Rick Woldenberg of Learning Resources Inc., a leading advocate of reforming the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, enthusiastically endorses the NAM CPSC Coalition’s renewed request for a one-year stay of the CPSIA’s product tracking label requirements:

In its letter, NAM called the lack of CPSC implementing guidance on tracking labels “an unconscionable dilemma for industry”. The tracking labels fiasco creates enormous burdens for industry and is in many ways pointless and unjustifiable. See my earlier posts (here, here, here and here) on this topic and my testimony before the CPSC for background (here and here). To allow this provision to stand, without having given ANY guidance or answered ANY of the legitimate and appropriate questions of industry, would be shamefully irresponsible of the CPSC Commission. [Unfortunately, Congress seems immune to shame when it comes to the CPSIA and will not act to delay this provision. As its leaders will tell you, Congress has already acted with great "common sense".] The notion that it is okay to induce widespread economic convulsions as part of some kind of jolly “learning process” must be REJECTED.

If Rick comes across as exercised, frustrated and angry, well, thousands of manufacturers — including many, many small, home-based business owners — are similarly besides themselves. When Congress passes a law that puts you out of business and then pretends there’s not a problem, frustration and anger seem like a reasonable reaction.

Regarding the Institute for Supply Management’s June report on manufacturing:  Today’s report indicates that the manufacturing recession could end sometime in the second half of the year.

The fact that the overall PMI index improved for a sixth consecutive month in June is significant.  After bottoming out at 32.9 last December, the PMI Index rose to a level of 44.8 in June, still shy of the break-even point of 50, which signals that the manufacturing sector is expanding. 

And while it has yet to break into positive territory, positive developments, especially over the past few months, mirror similar improvements in other regional surveys of manufacturing activity throughout the second quarter.

The fact that the ISM’s measure of manufacturing production rose into positive territory in June for the first time since last August is noteworthy.  And, while there have been significant improvements in both overall orders, as well as export orders, over the first half of the year, the fact that both continued to contract last month signals that a general upturn in manufacturing activity in the second half will likely be gradual.

If you’re out and about over the Independence Day holiday — attending a Fourth of July parade, perhaps — and you spot a member of Congress, be sure to let him or her know why the Employee Free Choice Act will harm employers, employees and the right NOT to be unionized.

Here’s an NAM-produced video about EFCA, including the voices of workers who think EFCA is a bad, bad idea.

Thanks to the NAM’s Matt Preiss and James Skelly for producing the video.

We took note last week of Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks to the political and legislative conference of the Communications Workers of America, checking to see what he had to say about the Employee Free Choice Act. (Transcript.)

Amid the expected exhortation, one phrase jumped out when the Vice President attacked union opponents generally and the Bush-era National Labor Relations Board specifically for being biased against union organizers.

You know, the National Labor Relations Act says we should “encourage” – paraphrase – “encourage” unions, not mandate them, encourage them. Why? It’s good for the economy. It’s gotten lopsided, folks.

The guys who were supposed to be wearing striped shirts have been wearing black shirts the last eight years. We don’t have referees out there doing it the right way. We’re switching out the shirts, because we’re switching out the people wearing the shirts.

Black shirts? Black shirts? That’s the term used to describe the Italian paramilitary squads and bully boys who helped Mussolini’s rise to power after WWI. (Oswald Mosely’s fascists in England were also known by the term.) If you call someone a “black shirt” you’re calling him a fascist.

We chalked the use of the term up to rhetorical haste, a confusion of black hats — bad guys — and striped shirts — referees. True, you would think someone with vast foreign policy experience would be sensitive to a term like black shirt. Still, a mistake.

But the Vice President has used the term in other speeches to union groups. It’s obviously part of his stump union speech. At some point he or his speech writer said, “Yeah, black shirts. That’s good. Put that in.”

From Vice President Biden’s remarks to the 2009 Legislative Conference Of The American Federation Of State, County And Municipal Employees, May 12, 2009:

There has been a steady drumbeat. The guys wearing striped shirts were wearing black shirts, not striped shirts as referees. They’ve done anything administratively, legislatively and creatively for someone who wants to join a union to join a union.

Black shirts AND drumbeats.

Continuing on the topic of regulations, the left-leaning-leaning-leaning-oops-it’s-toppled-over magazine, The Nation, envisions a newly emboldened and empowered and progressive Federal Trade Commission now making common cause with the Justice Department against “corporate gigantism.” From “The Little Agency that Could“:

Congress needs to take action to unleash the FTC’s full potential. First, it remains a small agency with broad and complex responsibilities and cumbersome procedural burdens, especially in rule-making. Here, the FTC’s champions in Congress can make certain that Congress supplies more resources and streamlines the FTC’s authority. The agency also has a chronic problem of setting priorities: wherever it turns, there are corporate malefactors, large and small, deserving of prosecution. Last year then-chair Kovacic prepared a broad review of the FTC’s effectiveness on the occasion of its approaching 100th anniversary. In his report he called for a larger staff and mission for the FTC’s independent Policy Planning Office to set priorities for the agency–especially apt to its mission of helping to restore a healthy and competitive economy. But the effort needs more than planners; it needs many more prosecutorial troops on the ground.

The second problem facing the FTC is the hangover from eight years of reactionary Bush judicial appointments hostile to FTC cases. (These cases invoked innovative legal theories that aimed for such goals as denying mergers or breaking up huge conglomerates and cited not only traditional anticompetitive theories but broader theories of harm to the economy and the public welfare.) This impediment, too, could be significantly ameliorated by clear legislative authority.

Just what America needs to stay competitive and create jobs: More prosecutorial troops to pursue innovative legal theories.

From Al Kamen’s Washington Post column, reviewing the State Department’s annual compilation of gifts from foreign visitors to federal officials:

[Ukrainian President Viktor] Yushchenko gave Lynne Cheney “Three Ukrainian cookbooks,” valued at $90, which she kept. And he gave the Cheney daughters and grandkids seven Ukrainian children’s books, six plush stuffed animals, three girls’ blouses, three boys’ shirts, and a “wooden toy cart with horses,” which they kept.

Goodness. That’s a full gift bag of children’s products. Had they been tested for lead or phthalate content? What about the paint or varnish on the wooden toy cart with horses? Were the children’s books published pre-1985, or do the Ukrainians even today still use ink with trace amounts of lead? And surely the gifts had permanent labels attached to them.

These gifts could have started a real foreign policy crisis.

If only it were this kind of a joking matter. The next big snagbar from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act arrives with the August 14th deadline for permanent tracking labels on all children’s products. Walter Olson summarizes at Overlawyered.com the many, crushing problems associated with the latest CPSIA requirement:

As noted earlier, the next all-out debacle on the CPSIA front is expected to result from the law’s tracking and labeling regulations, due to take effect August 14, and for which the CPSC has not yet issued guidance, although product makers ordinarily need to resolve crucial issues of manufacturing (as with etching of lot numbers) and packaging at least many months if not longer in advance of sale. Sharon McLoone at CNNMoney had quite a good report a week ago on this latest crisis, which as of this writing has not been followed up much of anywhere else in the press.

Congress has exited Washington to celebrate U.S. independence back home, with the Senate to return on Monday, July 6, and the House on Tuesday, July 7. A few members sponsor committee field hearings in the meantime.

President Obama starts the week by meeting with a U.S. ally and supporter of democracy and free markets, Colombia President Uribe. (Colombia’s news release in Spanish.) He travels to Camp David for the Independence Day holiday and prepares for his trip to Russia, Italy and Ghana.

The National Association of Manufacturers will be closed Thursday (Canada Day, you know) and Friday. [Correction: Canada Day is Wednesday, July 1. And Boxing Day is December 26.]

The Supreme Court breaks for the summer issuing three opinions today on reverse employment discrimination, the free speech right to criticize politicians even during campaign, and regulatory supervision of bank practices.

Other major issues that will mark the history of mankind: U.S. troops complete withdrawal from Iraqi urban centers on Tuesday, Honduras in turmoil, and Michael Jackson will be buried.

House Hearings: On Thursday, Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL) and the oversight subcommittee of House Financial Services is in West Palm Beach, Florida, for a hearing on homeowners’ insurance.

Senate Hearings: Chairman Mary Landrieu (D-LA) convenes the Senate Small Business Committee in New Orleans Tuesday for a hearingon federal programs that promote small business exporting. Witnesses include U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk,  SBA Administrator Mills, and Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg.

Executive Branch: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke also meets with President Uribe of Colombia, having canceled an earlier meeting in Providence, R.I., from fear of crossing a picket line. Education Secretary Arne Duncan returns to Chicago today for a speech to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Convention. (Duncan’s weekly schedule.)

Economic Reports: From The Seattle Times:  On Wednesday, the U.S. unemployment rate for June is released. For April, it hit 9.4 percent…Also out Wednesday is the Institute of Supply Management’s monthly manufacturing index, plus vehicle sales. The latest report on factory orders is out Thursday.

From the AP, “Companies appeal to China to drop Web filter plan“:

BEIJING (AP) — Global business groups have made an unusual direct appeal to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to scrap an order for PC makers to supply controversial Internet filtering software, citing security and privacy concerns.

Just days before the deadline to comply with China’s order, the letter from 22 chambers of commerce and trade groups representing the world’s major technology suppliers adds to pressure on Beijing to halt the plan following an official protest by Washington.

The order requires manufacturers to pre-install or supply “Green Dam Youth Escort” software with PCs made for sale in China beginning Wednesday.

John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, was one of the signers of the letter. (Letter here.) The core argument:

China’s recent decision to mandate the inclusion of Green Dam Internet filtering software in all computers sold in China effective July 1, 2009, however, raises serious concerns for us and seems to run counter to China’s important goal of becoming a vibrant and dynamic information-based society. More specifically, the Green Dam mandate raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice.

We want to underscore that we recognize and support the use of effective and responsible parental controls. Yet the breadth, scope and technology-specific nature of the mandate veers markedly from global approaches and solutions.

Human rights group also object.

Keith Smith below notes Sen. Tom Harkin’s remarks to the Communications Workers of America, it’s annual legislative and political conference in Washington. We were curious as to what Vice President Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis had to say to the union members, as well.

We don’t find a transcript online, but the video of the Vice President’s remarks is posted at the CWA’s website here. In introductions the union president, Larry Cohen, hails Vice President Biden’s “perfect voting record” during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate.

“I can tell you personally, he’s working actively to help us get 60 votes to put the Employee Free Choice Act on the floor of the U.S. Senate,” Cohen avers.

We don’t find Secretary Solis’ remarks anywhere; the DOL speech section includes nothing new since April 28.

As for the Vice President, we wonder who the lucky winner was:

You Can Meet Vice President Biden

June 11, 2009

Vice President Joe Biden will address CWAers at the joint convention/legislative-political conference on June 24, and one lucky CWA member will be chosen to join the escort committee to make him feel right at home. Click here for your chance to meet Joe Biden.

The only requirements are that you are a CWA member and that you are an active contributor to CWA-COPE. If you are not currently contributing to CWA-COPE, you can sign up right here to become eligible.

Pay to play!

That’s a German saying that means, “Everything in its place saves time and angry words.”

Just came to mind when seeing this new Spiegel article, “German Researchers Tackle Untidy Desks“:

It’s the same problem everywhere: Overloaded desks aren’t just frustrating for their owners — they also make employers unhappy. Academic researchers have long been studying the issue and have reached some surprising conclusions. According to a study on the “lean office” by the Stuttgart-based Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, a good 10 percent of working time is wasted through “superfluous or missing work material” or “constant searching for the right document in chaotic file directories.”

The researchers found that wasted time in poorly organized offices could eat up nearly one-third of annual working time. Over a year, that means there are 70 days in which employees are — as [Juergen] Kurz puts it — “engaging in pointless activity.” It’s a statistic which would shock any personnel manager.

Kurz, an efficiency expert, recommends:

• Take a digital photograph of your current desk. The photo shows how visitors, suppliers, customers and the boss see you.
• Buy a container for wastepaper. Feel free to buy one larger than the area of your desk.
• Only keep on your desk the materials you need for the current task. Staplers, punches, adhesive tape and other office supplies belong in a drawer. Transfer the sticky notes on your monitor to a separate file.
• Put anything you haven’t used for a while into a box. Label it with a date a few months into the future. When that date comes around, dispose of anything you haven’t used in the meantime.

Ack. Here’s our gesture of the day: We are throwing away the media badge from the 2008 Chicago Auto Show. Out it goes!