If I could write the President’s New Year’s resolutions …

By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety & Nutrition Fellow

While it’s an exciting time to be a food safety and nutrition advocate, it is also a time of great frustration and many challenges.  It I could write the President’s New Year’s Resolutions related to food, here’s what I would put on that list.

1. Release the long-delayed FSMA rules: When the President signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011, it was a proud and exciting moment for all those who care about food safety.  Unfortunately, there has been quite a delay in the implementation of the law.  Most notably, four integral rules have been stalled for over a year at OMB.  It’s time to prevent further outbreaks of foodborne illness by giving FDA the tools to prevent rather than simply responding to foodborne illnesses.
2. Congress needs to pass a farm bill:  Theoretically, Congress passes a farm bill every five years. This bill governs not only farm policy for the nation, but also conservation and nutrition programs. Unfortunately, this year’s farm bill has become yet another victim of partisan bickering in Washington.  Come the new year, consumers will begin to feel the effects of this, as programs revert to older legislation. Dairy prices in particular are predicted to rise precipitously without a new farm bill.  Let’s pass a farm bill that will protect consumers.
3. Establish more coordinated efforts to ensure food safety: A recent report by USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) on the safety of shell eggs highlighted the fact that there is a need for increased coordination between the various agencies that work on food safety. One of the classic examples of this lack of coordination is a factory that makes pizza; it the pizza is a cheese pizza, then FDA has jurisdiction over its safety, whereas if it is a sausage or pepperoni pizza, USDA has jurisdiction.
4. Keep politics out of the development of regulations: OK, so this may be the most ambitious of my resolutions. However, I strongly believe in the idea that government regulations should be science-based and should protect the consumer. An example of politics getting too involved in policy came last year when Congress got involved in new USDA rules that would have placed reasonable limitations on the amount of potatoes that could be served in school lunches. We need to minimize the impact of shifting politics on important policies.

Possible Brazil Mad Cow episode troubling

By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety & Nutrition Fellow

In a scary piece of news, it has come to light this past week that Brazil may have experienced a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease more commonly known as “mad cow” disease.  While the animal became ill and died in December of 2010, it was not until April of 2011 that the first testing was done, and not until last week that the final tests were complete.  This final set of testing, which was carried out at a laboratory in the UK, indicated the presence of the proteins that cause BSE.

There are several reasons why this announcement is troubling.  The first is the length of time that it took to confirm the presence of the disease.  Between the cow’s onset of symptoms in 2010 and the confirmation of its illness last week, almost two years passed.  During these two years, Brazil was not subject to the stringent safety checks that impact nations where there has been a confirmed case of BSE.

Additionally, this event has brought further attention to an important problem plaguing the meat safety system of this country, which is set up with several control points to ensure safe product.  First, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) does a thorough review to ensure that foreign nations have food safety systems that are “equivalent” to ours before those countries are ever allowed to send meat here.  Secondly, FSIS does routine audits of those foreign systems to ensure equivalency is being maintained.  Finally, FSIS does pathogen testing of meat entering the US to ensure that it is safe.  This system is designed to guarantee a safe supply of foreign meat for US consumers.

Unfortunately, as has been reported recently, the number of foreign inspections being carried out by FSIS has decreased dramatically over the last several years, from an average of 26.4 per year from 2001 to 2008 to an average of 9.8 between 2009 and 2012.

In a time of fiscal austerity and the race to save money, it can be tempting for federal agencies to cut expensive, time intensive programs like inspection.  However, as the ongoing rash of foodborne illness outbreaks illustrates, we cannot be too vigilant when it comes to our food supply.

 

The right to know is a winning proposition

By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety & Nutrition Fellow

One of my colleagues votes in California and so, along with her ballot, she received a booklet entitled “Official Voter Information Guide.”  This booklet includes arguments for and against each ballot initiative. The initiative we are most interested in here at NCL is Proposition 37, an initiative that would require genetically engineered foods be labeled.

NCL is a proud member of a group called “Just Label It,” which argues that consumers have the right to know whether the foods they eat contain genetically engineered foods or not.

Why is the California ballot initiative so important?  The reason is that if Proposition 37 passes in California, it is likely to have a nationwide impact.  This is because food companies are unlikely to produce one label for California and another for the rest of the country.  Instead, they are more likely to produce one label which meets the California law and thus provides more information to consumers across the country.

The ballot initiative has gotten both sides of the issue energized.  Unfortunately for proponents of the measure, the food industry, Proposition 37’s major opponents, has vastly outspent pro-labeling advocates.  Total spending by food companies has been around $45 million.  This infusion of cash into the state has paid off; while polls earlier in the year indicated popular support for the measure, more recent polls show that support has dropped by 17 percentage points since September alone.

Whether the measure passes or not, labeling of GMOs will continue to be an important issue and one that we predict will not be tabled even if Proposition 37 is defeated in California this election.

Business lobby seeking the repeal or end of anti-wage theft laws

By Michell K. McIntyre, Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft

Incredible! The old adage “one step forward, two steps back” may soon apply to the groundbreaking New York Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2010 and the Miami-Dade County (Florida) Wage Theft Ordinance. These laws were designed to give workers stronger protections against employers who commit wage theft violations, usually in the form of unpaid wages.

New York

In the New York legislature, some state Republican senators are calling the Wage Theft Prevention Act “a burdensome, costly mandate on every employer in the state” and a “misguided job-killing regulation”. Unfortunately, these same state senators have been able to pass their bill, repealing the law, in the State Senate and are working to have the State Assembly pass a similar bill. The component that state senators seem to have the biggest problem with is the requirement that employers provide employees annually with a written notice on their wages in the primary language of the employee. How is a written notice that explains a person’s wages, in their primary language, be a job killer? The National Consumers League urges the New York Assembly to recognize this thinly veiled attempt by business groups such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Business Council to repeal a law that protects workers from an illegal action used by employers to help pad their bottom line and not support this GOP-sponsored bill.

Florida

In the Florida legislature, the Florida Retail Federation has joined forces with some state Republican House Members to pass a bill prohibiting all local governments from passing anti-wage theft ordinances. The bill is aimed at stopping counties and cities from following the lead of Miami-Dade County, which passed an ordinance in 2010 protecting workers from wage theft and set up procedures for workers to recover their unpaid wages.

Since the implementation of the anti-wage theft ordinance, the Miami-Dade County Small Business agency has recovered nearly $400,000 in unpaid wages for 313 workers who unlawfully had their wages withheld from them. According to the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy, the US Department of Labor recovered just under $16 million for more than 24,000 workers in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Broward, Palm Beach, and Orange counties. With all the rampant wage theft violations, especially in Florida’s key industries of tourism, retail trades, and construction, why would state legislators seek to prohibit the strengthening of protections for its workers?

In both states the business lobby seeks an end to the crack down on wage theft violations and the strengthening of worker protections. Do they care more about their bottom line than their employees? The answer seems clear.

Super Bowl to be held in America’s newest right-to-work (for less) state: Indiana

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Ironically the state of Indiana, whose legislators just adopted a so called “right-to-work” (should be called “right to work for less”)  law, is hosting the Super Bowl tomorrow. It’s ironic because, not so long ago, NFL owners were threatening to lock out the football players. Owners wanted more games from the players and less sharing of the profits. Months ago, I attended a press conference hosted by the NFL players union, which argued forcefully on behalf of the players and was ultimately able to win rights and protections for players. The union made it possible not only for players to preserve rights but also made it possible for management and labor to come to a mutually satisfactory agreement and keep the season moving forward. So the season ensued, and now millions of football fans will be able to watch Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

What’s a right-to-work law anyway? Well, unions are legally required to equally represent all employees covered by a contract, whether or not they pay a cent in union fees.  That representation includes contract negotiations and arbitration over grievances (in fact, unions sometimes go out of their way to pursue cases on behalf of critics, lest they file charges against the union).  Barring unions from requiring employees to pay fees for these costs is an effective way to defund them and that is what right-to-work laws are intended to do.

I personally would have liked to see the NFL players union refuse to play in Indiana after it enacted this odious, anti-worker law. It could have been a great teaching moment, i.e., what is a right-to-work law and why is it anti-worker? In fairness, the National Football League Players’ Association did express strong objections to the law, but refusing to play would have really made Americans stand up and notice.

Right-to-work laws now exist in 23 states. According to the Economic Policy Institute, right-to-work laws don’t do what proponents say they do: help create jobs and raise wages. Instead, right-to-work laws reduce wages by an average of $1,500 a year, lower the likelihood that union and non-union employees receive health care coverage or pensions through their jobs, and have no positive impact on job growth in states that adopt them.

Indiana’s law new law is a sad development and aggressively anti-union. If only the millions of football fans knew what an important role the NFL players union played in negotiating a settlement on behalf of the workers – the football teams in this case – and got the players back on the field so we can all enjoy the Super Bowl Sunday night.

New year, new (minimum wage) rules

By Michell K. McIntyre, NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft

Thanks to some state legislatures, the start of the New Year means new rules for some workers. Eight states helped their workers with an increase in their state minimum hourly wage. Washington continues to lead the nation with the highest state minimum wage and is the only state with a minimum wage higher than $9. As of January 1, 2012, its minimum wage is $9.04 per hour. Seven other states also increased their minimum wages at the first of the year: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont.

State	Increase	New Hourly Minimum Wage
Arizona	$0.30	$7.65
Colorado	$0.28	$7.64
Florida	$0.36	$7.67
Montana	$0.30	$7.65
Ohio	$0.30	$7.70
Oregon	$0.30	$8.80
Vermont	$0.31	$8.46
Washington	$0.37	$9.04

As of the first of the year, San Francisco leads nationwide minimum hourly wages – federal, state, county, and city; and is the first in the nation to top $10 an hour. The minimum hourly wage increased by 32 cents from $9.92 to $10.24 per hour.

With the start of the New Year, California’s new Wage Theft Prevention Act and Employee Classification Act went into effect. The main points of the new Wage Theft Prevention Act:

• requires employers to provide workers, at the time they’re hired, a written disclosure of their basic terms of employment (the pay rate, the pay day, and the name and address of the legal employer)
• strengthens misdemeanor criminal penalties for employers who willfully fail to pay wages due in 90 days after final judgment
• allows a worker to recover attorney’s fees to enforce a court judgment for unpaid wages.

Some of the main points of the new Employee Classification Act include:

• making it unlawful for any persons or employer to engage in willful employee misclassification (classifying an employee as an ‘independent contractor’ rather than an ‘employee’)
• making it unlawful to charge any fees or make any deductions in a worker’s paycheck for expenses (space rental, services, repairs, good or materials, etc.) where such deductions would have been unlawful had the worker been classified as an employee
• increasing penalties that can be assessed against any employer for willful employee misclassification
• requiring employers who have been found to have committed employee misclassification to display a notice to its employees and the general public on their Web site and/or each location where it occurred.

This New Year, please take the time to examine your paystub and double-check that you’re being paid the correct amount. Remember, the Department of Labor has tools to help you track your pay, overtime and vacation time – an app for your smartphone and a printable work hours calendar in English and Spanish.

Farmworker Bill vetoed by CA Governor Jerry Brown

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

When a politician who has championed the cause of farmworkers vetoes a bill that would help this vulnerable group of workers organize, something is very wrong. But that’s just what happened this week. California’s Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday vetoed the “Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act”. The bill would have allowed farmworkers to form or affiliate with a union via a petition, rather than through an election held in the workplace, where employees are too often subject to intimidation by bosses.

Three decades ago, Brown signed a bill to give agricultural workers the right to unionize by secret ballot. So what happened in the ensuing 30 years?  In his veto message, Brown said that while he was sympathetic with the aims of the bill, he feared it could adversely affect the framework of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act. That’s dubious. The process the bill would have enabled is called “majority signup election” and also known as “card-check.” It also would have allowed the union to bargain for employees without holding an election, by simply collecting signatures from a majority of workers on cards saying they wanted representation. It’s the same argument opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, the federal legislation backed by unions, used to tamp down support.

The farmworker proposal has been the top legislative goal for years for the United Farm Workers. Brown has spoken– more like bragged – about his friendship with the UFW’s founder and labor icon, Caesar Chavez. Chavez is likely rolling over in his grave after his old friend and champion vetoed this bill.

This is both a sad day for farmworkers and a lost opportunity. California could have lead the way for other states, but instead a governor who was once their champion has failed them. NCL knows from experience that the cause of farmworkers—and their children—flies under the radar. We’ve taken a lead in pushing for the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE), which would help get children out of the fields and into schools. Farmworker conditions continue to be among the worst in America. These men and women—and children—often spend 12 hour days in the hot sun picking our fruits and vegetables so Americans can have healthy produce on their tables. They live in substandard housing, get no health care, pension or sick leave.

“What never changes in politics is power. Gov. Brown accepted the arguments made by the powerful agribusiness lobby and rejected the cause of powerless farm workers,” United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez said in a statement.

If we can’t count on one-time allies like Governor Gerry Brown to defend the cause of farmworkers, the status of working men and women is more dire than I had thought.

WI protests spotlighting importance of unions for workers AND employers

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

By now, most Americans are aware that state workers in Wisconsin and other states are protesting and striking to keep the right to collectively bargain with their public (state or localities) employers. Unions have taken a beating in the last three decades, and the rate of unionization of private sector workers is at its lowest point in decades: 6.9 percent. That’s actually lower than the 12 percent rate of unionization that existed in the United States before the Wagner Act of 1935 passed, giving workers the right to organize. The percent of public workers in unions is 36.2 percent, certainly far higher than their private counterparts.

The newly-elected Republican Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has cleverly tried to shift the focus on state workers as the cause of his state’s budget deficits and wants state employees to give up their right to collective bargaining. The state workers in Wisconsin have already agreed to many of his demands for concessions on salary and health care. But Walker’s not satisfied. He wants them to give up collective bargaining too.

Here’s the problem: employers – even public employers like states and localities – need someone on the other side of the bargaining table representing the interests of workers. Worker issues include, of course, pay but they extend way beyond salaries to health care benefits, pensions, sick and vacation leave, and occupational health and safety. A union can bring together the interests of all the workers, talk to employers about what are their most pressing matters, and negotiate on their behalf. The striking workers in Wisconsin don’t want to give up that bargaining right, and they shouldn’t have to. Furthermore, public workers, it turns out, don’t do so much better than private sector workers and, in some cases, given their skill level, are actually undercompensated. These state workers are not getting rich; they are simply earning a decent, middle class income.

Shouldn’t we want a middle class that enjoys livable wages, decent benefits, and vacation and sick leave? A middle class that has money to spend on the basics, but also on leisure activities like taking the kids to Disneyland or to a National Park?

My favorite take on this current stand-off is in Monday’s Washington Post. Cartoonist Tom Toles has a plane in the air labeled “US Government” and a bubble from the cockpit that says “Until we solve the problem of people taking extra peanuts, we have no choice but to shut down the engines…”  That says it all: these government workers are asking for respect and fair treatment; they are not demanding huge benefit increases. Quite the contrary.

This is union busting, pure and simple. EJ Dionne, in a recent Washington Post column, says that Scott Walker’s agenda is more about power than budgets. Walker, it turns out, is pushing to end same-day registration for voting and trying to pass onerous voter ID laws that would especially burden those with lower incomes.

NCL supports the workers in states across the country who are standing up to the bullies in Governor’s offices trying to break the union. This is a turning point for unions that we’ll be watching carefully as the protests continue.