Merging Consumer and Worker Interests

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The Communication Workers of America (CWA) have long held a seat on our board of directors at the National Consumers League. Today I went over to CWA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. to sit down with Larry Cohen, the union’s president, and discuss some of the issues that face consumers and workers alike. High on NCL’s and CWA’s list is comprehensive healthcare reform. According to data from the most recent U.S. Census, 47 million Americans – or 16 percent of the population – have no health insurance, and that number has grown even in the last few years.

Universal health coverage has long been a priority for the League. During the 1930s, Josephine Roche, who was to become president of the League later that decade, headed President Franklin Roosevelt’s Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities. One of the Committee’s mandates was the development of a national health plan. The proposal came out in 1938, and Senator Robert Wagner (D-NY) introduced the Committee’s bill in Congress the following year. (Wagner’s name is also attached to the famous Wagner Act of 1935, a law that involved the federal government for the first time in protecting the right of workers to organize and form unions. The Wagner Act also established the National Labor Relations Board.)

This Just In

We just got word through a statement from the White House Office of the Press Secretary that today, February 28, 2008, the President signed into law H.R. 1216, the “Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007 or the K.T. Safety Act of 2007,” which requires the Department of Transportation to issue regulations related to power window safety, rearward visibility, and rollaway prevention intended to reduce the incidence of child injury and death occurring inside and near motor vehicles.

The Kids and Cars Bill is now a law! Hooray! More on this to come.

Just in Time for Fashion Week: ‘Made in Italy’ Label Questioned

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Celebrities, journalists, and buyers alike are captivated by the latest colors, textures, and trends revealed in designers’ collections during Milan Fashion Week.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, the illustrious “Made in Italy” label on name brand designer goods may not mean what consumers think it does. The article draws attention to the reality that many of these designer goods are produced by sweatshop workers – in this case, many of them, Chinese immigrants – who are being subjected to horrendous working conditions.

In the last year, police raids of these Italian sweatshops have shut down various factories and workshops. Clearly more needs to be done to end the sweatshop conditions that workers across the globe are facing. Particularly troubling is that these goods are marketed as being “Made in Italy.” That’s technically true, but nowhere will consumers, who pay top dollar for these luxury items on the strength of the Made in Italy label, learn that sweatshop labor was involved in making these goods.

NCL has long championed consumer rights and worker protections and both are at stake here.  The League created the “White Label” at the turn of the 20th Century to designate factories that abided by fair labor standards. The League is also an active member of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a group whose mission it is to protect workers’ rights and improve working conditions in the apparel industry worldwide by promoting adherence to international labor standards. We believe in the importance of knowing not only where the products we use are from, but also that they are made under the fair labor standards that we support. NCL has called upon clothing designers and manufacturers who employ workers under sweatshop conditions to pay workers a fair wage and provide decent working conditions for all in their employ. In the meantime, the League will continue to let consumers know the conditions under which the products they buy are made.

2007 Fraud Trends Offer Much to Ponder

by National Consumers League staff

We’ve been working with NCL’s Fraud Center staff lately to crunch some data on fraud complaints from consumers in 2007, and what we’ve found is amazing! This week, the Savvy Consumer blog will bring you a series of highlights of what we tracked last year: the top scams in Internet and telemarketing, victim trends, locations of crooks, etc.

First things first: the Top 10 Internet Scams of 2007

1. Fake Check Scams. Frauds in which consumers receive a realistic-seeming check from a crook as payment for something with instructions to wire a portion back. The scam has many variations, but the common thread is the wiring of money from a check that appears to be good but ultimately isn’t. We were involved in a massive educational effort on these scams last year.
2. General Merchandise. Scams involving items purchased online that either never show up or aren’t as they were described.
3. Auctions. Problems in online auctions, as reported by buyers, including items never being delivered, being a grossly different product, etc. Online auction fraud has been at or near the top of the list for years.
4. Nigerian Money Offers. These “419″ scams originated as letters but now commonly happen via email.
5. Lotteries. Congratulations! You’ve won a foreign lottery and millions of fabulous dollars. All you have to do is pay us up-front for some processing fees.
6. Advance Fee Loans/Credit Arrangers. Con artists target consumers who may have bad credit and are vulnerable to sketchy loan offers.
7. Prizes/Sweepstakes/free gifts. See “lotteries” above.
8. Phishing/Spoofing. We have an entire Web site devoted to this scam, wherein phishers seek personal financial information from consumers in order to perpetrate ID theft.
9. Sweetheart Swindles. We blogged about this one recently. When Cupid strikes consumers in these scams, they end up with a broken heart and empty wallet; criminals pose as lovebirds, cultivate relationships, and make a plea for financial help.
10. Internet Access Services. Scams surrounding email, Web site building, or Internet connection services.

Future blog: Top Telemarketing Scams of 2007

Rubbing Elbows on Capitol Hill for NCPW

By Tim McNutt, NCL Public Policy Intern

Last week, the League descended upon Capitol Hill to participate in a National Consumer Protection Week fair with hill staffers, federal, state, and local government agencies, and national consumer advocacy organizations. As a member of the NCPW steering committee, NCL meets with other orgs and agencies each fall to plan the next year’s NCPW theme and events to promote the educational week in early March.

NCPW highlights consumer protection issues and education efforts around the country. The focus of this year’s event is financial literacy, and the official week is March 2-8. Whether it is tips for shopping for a mortgage; learning to decipher credit card statements or utility bills; choosing savings or retirement plans; comparing health insurance policies, or simply learning to be a savvy consumer, NCPW has got you covered.

The fair was a great forum for National Consumers League to promote the LifeSmarts Program to members of Congress and similarly aligned organizations. LifeSmarts helps students from 6 – 12th grade test their consumer knowledge and equip them with the tools needed to be a better consumer. The educational program, whose national competition is right around the corner in April (in Minneapolis this year), was a hit with visitors and participants of the fair. Most importantly, we received positive feedback on our efforts to focus on financial literacy for school-aged consumers. Most organizations had ample information to assist adults in becoming better consumers, but few programs empowered young adults to achieve greater financial literacy.

Cheers to the League and look for more updates from your resident intern blogger soon!

Honoring History

Did you know that Black History month started out as a week?

In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, the son of former slaves and a scholar who went on to get a Ph.D. in history from Harvard, created “Negro History Week.” February’s theme honors Woodson, who, along with Jesse E. Moorland, co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. ASNLH’s mission was to recognize and raise awareness of the importance of African Americans in history. Woodson’s work with the ASNLH led to the creation of “Negro History Week,” which was extended to the entire month of February in its 50th year of observance, 1976.

Can you hear me?

Consumers who have cell phones that operate on analog signals are out of luck. As of midnight last night, cellular telephone companies are no longer required to provide analog service.

If you suddenly find yourself searching for a new wireless phone plan, it is important that you find one which best fits your needs. Here are some tips to help you stay connected to colleagues, family and friends at an affordable cost.

Find out:

• What’s included in the calling plan. How many minutes will you be allowed as part of your monthly fee? How much will you be charged if you use more? Are unused minutes lost or do they carry over to the next month?

• What’s the cancellation policy?

• Whether you can check how many minutes and text messages you have left.

NCL’s “2008 Consumer Calendar: Do We Have Tips for You!” month of February tips on choosing a wireless service provider were sponsored by AT&T.

For more information on the switch from analog to digital for wireless phone service, visit the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Web site at www.fcc.gov/cgb.

Remembering Tom Lantos (1928-2008)

By National Consumers League staff

We were saddened to hear of last week’s passing of longtime friend to NCL and workers’ rights advocates, Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), who died February 11 at the age of 80. Five years ago, the National Consumers League honored Lantos with a Trumpeter Award for his advocacy for modernizing America’s child labor laws, work which started when he chaired the House Government Reform Employment and Housing Subcommittee hearings on the state of child labor in 1990.

We partnered with Lantos and his legislative staff in 2003 to introduce the Young Worker Protection Act, a bill proposed to eliminate exploitative child labor in the United States. Lantos was a firm believer in the need for updating antiquated child labor laws governing young American workers, and his bill would have made amendments to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to reflect the realities of the 21st century workplace.

“The exploitation of child labor cannot be tolerated in America. It is not a thing of the past but a very real problem that continues to jeopardize the health, education, and lives of many of our nation’s youth workers. These youth work long, hard hours, often under dangerous conditions. [We seek] to eliminate the all-too-common exploitation of teen workers—working late into the night while school is in session and working under hazardous conditions,” Lantos said at a 2003 press conference on Capitol Hill.

It was a pleasure to have worked with Congressman Lantos. He will be missed.

Kids and Cars Bill en Route to President Bush!

By National Consumers League staff

Great news! We just got word that the Kids and Cars bill has passed the Senate and is on its way to the Oval Office! We blogged about this bill a while back – it’s a bill that would protect young children from being backed over and hurt or killed by cars driving in reverse by making the cars themselves safer.

NCL’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg worked on this issue when she was a senior attorney at Consumers Union, and we’re thrilled that the lobbying has paid off! Today, the Senate unanimously passed the bill, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Congressman Peter King (R-NY), (the bill bears the name of his young constituent, Cameron Gulbransen, a victim of backover) and cosponsored by more than 40 other senators from both sides of the aisle.

Once President Bush signs the bill into law, eventually every new light vehicle will be required to meet a standard for rear visibility, allowing drivers to detect objects behind them. Additionally, vehicles will be required to be set up so that the brake must be depressed to shift into gear, preventing young children from playing with a gear shift and setting a car in motion. Finally, the new law will call for data collection by the federal government for these types of nontraffic, noncrash incidents, which are not systematically tracked now by the government.

Stay tuned for more as we continue to track this important bill’s progress!

Sweetheart Swindles Strike Again!

By National Consumers League Staff

After being single for many years, 51-year-old “Dan” befriended a woman on a dating Web site, an artist in Lagos. The two developed a spiritual connection and eventually grew romantically involved. The woman told Dan that she longed to come to California to be with him. That’s when she asked him for they money, and he happily wired her $2,500.

Dan was soon contacted by a man claiming to be the woman’s doctor, who said Dan’s true love had been in a terrible accident and was in a coma. Dan never heard from her again.

Ugh!

Hearing about these victims is really tough. They’re devastated emotionally and sometimes out a ton of money. The worst thing is how far from unique Dan’s story is. Sure, there’s a melodramatic twist at the end “explaining” his swindler’s disappearance. But, time and again, the reports we get at NCL’s Fraud Center often contain a drama: an accident, a tragedy, some sudden need for monetary assistance. And, inevitably, love triumphs over caution, and a soon-to-be-heartbroken consumer victim wires the money – or even sends cash.

Help us spread the word about Sweetheart Swindles this week. Everyone who’s seeking companionship on Internet dating or friendship sites is vulnerable. Heck, we’ve heard from victims as young as 24 and as ahem, mature, as 74!