The protests in Madison: a first-hand view of the fight for labor

By Guest Blogger Jacob Markey, LifeSmarts intern Summer 2010

Throughout my time as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I was told that this was an activist campus. While students here were at the forefront of protests against the Vietnam War, I generally thought that this activism was a thing of the past. I was certainly wrong. The turnout of thousands of students marching in solidarity with teachers, firefighters, and tens of thousands of other union workers to protest a proposed bill to eliminate the right of public workers to bargain collectively is heartwarming. To hear thousands of people to pack the Capitol Building, chanting slogans like “the people united will never be divided” and pledging solidarity, is just another reminder of the power of people. The opportunity to join in these protests is something I will never forget. My father is a substitute teacher in Milwaukee, and a union member, and I feel some connection to what we are fighting for.

Wisconsin has a strong streak of progressivism. We are the birthplace of AFSCME, and of course, the home of the legendary “Fighting Bob” La Follette. The state also has a long and storied history of worker rights. Public workers here were the first in the nation to earn the right to collectively bargain more than 50 years ago.

Public service workers here understand the tough financial situation the state is in, similar to governments across the country. They agree to the necessity of contributing to part of their pensions and paying a percentage of health care costs. Yet, the right to collective bargaining is something they are unwilling to give up. To lose this ability is to give up rights workers have had for more than half a century is simply unacceptable, and is the breaking point leading to these massive protests.

Many commentators are saying this fight sets a precedent for worker rights across the country. It may currently be a Wisconsin issue, but it will continue to show its face throughout the nation this year. As a longtime leader in worker rights, I am proud of my time spent at NCL, as well as the League’s continued support for workers fighting to maintain their rights, both in Wisconsin, and across the country.

A tribute to MLK

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

This weekend we pay tribute to the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy of  racial equality, racial unity, and non-violence. The National Consumers League has a deep connection to the cause of racial equality -  Florence Kelley, the League’s leader from 1899-1932, was a founding member of the NAACP. After last week’s violence in Tucson that left six dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords hospitalized with a grave bullet wound to the head, Dr. King’s message of nonviolence is needed now more than ever.  The political landscape in the United States is polarized – Tea Party activists have captured the emotions of the right, and elected 40 new members of Congress who seem to believe  government is the enemy. In the aftermath of this terrible attack in Tucson, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are looking for ways to display unity. We could sure use someone like Dr King today to help bridge that gap — not a politician but someone on the outside who can be a voice both of protest and reconciliation.

Dr. King consistently spoke about what was right, what was moral, no matter how unpopular. He and his followers paid a heavy price for their stance: in the quest for equal treatment for Blacks and their determination to dismantle Jim Crow,  some of King’s followers paid with their lives. Others were jailed, attacked by dogs, and  beaten by baton-wielding police. Yet they refused to attack back, preaching nonviolence that ultimately won the day and transformed America’s beliefs on racial equality.

Dr. King  was consistent – when he saw prejudice and wrongdoing, he spoke out,  even if it didn’t specifically address the cause of racial equality or was unpopular among members of his own community. For example, Dr. King opposed the war in Vietnam as early as 1967, tying his position to his belief in nonviolence.

I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men. I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked — and rightly so — what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

Similarly, Dr. King, in the face of Anti-Semitism from some members of the Black community,  stood with Jewish Americans . “Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently Anti-Semitic, and ever will be so.”

This weekend, as we pay tribute to Dr. King, a man whose bravery, eloquence, and righteous commitment to nonviolence in the name of racial equality, we’re reminded in the aftermath of last week’s violence in Arizona how much his voice is missed today.

Mandated health insurance ruled unconstitutional

On Monday, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that a central provision of the new Affordable Care Act that mandates that most Americans obtain health insurance is unconstitutional. Since the law passed earlier this year, there have been more than 14 challenges to the law; this is the first instance where the case was not dismissed or the law was not upheld.

History tells us that major new laws often face legal challenges. The Civil Rights Act, Social Security Act, and Voting Rights Act all withstood legal challenges. Proponents of the health reform act argue that the new law falls well within Congress’s power to regulate economic activity under the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the General Welfare Clause.

The mandate for most Americans to obtain health insurance is one of the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act that will help extend coverage to more than 30 million people currently uninsured.  Paired with rate regulation, the addition of healthy people to the insurance rolls should make it more affordable for the system – payors, providers, and patients – to treat more expensive and chronic conditions.

The Virginia court found that the mandate that all Americans carry a minimum level insurance by 2014 – exceeds Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce since it compels individuals without health insurance to involuntary enter the stream of commerce to purchase health insurance. However, individuals who choose to go without health insurance are “voluntarily” deciding to pay for health care out-of-pocket or to seek uncompensated care. Every year millions of those who have chosen to go without health insurance actively seek medical care. Thus, people who make an economic decision to forego health insurance do not opt out of the health care market, but instead shift their costs to others when they become ill or are involved in an accident and cannot pay.

The judge in the Virginia case, Judge Hudson, agreed that the implementation of the health care reform law should continue uninterrupted. In the nine months since the health reform law was passed, there has been progress to strengthen our health care system, including implementing a new patient’s bill of rights to end some of the worst insurance company abuses, such as banning insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions.

The Justice Department is considering whether to appeal the ruling to the 4^th Circuit. As this case and others make it through the appeals process, ultimately the Supreme Court will likely decide the constitutionality of the health reform act, and the reach of Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce.

Kudos to Wash Post for exposing troubling farmworker kids’ stories

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Sunday’s Washington Post featured a compelling – and sad – story that reaffirms NCL’s concerns about farmworker kids. In “A Harvest of Reduced Expectations,” by reporter Kevin Sieff, the youngsters interviewed describe constantly moving from town to town during the school year – following their farmworker parents, showing up at new schools in the middle of the year, and failing to enjoy any continuity in their education. As a result, many drop out.

One teenage girl talked about living in farmworker’s quarters, which are typically run down and lacking in the niceties so many of today’s teens take for granted – a good bed, a desk on which to do homework, regular hours for meals and bedtimes. One boy is pictured sitting on his bed reading over his homework; he has no desk and lives in a threadbare makeshift living quarters.

But most troubling in the teenage girl’s story is that though she is glad to be able to be with her father and take care of her siblings, she is often surrounded by farmworkers who are NOT there with their wives and families. During the weekends many of these men bring prostitutes back to the quarters where these children live.

Reid Maki at NCL has worked tirelessly with the other members of the Child Labor Coalition, which NCL co-chairs, to gain passage of the CARE Act, which will help to get farmworker kids out of the fields and in school full-time. This Washington Post article is particularly well headlined: A Harvest of Reduced Expectations; the piece does a great job of shining a light on the substandard and unacceptable living conditions of so many farmworkers – and their kids. Let’s pass CARE and get these kids into schools where they will be learning on a continuous basis and not exposed to a world that is hardly fit for adults, let alone children.

Kudos to Maggie’s Organics’ fair labor certified apparel

By Elizabeth Gardner, NCL public policy intern

It didn’t make much of a blip on the national news radar, but Maggie’s Organics recently broke new ground with their Fair Labor Certified Apparel Line. From the growers of the cotton to the spinners, knitters, dyers, cutters, sewers, screen-printers, and warehouse workers, this Michigan-based company’s spring apparel line is independently certified to hold to fair labor standards.

This label is one of the first of its kind in the clothing industry. Florence Kelley and the National Consumers League actually pioneered a White Label for cotton underwear way back in 1899. It certified that factories bearing the label treated their employees fairly. And nowadays there’s the Good Weave label, which assures rug buyers that they’re purchasing a child-labor free product. Today, though, there’s really been no simple way for consumers to check whether their clothes are tainted by child labor or exploitative labor practices—until now. It may only be a first step, but this new fair labor line is something that concerned consumers can be excited about.

The certification for Maggie’s Organics was completed by Scientific Certification Systems, and it verifies that at “every point in the supply chain” “fair and equitable labor practices” were used. With evidence far too often surfacing that major clothes retailers use child labor or sweatshops in their production lines, this label is a valuable resource for those of us who want to make sure that what we put on our backs didn’t cost workers before us the shirts off their backs.

Looking at the big picture, Maggie’s Organics is a small company. This label is solid start for businesses though, and if the other brands who have called up Maggie’s to find out about the process follow through and become certified, we’ll be making sure strides. Alongside FREE2WORK, which grades companies for their labor standards and is a great shopping resource, consumers can hopefully expect to see more resources like this continue to crop up.

Uplifting and discouraging: the 2010 ILO Report on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

By Elizabeth Gardner, NCL public policy intern

The child labor movement seems to constantly be scrambling to gather more data about the size and scope of the child labor problem and the trends within the employment of children. While it’s true that graphs, charts, and data only get you so far, they are great tools to be able to wield to demonstrate the problem we’re up against. The ILO recently published its 2010 report on child labor—Accelerating Action Against Child Labour. Both uplifting and discouraging, it has already begun to inform discussions about child labor.

The good news is that the worst forms of child labor have continued to decrease since the last ILO report, which came out in 2006. Child labor among children under 15 has dropped by 10 percent. And there have also been some big victories for girls: investigators found that there was a 15 percent drop in female child laborers. There is still a lot of reason for concern though, for it’s hard to tell if these gains represent forward progress or if these children have just moved to other areas of child labor—like domestic service which are harder to track. Despite possible reductions in child labor there are still 215 million children laboring away, and 115 million of those kids are working in hazardous conditions.

As in previous years, agriculture continues to be the sector where the most children are still working—nearly seven in ten child laborers are in agriculture. This is true abroad—from Asia to Africa. And it is true at home. Here in the United States, 12-year-olds and even younger children are still legally working long hours in the fields, for low wages, and under dangerous conditions.

Child labor tends to propagate itself, depriving children of an education and continuing the cycle of poverty. That’s why alongside efforts to eliminate child labor, campaigns like the Global Campaign for Education are so important; they seek to address some of the root causes of child labor: the lack of access to basic education for more than 70 million children.

The new ILO report helps us direct our attention and on-the-ground efforts. For it’s these background factors of poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to education that we can’t ignore as we push to eliminate child labor at home and abroad.

New legislation seeks to HELP protect immigrant kids’ interests

By Elizabeth Gardner, NCL public policy intern

Elizabeth Gardner, an intern assisting NCL’s coordination of the Child Labor Coalition, is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland studying rhetoric. She says she spent most of the past semester shuffling through papers and articles about the child labor movement in the early 1900s. “So much was going on at that time—the National Child Labor Committee was formed, reformers were pushing through legislation to curb child labor, and the NCL’s first general secretary Florence Kelley was at the forefront of the fight. We’ve made great strides on child labor, but there’s still much to be done. I’m excited to be working with the NCL on child labor policy and advocacy this summer,” said Elizabeth.

Immigration is a contentious topic—always has been…likely always will be. A few recent immigration raids have highlighted another side to this issue, though: the children. When parents get arrested, detained, and deported, children are often caught up in the mess. After a Minnesota case in 2006, a 2^nd grader was responsible for looking after his little brother for a week after coming home to find both his parents missing—both having been taken away by authorities. Currently, there is no legislation in place to protect immigrant children, many of whom are U.S. citizens.

The Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections (HELP) Separated Children Act (H.R. 3531), which Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) has introduced, looks to ensure that these children are properly cared for, and the National Consumers League has just recently signed on in support of this legislation.

HELP provides some straightforward guidelines that will help protect children. It makes sure that after parents are arrested they can make arrangements for their kids to be taken care of. It ensures that children aren’t forced to translate and/or aren’t present to witness their parents’ interrogation. It requires officials to keep state and local authorities in the loop. And it allows parents to continue to have a say in the care of their children.

The enforcement of immigration laws is still clearly important. Passing HELP will just ensure that, where relevant, immigration policy on the matter is geared toward representing the best interests of the children involved.

The working poor lose a great friend and advocate

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

On Tuesday I attended the funeral of Beth Shulman, a Washington, DC-based labor leader and a champion of the working poor. I didn’t know her well; I had met her a few times at various events, most recently at the Retirement USA conference in October. Shortly after the conference, she was diagnosed with brain cancer. As I listened to the eulogies at the funeral this week, I had a feeling of deep regret that I hadn’t taken the time to get to know Shulman better, for her life’s work — advocating for low-wage workers, including working for minimum wages, paid sick days, and paid family leave — closely tracks the work of NCL.

Shulman was a vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and in 2003 wrote the book, “The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans,” arguing that society pays scant attention to the people upon whom it depends every day.

She was a sought-after guest on news and talk shows, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, PBS NewsHour, CNN, ABC’s World News Tonight, and National Public Radio. Like Florence Kelley, NCL’s first inspirational leader, she kept the drumbeat going on behalf of the working poor.

In a Washington Post op-ed in 2004, she wrote:

If work does not work for millions of Americans, it undermines our most fundamental ideal: that if you work hard, you can support yourself and your family. …Consigning millions of Americans to dead-end, low-wage jobs endangers the notion of equal opportunity. A key to turning this around is understanding what made ‘good jobs’ good. There is nothing inherent in welding bumpers onto cars or manufacturing steel girders that makes those better jobs than caring for children or guarding office buildings. Workers organizing through unions, and the passage of social legislation, raised wages and created paid leave and retirement benefits in these initially ‘bad’ manufacturing jobs, changing them into good middle-class positions.

Shulman became assistant general counsel at the UFCW, which has a seat on the NCL Board of Directors, in 1976 and worked for the union until 2000, with her last 13 years there as international vice president and executive board member for the 1.4 million-member organization.

Like Florence Kelley, Shulman was a prolific writer and advocate. She traveled the country speaking, serving on boards and committees dedicated to improving the lives of the lowest paid workers in America and calling upon Americans to recognize the dignity of their work and how dependent we all are on workers who earn low wages and receive few, if any, benefits. Tragically, Shulman leaves an 11-year-old-son and grieving husband. They should both know that her contributions will not be forgotten and that she inspired many young people to work in the labor movement. I feel sure Shulman would have felt right at home with Florence Kelley and her progeny at the NCL. If America had more Beth Shulmans, we might finally provide decent wages and benefits to our working poor and treat them with far more dignity and respect. Now that’s a goal to work toward.

Help us Protect Farmworker Children! Help Us Pass the CARE Act!

By Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition

2010 has begun with positive momentum building for the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), legislation that aims to protect the sons and daughters of migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Support for CARE, which is a priority of the National Consumers League (NCL) and the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), which NCL co-chairs, grew rapidly in December. During the month, the number of members of Congress who have agreed to be co-sponsors of the legislation quadrupled. The legislation is now endorsed by 64 members of Congress as well as 30 national groups!

CARE would fix exemptions in U.S. child labor law—dating back to 1939 and the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act—that allow large numbers of kids to work for wages in U.S. agriculture at ages 12 and 13. Our belief is that although it’s okay for kids to work on their parents’ farms, children working for wages in agriculture should be subject to the same child labor laws as all other working children in the United States. Agriculture is consistently ranked by the U.S. government as one of the most dangerous workplaces. Does it make sense to allow young children to work in an industry known to be dangerous?

In November, ABC’s Nightline found several children under the age of 10 working for blueberry farmers in Michigan. In 2008, staff from our campaign partner, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, conducted investigative visits to blueberry fields in North Carolina and found numerous children under 10 working. There are so many exemptions to current law that it’s often hard to tell if young children are working legally or illegally.

Often the sons and daughters of impoverished migrant and seasonal farmworkers, the children, who work mostly as hand harvesters of fruit and vegetables, pay a heavy price for their work. In addition to suffering health consequences from exposure to pesticides and dangerous farm machinery, these farmworker youth experience drop-out rates that are truly frightening: More than half of these kids do not graduate from high school! The work is often exhausting. Long hours in the hot sun after getting up at 3 or 4 a.m. are combined with constant bending over. Is it ethical to allow these kids to suffer so much so that we can enjoy lower-cost fruits and vegetables? Why should these children work under different protections than other children? It’s well known that child labor reduces wages for adult workers. Wouldn’t it be better to restrict this work to adults and pay them a living wage?

Please consider contacting your member of Congress and telling them that you would like them to cosponsor HR 3564, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment—CARE. The legislation has been endorsed by both of America’s largest teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, a co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition. The AFL-CIO, Change to Win, the Teamsters, and the Communications Workers of America have each endorsed it. The United Farm Workers of America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee—the country’s two largest farmworker unions—have endorsed it. Farmworker Justice, the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association, the National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education, and the National Farmworker Ministry have also announced their support for CARE. Human Rights Watch, Interfaith Worker Justice, and the International Labor Rights Forum—groups that monitor human and worker rights abuses—have endorsed it as well. Please help us pass the CARE Act.

If you would like more information about the CARE Act or the Children in the Fields Campaign or would like to receive updates about CARE, email Reid Maki at reidm@nclnet.org.

Child Labor Coalition Celebrating 20 Years of Advocacy

Since its beginning, the National Consumers League (NCL) has cared deeply about the conditions under which consumer products are produced. In the early 1900s, NCL helped pass landmark state and federal laws that protected children from the ravages  of child labor.

In 1989, in NCL’s 90th year, it helped launch the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) to ameliorate the worst forms of child labor and to protect teen workers from health and safety hazards. This fall, the CLC, co-chaired today by NCL and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), marks its 20th anniversary, still going strong. The Coalition brings together 22 groups, including several of America’s largest labor unions, committed to reducing exploitative child labor and child trafficking.

“The CLC’s unique mission is what has made it successful for two decades,” said NCL’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg, who serves as co-chair of the CLC. “By bringing together both domestic and internationally-focused groups, our collective voice carries significant weight and attracts some of the nation’s leading human rights organizations.”

The idea for a coalition of nonprofits, unions, and other advocacy groups to fight child labor emerged rather suddenly in 1989. Several Washington, DC groups had participated in a Capitol Hill child labor forum organized by Bill Goold, a Congressional aide. The energizing forum prompted attendees including NCL’s then-President Linda Golodner and Pharis Harvey, the executive director of what was then called the International Labor Rights Fund (now the International Labor Rights Forum), who immediately saw a need for a collaborative approach to end child labor. A coalition of such groups, they believed, could leverage the resources of its members and speak with a stronger voice than each individual could alone.

Bill Treanor, the founder of the American Youth Work Center, along with Harvey and Golodner, became the original three chairs of the coalition. The AFL-CIO provided $10,000 in seed money, and the CLC was born. Attempts to fund the Coalition over the years have been difficult, noted Golodner, a co-chair of the coalition for 18 years. “It was hard then, and it’s hard today,” she explained, adding that for the most part, the foundation world has turned a “blind eye” to the child labor issue.

Over the last two decades, the CLC has enjoyed a number of successes. Coalition members wrote a model state child labor law that several states used in part. The CLC also worked to eliminate “timed delivery” within the fast food industry, successfully ending Domino Pizza’s 30-Minute Guaranteed Delivery, preventing driver deaths and injuries.

The CLC has hosted child labor forums and meetings, providing an opportunity for nonprofit advocacy groups and the federal officials charged with reducing child labor to coordinate their work and learn from one another. In its 20 years, the CLC has also issued a number of major reports, on such issues as trafficking, to draw the public’s attention toward the child labor issue and guide policy.

The CLC helped organize Global March Against Child Labor activities in North America, bringing much attention to the issue. Fifteen years ago, the CLC helped launch RugMark, the innovative, highly successful child-labor-free certification program for handmade carpets in South Asia.

“We became the voice for child labor advocacy from the United States,” said Darlene Adkins, a former NCL Vice President and the CLC Coordinator for 17 years. “In the early years, our focus internationally was on the consumer: ‘We don’t want products coming into the U.S. made by child labor.’ As the years went by, we got more involved in the global discussion of child labor—‘let’s end child labor globally…let’s make sure children have access to free basic education’.”

In 1999, NCL and the CLC joined the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs to launch the “Children in the Fields” Campaign to reduce child labor among migrant and seasonal farmworker children, who work long hours in the fields legally through exemptions in U.S. child labor law. Today, that campaign has several fulltime staff people; farmworker advocates are optimistic that a legislative remedy will  be passed under the new Administration.

In many industries, it takes the bright light of public scrutiny to bring about action on a problem like child labor. The CLC focuses that light. “The League has been one of the central voices for child labor for 110 years, and that is significant,” added Adkins. “It’s been a core, central part of our mission since the League was established. We are one of just a handful of groups that have had that concern, and I think that’s remarkable.”

In September 2008, Sally Greenberg testified in the United States House of Representatives on behalf of the CLC, urging the Department of Labor to greatly expand its number of child labor investigators. When Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis took office this year, adding labor inspectors was one of the first things she did. To learn more about the ongoing work of the CLC, visit www.stopchildlabor.org.