CPSC: Wal-Mart Withheld Recall Information
The CPSC has charged Wal-Mart with inaccurately informing consumers about the dangerous nature of the products for sale on its shelves. Wal-Mart has frequently withheld information about recalled or unsafe products, failed to get them off store shelves and even worse about informing customers of defective products. Offensive t-shirts stayed on the shelves for months after being recalled, toxic flip flops gave chemical burns to more than two dozen people across the country before Wal-Mart finally issued an official recall, the company secretly pulled dog food off its shelves without telling customers about the potential risks, and Wal-Mart stores around the country continue to sell recalled products without informing customers. To say that Wal-Mart’s recent recall lacked sufficient information is calling the symptoms the disease.
CPSC: Wal-Mart Recall Lacked Information [Associated Press via International Herald Tribune]
The federal consumer product watchdog agency said Tuesday that a unilateral recall of lead-tainted toy animals by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. lacked some information that consumers need, including how many toys were sold, when they were sold and at what other retailers.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the agency prefers that companies work with it to produce comprehensive recall announcements that give consumers all the information they need to react.
The nation’s largest toy seller announced Oct. 19 that it was pulling sets of plastic toy animals made in China and offering a refund to shoppers. It said its own safety testing, stepped up after this year’s string of toy recalls, found excessive lead levels in the material the toys are made of.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, October 30 | 36 comments | Permalink
You Doing a Heckuva Job, Nordie
This story has us just absolutely speechless. It makes sense for corporations to be against strengthening the Consumer Products Safety Commission: a stronger CPSC means big companies like Wal-Mart won’t be able to get away with their cost-reducing safety shortcuts any more. But why is the chair of the CPSC is opposed to getting more money, a bigger staff and better resources? What sorts of payoffs Nancy Nord is getting we’re not sure, but it just goes to show you how much of government is owned by corporations.
UPDATE: Looks like we’re not the only ones appalled by Nord’s actions: Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Rosa DeLauro are both calling for Nord to resign.
Strengthening of Consumer Agency Opposed by Its Boss [New York Times]
The top official for consumer product safety has asked Congress in recent days to reject legislation that would strengthen the agency that polices thousands of consumer goods, from toys to tools.
On the eve of an important Senate committee meeting to consider the legislation, Nancy A. Nord, the acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has asked lawmakers in two letters not to approve the bulk of legislation that would increase the agency’s authority, double its budget and sharply increase its dwindling staff.
Ms. Nord opposes provisions that would increase the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make public reports of faulty products, protect industry whistleblowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, October 30 | 0 comments | Permalink
The Wal-Mart Rock - But Check That Axe Before You Buy
Are you ready to ROCK?!?!?!?!
This is a lighter story, yes, but still so very, VERY disappointing to those of us amatuer axe-grinders who must take out our non-musical frustration on helpless videogames. Sure, I could have signed up for guitar lessons years ago, but why do that when for $50 I can pick up a used copy of Guitar Hero for my quickly aging PS2 and grind away like I’m the love child of Eddie Van Halen and Eric Clapton...if that sort of thing, you know, didn’t violate every law of human reproduction ever written.
At least, however, in my case I am aware that I am buying a slightly older (and in my case, gently used) version of the game. But behold the poor, poor guitarist-wannabe who gets his prized game home from the local Wal-Mart and finds the retailer has sold him a repackaged - and dated - version!
Yes, I know that the Gods of Rock will most assuredly smite the mighty sinner known as Wal-Mart...but, in the meantime, better check that label before you purchase. Wal-Mart has a way of repackaging that should make you feel shaky all over.
Wal-mart Guitar Hero 3 bundles may include old guitars [ars technica]
Anxious rock stars who ran to the nearest Wal-Mart to pick up a copy of the recently-released Guitar Hero III found themselves with an unexpected surprise. Apparently, Wal-Mart has been quietly selling altered versions of the new Guitar Hero III bundle which actually include the Guitar Hero II guitars rather than the newer models.
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Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, October 30 | 31 comments | Permalink
Dangerous Toys are a Human Rights Issue
Originally posted on the Huffington Post:
There’s more than one reason to be wary of toys on the shelves of your local Wal-Mart. After dozens of recalls over the last few months, consumers have grown to distrust toy manufacturers and justly so. Lead paint, faulty manufacturing, poor materials and dangerous components have made toy shopping a treacherous ordeal. But these dangerous toys aren’t putting just our children at risk: they also endanger the lives of the factory workers who make them.
The same forces that make manufacturers cut corners on paint and plastic also make manufacturers cut corners on labor costs. Working long hours in appalling conditions - often with toxic chemicals and no protection - laborers in China bear the true cost of America’s low price toys. Stores like Wal-Mart demand bottom dollar costs, but the costs come back not only to us and our children, but to entire communities overseas. Today’s news stories regarding children making clothing for the Gap, Inc. in India’s factories are another harsh reminder of that truth.
Last week’s Congressional hearing on toy safety and working conditions in China’s factories highlighted the fact that without ensuring the safety of employees in supplier factories, it is challenging at best to ensure the safety of the products that come out of those factories and ultimately the safety of our children.
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Posted by David Nassar, Executive Director on Monday, October 29 | 21 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Plays Huge Role in Use of Sweatshop Labor say Congressional Panelists
ABC News’ coverage of yesterday’s hearing of the Congressional Commerce Committee highlights this quote from Bama Athreya from the International Labor Rights Forum:
The largest toy distributor in the United States is Wal-Mart, and Bama Athreya, director of the activist group International Labor Rights Forum, claimed the discount chain will sell $7 billion worth of toys this year.
It is that company’s ability to demand lower costs, she argued, that has contributed to some of the poor working conditions in China.
“Wal-Mart bears a lion share of responsibility for pushing the toy industry to a place where worker health and safety are basically nonexistent,” Athreya testified to Congress.
You can find archived video of the hearing here, live coverage from Consumerist here, the National Labor Committee’s report Toys of Misery, ILRF’s report on Wal-Mart’s sourcing practices and more on our toy safety blog.
Sweatshop Toys? China’s Goods Find U.S. Homes [ABC News]
With a spate of safety recalls already drawing scrutiny to the multibillion dollar toy industry and products manufactured in China, a Senate panel heard grim testimony Thursday on another aspect of toy production—the plight of workers in China who work in toy factories.
A panel of international labor activists said workers in toy factories are forced to work 14-hour shifts for six or seven days a week, with no job security and for extremely low pay—as little as 53 cents an hour.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, October 26 | 1 comments | Permalink
National Labor Committee Report Examines Conditions in Wal-Mart Supplier Factories
A new report from the National Labor Committee examines the inhumane working conditions of factories in China where toys for Wal-Mart are made. Click on the image at right to download the report, or on the headline below for a wbe-based version.
Xin Yi Plastics Factory Yu Lu Industrial Zone II Gong Ming Town. Shenzhen, China
The Xin Yi Plastics Company is made up of two factories – Xin Yi and Jia Li Bao – sprawling over a large 725,500 square foot compound in the Yu Lu Industrial Zone II. There are over 5,000 workers.
Conditions in both factories are the same.Xin Yi produces high-end electronic toys such as Barbie electric guitars and keyboards, Barbie cassette players, Barbie “Hug N’ Heal” Pet Doctor Sets; Thomas and Friends Engine Works Playset and Deluxe Cranky the Crane; and other plastic toys such as Wild Planet Toys’ “Sugar Snaps” and “Girls Living in Style Real Working Fan and Radio” as well as games like Hasbro’s Connect 4.
According to the workers, Xin Yi’s major clients are Mattel, Wal-Mart, and McDonald’s. All Xin Yi’s production is for export.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, October 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
Toys, Children’s Products, And The Chinese Sweatshops In Which They’re Made
Consumerist has live coverage today of the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on toy safety, children’s products and China’s labor conditions. Tens of thousands of toys have been recalled in recent months, and many of the recalled toys were sold at Wal-Mart stores. This hearing illuminates the fact that faulty toys are inherently tied to poor working conditions in the place where they’re made: in the overwhelming number of cases, that place is China. Consumerist describes Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee as he discusses working conditions the country’s toy factories:
09:47: The average workweek is 87 hours, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
09:48: Workers are required to stand as they are yelled at by supervisors, and if anyone speaks back they are immediately fired.
09:48: The standard salary is $0.53 per hour - overtime pay is regularly confiscated.
09:50: He’s holding up a Barbie, claiming: “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Bama Anthreya of the International Labor Rights Forum goes on to explain that “Mattel, Hasbro, Fischer-Price and Disney all use sweatshops, but the biggest beneficiary is Walmart.”
The issues being discussed have far-reaching implications for Wal-Mart, which sources more than 70% of its products from China and relies on the country’s lax labor standards for its low prices. Here’s a link to the video of the hearing, and we’ll be listening in. In the mean time, check out Consumerist’s live coverage, or our archives of Wal-Mart’s toy safety record and Wal-Mart’s relationship with China.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, October 25 | 0 comments | Permalink
Lunch Discussion on Wal-Mart and Product Safety
Wal-Mart Watch presents a lunch discussion in Washington, DC. with E. Marla Felcher, Writer, Consumer Advocate and Lecturer at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. If you are interested in discussing the impact Wal-Mart has on the production and regulation of products sold at its stores, you won’t want to miss:
THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE:
How the Travel-Lite Portable Crib Killed Six Toddlers and Why the CPSC Can’t Do Much About it
Lunch will be provided by Wal-Mart Watch
WHEN: Tuesday, October 30th. 12:00 noon – 1:30 PM
RSVP: 202.557.7470
E. Marla Felcher is a freelance journalist, non-profit marketing consultant, and Lecturer of Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2001, Ms. Felcher published, It’s No Accident: How Corporations Sell Dangerous Baby Products (Common Courage Press), an account of the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s inability to effectively regulate the manufacturers of high chairs, cribs, strollers and other products used by children. It’s No Accident has been endorsed by the country’s leading consumer groups and pediatric health care practitioners, and has been used as the basis of legislation by members of Congress, both at the state and federal level. Ms. Felcher has also testified before Congress about product safety multiple times.
This event is part of a lunch series sponsored by Wal-Mart Watch.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, October 23 | 0 comments | Permalink
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