Consumers Union
Encyclopedia
Consumers Union is a non-profit organization best known as the publisher of Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports is an American magazine published monthly by Consumers Union since 1936. It publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory. It also publishes cleaning and general buying guides...

, based in the United States. Its mission is to "test products, inform the public, and protect consumers."

In addition to its research and publishing activities, Consumers Union has four advocacy offices that attempt to influence policy that affects consumers, in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, California; Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, Texas; and Yonkers
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...

, New York. Employees based in these offices "testify before federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies, petition government agencies, and file lawsuits on behalf of the consumer interest."

Consumers Union's advocacy staff focus on policy issues related to telecommunications, mass media, vehicle safety, health care, product safety, financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...

, investing, food safety, housing, and energy and utility deregulation.

History

Consumers Union was founded in 1936 by Arthur Kallet
Arthur Kallet
Arthur Kallet was a leading consumer advocate.An engineer, Kallet co-authored a 1933 book entitled 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics with fellow engineer Frederick Schlink.In 1936 he left as director of Consumers Research after its head F.J...

, Colston Warne
Colston Warne
Colston Estey Warne was a professor of economics and one of the founders of Consumers Union , in 1936...

, and others who felt that the established Consumers Research
Consumers Research
Consumers' Research is a defunct non-profit organization established in 1929 by Stuart Chase and F.J. Schlink , after the success of their book Your Money's Worth: a study in the waste of the Consumer's Dollar galvanized interest in testing products on behalf of consumers...

 organization was not aggressive enough. Kallet, an engineer and director of Consumers Research, had a falling out with F.J. Schlink and started his own organization with Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 economics professor Colston Warne
Colston Warne
Colston Estey Warne was a professor of economics and one of the founders of Consumers Union , in 1936...

. In part due to actions of Consumers Research, the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...

 placed Consumers Union on a list of subversive organizations, only to remove them in 1954.

Consumers Union has helped start several consumer groups and publications, in 1960 helping create global consumer group Consumers International
Consumers International
Consumers International is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers...

 and in 1974 providing financial assistance to Consumers' Checkbook which is considered akin to Consumer Reports for local services in the seven metropolitan areas they serve.

At the start of 2009, Consumers Union acquired The Consumerist blog from Gawker Media
Gawker Media
Gawker Media is an American online media company and blog network, founded and owned by Nick Denton based in New York City. It is considered to be one of the most visible and successful blog-oriented media companies. , it is the parent company for 11 different weblogs: Gawker.com, Fleshbot,...

 for approximately $600,000.

Advocacy and campaigns

Consumers Union has hundreds of thousands of e-advocates who take action and write letters to policymakers about the issues its advocates take on. CU has also launched several new advocacy websites including HearUsNow.org which helps consumers with telecommunications policy matters. In March 2005, CU campaign PrescriptionforChange.org released "Drugs I Need
Drugs I Need
For the Against All Will song, see The Drug I Need."Drugs I Need" is a satirical animated short made by The Animation Farm and the Austin Lounge Lizards and produced by the Consumers Union. The animation parodies a regular pharmaceutical television commercial, detailing the benefits of a drug whose...

", an animated short with a song from the Austin Lounge Lizards
Austin Lounge Lizards
The Austin Lounge Lizards are a band from Austin, Texas formed in 1980. The band includes founding members Hank Card and Conrad Deisler, along with Darcie Deaville and Bruce Jones...

, that was featured by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, JibJab
JibJab
JibJab is a digital entertainment studio based in Venice, California. Founded in 1999 by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, it was noticed during the 2004 US presidential election when their video of George W. Bush and John Kerry singing "This Land is Your Land" became a hit. The company creates,...

, BoingBoing, and hundreds of blogs. On Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...

 2005, CU launched GreenerChoices.org, a web-based initiative meant to "inform, engage, and empower consumers about environmentally-friendly products and practices."

Consumers Union is a sponsor of the Stop Hospital Infections campaign, whose goal is to aid consumers in finding the best quality of health care by promoting the public disclosure of hospital-acquired infection rates. The US Centers for Disease Control states that about 2 million patients annually (about 1 in 20) will acquire an infection while being treated in a hospital for an unrelated health care problem, resulting in 99,000 deaths and as much as $45 billion in excess hospital costs. The campaign has worked in every state calling for legislation requiring hospitals to disclose infection rates to the public. Currently, 27 US states require such disclosure, and federal legislation proposes to establish a national requirement.

GreenerChoices.org offers an "accessible, reliable, and practical source of information on buying 'greener' products that have minimal environmental impact and meet personal needs." The site contains many articles about different products, rating them on how "green" they are. It also focuses on electronics and appliance recycling and reuse, as well as conservation and global warming prevention.

Campaign for children's health care

Consumers Union is a partner in the Campaign for Children's Health Care
Campaign for Children's Health Care
The Campaign for Children's Health Care is an American issue advocacy campaign dedicated to making high-quality, affordable health insurance coverage for all of America's children a top national priority...

, a multi-year campaign to raise awareness about the problem of uninsured children in America.

See also

  • Consumers International
    Consumers International
    Consumers International is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers...

  • Australian Consumers' Association
  • Consumers' Institute of New Zealand
    Consumers' Institute of New Zealand
    - The history of Consumer :The Consumers’ Council was established in 1959 ‘to protect and promote the interest of consumers of goods and services’. In 1963 the name Consumers Institute was adopted and in 1967 it became a separate government funded entity...

  • UFC Que Choisir
    UFC Que Choisir
    UFC Que Choisir is a French consumers group.UFC Que Choisir defends the rights of consumers in litigation against corporations, and pushes for public policies reinforcing the rights of consumers. They publish a magazine called Que Choisir ....

     , France's most important consumers' group.
  • Verbraucherzentrale , Germany's most important consumers' group.
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