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October 28, 2011<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Contact: NCL Communications, (2020 835-3323,\u00a0media@nclnet.org<\/a><\/p>\n Washington, DC\u2014The nation\u2019s oldest consumer and\u00a0worker advocacy organization is calling on parents stocking up on Halloween treats this weekend to make worker-friendly purchases. The National Consumers League, the Washington, DC-based consumer and worker\u2019s rights organization, has announced an effort to fill trick-or-treaters\u2019 bags with union-made candy.<\/p>\n \u201cIn just a few days,\u00a0children across the country will cheerfully announce their presence at doorways hoping to receive sweet treats. While Halloween certainly belongs to kids, we adults, get to make some decisions too. This year, we\u2019re calling on parents to be smart about the candy they purchase and hand out, find out if it\u2019s made by unionized workers who are paid a fair wage,\u201d said Michell K. McIntyre, Director of NCL\u2019s Special Project on\u00a0Wage Theft.<\/p>\n A few labor-friendly candy manufactures include Nestle, Ghiradelli Chocolates, Hershey, Gimbals Fine Candies, Just Born, Necco, Nabisco, and Keebler. One fly in the ointment is Hershey, which was many union workers but had more than its fair share of wage violations this year. From the\u00a0exploitation of foreign J-1 visa student workers<\/a>\u00a0in its packing facility to the second\u00a0class-action lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0being filed against the company for failing to pay its employees for overtime, Hershey\u2019s domestic labor problems are not the company\u2019s only issue.<\/p>\n Hershey has also been criticized by child labor advocates who have organized a \u201cNo Hershey\u2019s Halloween,\u201d because the company sources cocoa to make chocolate from West Africa where there are up to two million children working under conditions considered to be among the \u201cworst forms of child labor.\u201d While many chocolate companies have taken steps to trace their cocoa purchasing to reduce child labor from their supply chains, the Hershey Company lags behind its competitors.<\/p>\n At\u00a0Union Plus, a Web site established by the AFL-CIO to provide consumer benefits to members and retirees of participating labor unions, consumers can\u00a0view a list<\/a>\u00a0of approved candy choices provided by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM); snack foods by members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); or fruit and nuts from members of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).<\/p>\n \u201cNCL is happy to join with union allies and working families to encourage consumers to vote with their pocketbooks and support worker-friendly candy manufacturers this Halloween,\u201d said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n About the National Consumers League<\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 28, 2011 Contact: NCL Communications, (2020 835-3323,\u00a0media@nclnet.org Washington, DC\u2014The nation\u2019s oldest consumer and\u00a0worker advocacy organization is calling on parents stocking up on Halloween treats this weekend to make worker-friendly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1385"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18131,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions\/18131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}