Events

Toxic Trade Poisons

Due to overwhelming demand, the USW's supply of free lead screening kits are out of stock.

Thousands of Steelworkers. One hundred congressional offices. One union. One day.

On Wednesday, Jan. 16, members of the United Steelworkers and its allies will take its “Stop Toxic Imports” campaign to the nation’s policymakers. In this National Day of Action, the union will demand that Congress take immediate action to protect Americans from the dangerous threat posed by the millions of lead-laced toys and other unsafe products infiltrating our country.

The USW will be joined by dozens of allied community, environmental and health organizations from across the country, as well as the AFL-CIO and other labor groups.

“The massive toy recalls this holiday season drew attention to the much larger problem of the countless dangerous imports – tires, toothpaste, fake drugs, pet food – making their way on to U.S. store shelves,” said USW President Leo W. Gerard, who has spearheaded the USW “Protect Our Kids – Stop Toxic Imports” campaign. “People are starting to realize that we’re paying the price for cheap, imported goods so corporations can make bigger profits. It’s time for our policymakers to fix this broken trade system, repair our regulatory agencies and protect our jobs and families.”

The USW is calling for support for the U.S. Food and Product Responsibility Act, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and in the House by Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind. This legislation would safeguard Americans against toxic food and products by shifting the responsibility on to the backs of the companies producing the goods and the importers importing them.

The USW is not alone in demanding change. Check out this “Sound Off” video where consumers give policymakers a piece of their minds when it comes to the toxic trade crisis.

Latest Press Releases

40 States, 100 Members of Congress, 100 Million Children
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
United Steelworkers (USW) Take Fight To Local Congressional Offices National Day of Action on Toxic Trade, Jan 16
[ Read More ]

Toxic toy law misses big picture. Steelworkers say it focuses on symptom, not disease
Monday, December 17, 2007
Toronto—Proposed legislation on toxic toys ignores the root problem, the United Steelworkers (USW) union said today. It overlooks where and how toxic toys are made, focusing on the symptom more than the disease.
[ Read More ]

Steelworkers Union Crusades Against Toxic Trade to Protect Kids from Lead Toys, Products this Holiday Season
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
PITTSBURGH – As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, the United Steelworkers is hosting “Safe Home Sessions” in 17 cities across the country to educate families about how to screen for lead contaminants in toys and other products. With the massive toy recalls parents and grandparents across the country are extremely concerned about toxins that kids are being exposed to every day.
[ Read More ]

Kids’ Bracelet Contains Extremely Toxic Cadmium CSPC not interested in “new public health threat”
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
PITTSBURGH - The United Steelworkers (USW) today said the latest toxic toy discovery – extremely high levels of poisonous cadmium in an imported kids’ charm bracelet – is more proof that the nation’s failed trade policies and a broken regulatory system are putting children at risk and must immediately be fixed.
[ Read More ]

Make products safer by making them in Canada: Steelworkers
Thursday, November 08, 2007
OTTAWA — This holiday shopping season, a rising dollar isn’t the only thing on families’ minds. In response to recalls of two million unsafe toys, the United Steelworkers (USW) today called on MPs to give some teeth to the Throne Speech promise to make imported products safer, starting with importer-paid safety tests at the border.
[ Read More ]

Latest Blog Entries

This Week in Toxic Trade
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
This Week in Toxic Trade, 12/05/07 “Safe Home Session” Cities, 11/28 Los Angeles, CA Columbus, OH Traverse City, MI Buffalo, NY Houston, TX Oklahoma City, OK Tacoma, WA Des Moines, IA St. Louis, MO Tampa, FL Louisville, KY Charleston, WV Syracuse, NY Indianapolis, IN Green Bay, WI Nashville, TN This past week brought with it the latest blitz of United Steelworkers’ “Safe Home Sessions,” organized to teach families ensure the safety of their children against the potential of lead contamination in toys imported from China...
[ Read More ]

This Week in Toxic Trade
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
“An overzealous government that tries to keep all bad products off the market is likely to err by keeping too many good products off the market.” So warns James A. Dorn of the free-market think-tank the Cato Institute in an editorial entitled Toxic Toys: Congress Risks Making Things Worse, critical of the Sen. Richard Durbin’s (D-IL) proposed Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act of 2007 (S. 1847) bill slowly making its rounds in Congress, which would dramatically and incrementally increase funding for the much maligned CPSC and implement stronger repercussions for multinational companies whose products fail to meet safety standards...
[ Read More ]