CLC and Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT); Norma Flores López, Chair of the CLC’s Committee on Domestic Issues and Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP), and a former child farmworker; Dr. Sammy Almashat, M.D., M.P.H., Research Associate at Public Citizen; and Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus, a national children’s advocacy organization.

“The American Federation of Teachers believes that it is our responsibility to educate the ‘whole child,’” said Ms. Johnson, who opened the press conference. “This means looking after the well-being of our children, in and out of the classroom. The updates proposed by the Department of Labor are common sense changes that are designed to preserve the safety of children who work on America’s farms.” That sentiment was echoed throughout the press conference.

“As a child working in the fields, I was exposed to dangerous pesticides and machinery. While I was fortunate not to be seriously injured while working, that is not the case for many,” said Ms. Flores López. “That also doesn’t mean I’m in the clear. As a farmworker advocate, I know there are many other serious long-term health consequences associated with pesticides that may affect me in the future.”

Each of the speakers discussed the hazardous orders from their respective areas of expertise. Agriculture, which is consistently ranked as one of the three most dangerous industries for all workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is especially perilous for children.  In 2010, three-quarters of the children under age 16 who died while working for wages were killed while working on farms.

“From a medical perspective, we know that children are more vulnerable than adults to the myriad hazards encountered on a farm. A child’s mental capacity and judgment is not as fully developed as it is in an adult,” said Dr. Almashat. “As doctors well know, children are not little adults. Their bodies are structured fundamentally differently, leaving them uniquely vulnerable to a number of different hazards.”

The agribusiness and the farm lobby have voiced strong opposition to the protections, resulting in Members of Congress introducing legislation in the House and Senate to block the implementation of the protections. The bills, called “Preserving America’s Family Farm Act,” are not supported by all in the agriculture community though. In a press release the National Farmers Union, while not comfortable with all aspects of the proposed rules, has voiced support for the Secretary’s efforts to better protect farmworker children. At the end of the press conference, National Consumers League Executive Director and CLC Co-Chair Sally Greenberg read a statement prepared by Bryce Oates, a grower from Missouri who recently authored a post with a fellow family farmer Jake Davis, expressing disgust over the untruths being spread about the rules in Footprint Magazine.

“The longer we wait to finalize these protections, the longer kids’ lives are in danger. Children’s safety and well-being must be the number one priority,” said Mr. Lesley. “As children’s advocates, we can accept nothing less.”

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About the Child Labor Coalition

The Child Labor Coalition is composed 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. A list of the CLC members may be found at www.stopchildlabor.org.

Leading national consumer groups urge FDA to promptly deny industry petition to call high fructose corn syrup ‘corn sugar’ – National Consumers League

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April 17, 2012

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

Washington, DC – In a letter sent to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today, the National Consumers League, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, and Shape Up America!, called on the agency to “promptly deny” the Corn Refiners Association’s (CRA) petition to change the name of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

The groups told the FDA that nearly 5,000 comments submitted to the agency oppose the name change on a ratio of 100:1. The consumer organizations’ letter also states that FDA’s failure to promptly deny the CRA petition allows the trade association to continue to run deceptive marketing campaigns calling HFCS “corn sugar,” and confuses consumers who wish to avoid the ingredient.

“The FDA has a statutory responsibility to ensure that consumers have the opportunity to exercise free choice in the marketplace without being misled by confusing name changes designed to hide the identity of a controversial ingredient,” stated Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League.

The FDA warned the CRA last year not to encourage its members to use the term “corn sugar” to refer to HFCS while the Association’s petition is pending, but did not formally deny the petition.

“The FDA’s warning letter to the CRA is a step in the right direction, but the term ‘corn sugar’ continues to appear in national advertising within the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FDA should ensure that it and the FTC can stop such deceptive advertising by formally denying the CRA petition,” stated Urvashi Rangan, Director of Consumer Safety and Sustainability at Consumers Union.

“Given the thousands of comments opposing the CRA petition and the continued misleading use of the term ‘corn sugar’ in marketing, FDA should act decisively and deny the CRA petition,” stated Chris Waldrop, Director of the Food Policy Institute at Consumer Federation of America.

“Honest food labeling and advertising is essential for Americans to improve their diets and reduce their risk of diet-related disease.  FDA and FTC should devote the necessary resources to ensure that consumers are provided with clear information” added Barbara Moore, President and CEO of Shape Up America!

To read the full letter, please click here.

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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.

NCL disappointed in FDA’s voluntary approach to antibiotic reduction – National Consumers League

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April 12, 2012 

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

Washington, DC–Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released several documents relating to the judicious use of antimicrobials in food producing animals. These documents confirm the agency’s commitment to pursuing voluntary limits on the use of antibiotics rather than mandatory regulation-based restrictions. The agency has stated that withdrawing the approval of each type of antibiotics would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming.

“While we recognize the budgetary constraints facing the agency, we are concerned that a voluntary approach to reducing antibiotics in livestock will not be an effective mechanism for protecting public health,” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of NCL.

Draft guidance proposes a three year timeline during which drug companies would change the way they market and label these antibiotics. The result would be a new system where veterinarians are more involved in prescribing antibiotics, many of which are currently available over the counter.

“We support the agency’s goal of reducing non-therapeutic uses of antibiotics,” said Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow. “We are just not convinced that a voluntary system, in which companies have the option not to engage in reform, is going to achieve this goal.”

The main reason FDA is pursuing this goal is that the overuse of antibiotics amongst livestock has been shown to contribute to the rise of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance means that doctors are forced to use different drugs to treat illnesses, drugs that may be less effective or have more pronounced side effects.

“Given how important it is to preserve these antibiotics for use in humans, we are disappointed that FDA has not taken a more aggressive stance,” Greenberg said. “Reducing antibiotic resistance and maintaining the efficacy of these important drugs should be FDA’s ultimate goal. We believe this goal would be better achieved through mandatory measures.”

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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.

Survey finds consumers willing to wait for new tech gadgets if produced under humane working conditions – National Consumers League

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April 11, 2012

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

Washington, DC—With severe working conditions in the factories of mega-corporations like Apple making recent headlines, a new survey reveals that consumers say they are willing to wait for delays in the release of new technology devices if the trade-off is humane working conditions for employees. According to a new survey of 1,019 adult Americans commissioned by the National Consumers League and conducted by ORC International from March 22-25,  consumers feel strongly that they do not want their products to be manufactured in unfair, overly harsh or dangerous working conditions, and they’re willing to make some sacrifices for that.

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of respondents agreed that they would be “willing to wait longer to get the latest electronic gadget if [they] knew it was produced under humane working conditions.” Only 1 in 10 said they would be unwilling to wait. Thirteen percent were undecided.

“With Apple and its Chinese manufacturer, Foxconn, in the news for overly harsh and dangerous working conditions in China, it’s very encouraging to see that consumers not only care a great deal about the working conditions of the people who manufacture their electronic devices, but they also find it important that workers in shops and restaurants here in America are also treated and paid fairly,” said NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg.

NCL, the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, was founded in 1899 by Progressive-Era advocates who believed that consumers’ buying decisions should reflect the working conditions they accept for their fellow citizens. Early leaders exposed child labor and other scandalous working conditions and worked to establish a minimum wage. Today, NCL’s ties with labor issues and organized labor remains strong, and NCL advocates for consumers and workers on a variety of issues. NCL commissioned the ORC survey to examine contemporary American concerns about labor issues, in light of a challenging economy for both consumers and workers.

Other survey highlights

Working conditions are important for an overwhelming number of consumers.

Nearly three-fifths (59 percent) of respondents said it is very important to them personally that the products they buy are not made under unfair, overly harsh, and dangerous working conditions.  Nineteen out of 20 Americans – 94 percent – surveyed said that the way workers are treated is “very important,” “important,” or “somewhat important.” Only one in 20 said it was either not important or not a consideration.

Education needed: Many Americans are still unfamiliar with the concept of wage theft.

NCL’s survey revealed that 3 in 10 respondents did not report having ever heard of “wage theft,” and few are aware of direct experience with it, either personally (10 percent) or through someone they know (20 percent). This demonstrates a disconnect from reality; according to the National Employment Law Project, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of low-wage workers in a 2008 survey actually experience at least one pay-related violation (wage theft) in the previous work week.

Consumers overwhelmingly side with workers

Despite a lack of specific knowledge on the concept of “wage theft,” respondents overwhelmingly agreed (“strongly agreed” – 60 percent and “agreed” – 33 percent) that employers who cheat their employees out of the wages they have earned should be fined or punished in some way. And respondents nearly unanimously agreed that it is important (23 percent) or very important (68 percent) that the stores and restaurants they patronize pay their workers fairly for the wages that are owed.

“Wage theft continues to not only be a leading problem for low wage workers who can least afford being cheated in their paychecks, but also an increasingly growing problem for states who are being cheated out of million of dollars of tax revenue,” said Michell K. McIntyre, Project Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft.

The National Consumers League’s Special Project on Wage Theft seeks to raise awareness about the nature of wage theft in the United States and strives to educate consumers, workers, businesses and governments about wage theft issues.

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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.

These results are based on two national probability samples of 1,019 telephone interviews among adults 18 years of age and older, conducted from March 22-25, 2012.  The margin of error for data based on total sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.  769 interviews were from the landline sample and 250 interviews from the cell phone sample. The survey was conducted by CARAVAN®, an omnibus service of ORC International for National Consumers League.

NCL mourns passing of union leader – National Consumers League

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April 9, 2012

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

Washington, DC–The National Consumers League is saddened by the passing of a tireless leader in the workers rights movement, Mark Ayers, an AFL-CIO Vice President and President of the Building and Construction Trades Department. We mourn Mr. Ayers’ death as someone committed to bettering the lives of working families across the nation. As a US Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, Mr. Ayers took great pride in chairing the AFL-CIO’s Union Veterans Council, a group devoted to increasing veterans’ access to good jobs and quality health care. Our thoughts are with his family and friends and we honor a life devoted to fighting to restore the American dream to working families.

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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.

Cramming fraudsters take notice: AT&T to end wireline third-party billing – National Consumers League

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March 30, 2012

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

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League, the nation’s oldest consumer organization, today welcomed AT&T’s announcement that it will end most third-party billing on wireline telephone accounts by August of this year. AT&T joins Verizon, which last week announced that they would cease providing third-party billing services on wireline phone bills for so-called “enhanced” services – a major component of cramming fraud.

“AT&T and Verizon’s actions to protect consumers should put fraudsters on notice. Their days of profiting off consumers’ phone bills are numbered,” said John Breyault, the League’s Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “We urge CenturyLink and other phone companies to follow AT&T and Verizon’s lead and put crammers out of business once and for all.”

NCL also reiterated its support for comprehensive federal legislation to prohibit third-party billing for non-telecommunications services on wireline telephone bills. “While we’re glad to see two major telecommunications companies take this important step voluntarily, it is important that there be a clear protections be put in place to protect all consumers,” said Breyault. NCL has also again called on the Federal Communications Commission to act on its pending rulemaking on this issue to ensure that the cramming problem is fixed permanently and consumers, businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies are protected.

With regards to cramming on wireless telephone bills, NCL urged regulators and legislators to remain vigilant. “We cannot allow the crammers to simply migrate from landline phones to wireless phones,” said Breyault. “With millions of consumers ‘cutting the cord’ and using cell phones exclusively, we cannot take our eye off the ball and let cramming fraud proliferate on wireless bills.”

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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.

Statement of Sally Greenberg, NCL ED, on Lean Finely Textured Beef – National Consumers League

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March 28, 2012

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

Washington,DC–NCL believes that the announcement by Beef Products Inc. that the company will suspend operations at three plants is unfortunate. BPI and its CEO, Eldon Roth, have been forced to close the plants because of business the company has lost to very serious misinformation, widely disseminated by the media, about its product, lean finely textured beef (LFTB). The misinformation has unduly harmed a company—and its employees– that is recognized as an industry leader in food safety.

Food scientists and consumer organizations agree that LFTB is safe:  BPI pioneered food safety interventions to significantly reduce the risk of pathogens  inthe meat  they produced. Their use of ammonia in small amounts was used to reduce the risk of pathogenic E. coli in their product, and these levels never have posed a health risk to consumers.

BPI also pioneered “test and hold” which ensures that nothing leaves the plant until it has passed rigorous safety testing. BPI was one of the first companies to voluntarily test for six additional deadly strains of pathogenic E. coli. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has now adopted test and hold for products the agency tests, and last year FSIS announced that it would consider the six additional strains of E. coli as adulterants in ground beef.

BPI employs  around 3,000 employees,  whose jobs either have been or will be lost with the suspension of operations.  Seven hundred employees have already lost their jobs. This is tragic, as they have been harmed by a completely unfounded conclusion that their product is not safe.  The beef that will replace BPI’s product will most likely come from overseas and thus the closing of the plants will ship jobs overseas∙

NCL, whose mission is to protect consumers and workers, believes that both have been seriously harmed by the assault against its integrity that BPI has suffered.  NCL is in agreement with the Consumer Federation of America that manufacturers of hamburger patties may replace LFTB with something that has not been processed to assure the same level of safety. CFA also expressed concerns that NCL shares about the potential effect this recent controversy may have on companies who seek to apply innovative solutions and new technologies to enhance food safety.

From NCL’s standpoint, the record must be corrected.  The public has been ill-served by faulty information about this product that was based on conclusions of those who are not experts in food safety. An estimated 3,000 people could lose jobs as a result of BPI going out of business. The company has suspended the jobs of 650 workers to date.

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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.

Child Labor Coalition: U.S. should implement proposed farm safety rules for children – National Consumers League

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

March 27, 2012

Washington, DC–Legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress in March 2012 to block proposed safety rules for child farmworkers will endanger children who work on farms, said advocates from the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), representing more than two dozen organizations concerned with protecting working youth. The group called on the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to implement immediately its proposed updates to safety rules listing dangerous agricultural tasks that are off limits to hired child farmworkers.

“The Department of Labor’s proposed safety rules are rooted in expert research and designed to protect child farmworkers,” said Sally Greenberg, the executive director of the National Consumers League and the co-chair of the CLC. “Agriculture has long been exempt from many child labor and occupational safety protections granted to all other industries. As new farm equipment is developed and our knowledge of pesticides and other risks to children evolve, it only makes sense to update the list of tasks that employers should not be allowed to hire children to do.”

The 15 proposed rules—known as “hazardous occupation orders”—would, for the first time in decades, update the list of farm tasks considered too dangerous for children under age 16 working for hire. New restrictions would include operating certain heavy machinery, working in silos and grain storage facilities, and handling pesticides.

Bill S. 2221, introduced on March 21 by Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), would stop the Labor Department from issuing the occupational child safety rules. A version was introduced March 7 in the House (H.R. 4157) by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), with the misleading title, “Preserving America’s Family Farms Act.”

The Department of Labor has long held responsibility for restricting employers from hiring children to do tasks that are considered hazardous. In agriculture, those restrictions lift at age 16; while in all other jobs, hazardous work cannot be done until age 18. The rules do not apply to children working on farms owned or operated by their parents, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said at a House hearing recently that she intends to expand the “parental exemption” to allow children to work without safety restriction on farms owned by other relatives.

Agricultural exemptions to U.S. child labor law allow children to work for hire at age 12 on any farm with their parents’ consent. There is no minimum age for children to work on small farms.

Agriculture is the most dangerous industry open to children. Three quarters of working children under age 16 who died from work-related injuries in 2010 worked in agriculture. Thousands more are injured each year. Agricultural injuries tend to be much more severe than other youth injuries according to a new study in the April 2012 edition of the journal Pediatrics, resulting in a hospitalization rate that is 10 times as high as that in all other industries.

“As a former child farm worker, I know how dangerous the fields can be,” said Norma Flores Lopez, the Children in the Fields Campaign Director for the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. “Pesticides, razor-sharp tools, and farm machinery were ever-present dangers. Last summer two 17-year-olds in Oklahoma lost their legs in a grain augur accident. Banning grain facility work, which killed 26 workers in 2010, would prevent those tragedies from happening to others.”

The proposed legislation inaccurately suggests that the proposed safety rules would make it difficult for children to work or get hands-on training on farms. Instead the Department of Labor’s proposed rules merely require more rigorous training for some hazardous work and remove training exemptions for other tasks.

“The Department of Labor’s proposed safety rules would be a huge leap forward in keeping children safer while they’re at work and while they’re learning to be farmers,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, deputy children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Job training for farmworker youth is important, but it shouldn’t involve the few tasks that experts find are most likely to kill and maim them.”

The proposed legislation also inaccurately implies that occupational child safety rules would be an attack on the family farm.

“The proposed rules represent long-overdue protections for children working for hire in farm communities,” said Reid Maki, the CLC coordinator. “They will save lives and preserve the health of farm children so they can grow up to be farmers. The department should implement them as soon as possible.”

“We must push back against the attacks against safety protections for children,” said Lorretta Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers and a co-chair of the CLC. “It is our task to protect the most vulnerable in our society and all over the world. All children should be afforded the opportunity to go to school and thrive and not be placed in harm’s way by working in the fields or in other dangerous occupations.”

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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].

Verizon decision to end third-party billing a victory for consumers – National Consumers League

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March 12, 2012

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

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League today applauded Verizon for its pro-consumer decision to protect its customers from cramming fraud by ceasing to provide third-party billing for most non-telecommunications services. NCL, along with a coalition of allies in the public interest community, has long urged the industry to end wireline third-party billing for so-called “enhanced” services.

“We commend Verizon for taking an important step to protect its subscribers from cramming fraud that affects millions of consumers annually,” said John Breyault, the League’s Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud. “Third-party billing is the tool that allows cramming to flourish.  We would urge other telephone companies to follow Verizon’s lead, heed the advice of consumer groups, the FTC and state attorneys general and end wireline third-party billing once and for all.”

In late 2011, NCL led a coalition of consumer groups in filing comments calling on the Federal Communications Commission to adopt common-sense rules that prohibit third-party billing for “enhanced” services.  This system allows unscrupulous scam artists to use consumers’ telephone bills like a credit card, charging them for anything from directory listings to “enhanced fax” and even online diet services.

As the Senate Commerce Committee found in a July 2011 report, industry self-regulatory efforts since the late 1990’s have failed to control an epidemic of cramming fraud.  Indeed, the telecommunications industry was found to have profited handsomely from a third-party billing system that enabled fraud to proliferate.  In response to the Committee’s findings, NCL called on Congress to enact legislation, based on successful Vermont state law that prohibits wireline third-party billing for services not overseen by the FCC.

While Verizon’s announcement does not apply to third-party billing on wireless devices, NCL would urge the company as well as regulators and legislators to keep a close eye on this platform to ensure that crammers do not simply migrate from wireline to wireless billing systems.

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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.