Trish-Deirdre-Noel

=Product Origins= Clothing:

[|Legislative efforts to protect against sweatshop products...] "The legislation would define trafficking in sweatshop goods as an unfair practice before the Federal Trade Commission. It would also create a private right of action for companies (including individual shareholders in those companies) to sue other companies because they are allegedly selling sweatshop made goods. Finally, it would grant new powers to the U.S. Government to investigate contractors to ensure the U.S. government is not purchasing goods made with sweatshop labor."

[|Children's Clothing Regulations]

"In 1996, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) modified the children’s sleepwear flammability standards to permit the sale of children’s sleepwear made from non-flame resistant material for sizes 0-9 months or that meet certain snug-fitting dimensions. In 1999, the CPSC reaffirmed this rule with additional labeling requirements. Years of data continue to support the facts that this sleepwear is safe. Although efforts were made in previous Congress’s to overturn this standard, no such efforts have been made thus far in the 110th Congress."

[|Blood Diamonds] "On 1 December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, unanimously, a resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict, breaking the link between the illicit transaction of rough diamonds and armed conflict, as a contribution to prevention and settlement of conflicts (A/RES/55/56)."

Toys:

[|Toy Hazard Recalls] U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission lists toy hazard recalls listed by date of issuance with most recent entries first.

[|Lead Free Toys] "Toxic toys are on the minds of parents and grandparents this holiday shopping season. Lead, the environmental scourge that has scandalously been painted on and then sent to babies, toddlers and children by some of the biggest, formerly most-trusted names in childhood play, can cause serious neurological damage to our young."

=Outsourcing= [|The Future of Outsourcing] "Globalization has been brutal to midwestern manufacturers like the Paper Converting Machine Co. For decades, PCMC's Green Bay (Wis.) factory, its oiled wooden factory floors worn smooth by work boots, thrived by making ever-more-complex equipment to weave, fold, and print packaging for everything from potato chips to baby wipes"

[|Is Outsourcing Bad?] "These are anxious times for U.S. workers. Sure, the recovery seems to be getting under way. Yet hardly a week goes by without another report of a batch of high-paying, white-collar jobs getting exported to far cheaper locales such as India, China, or the Philippines. In mid-July, IBM (IBM ) set off a firestorm when news of its plans to move more white-collar jobs overseas was leaked to //The New York Times//. And news service Reuters announced on July 28 that it will move 600 or so jobs from New York, as well as dozens of other slots in England, Scotland, and Singapore, to its operations in India."

[|The Economics of Outsourcing]
 * "71 percent of Americans are concerned** that the current trend of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries will affect their job security or earning potential. (Source: BH Careers International, 2004-07-16) **71 percent of Americans are concerned** that the current trend of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries will affect their job security or earning potential. (Source: BH Careers International, 2004-07-16)"

[|Politics of Outsourcing] "The latest political fallout of the current "outsourcing" debate came recently when the Bush Administration's designated "manufacturing czar" turned out to be Anthony F. Raimondo, whose "crime" was to be the head of a firm that recently opened a factory in China. The embarrassed Bushies quickly urged Raimondo to withdraw his nomination, as the Democrats (and a number of Republicans) made hay over the whole thing."