Slave Labor? Kids as Young as 6 Found Working in Berry Fields
A Child Working the Fields
Children labor laws exist for a reason, so that young children aren’t taken advantage of and exploited. It’s common knowledge that kids should not be working, unless they have a part in a major motion picture or are modeling for Gymboree that is. But young ones should not, and I repeat not, be toiling in the fields.
There once was a time – not that long ago -when children routinely did manual labor, working in factories, in the fields and slaving away. Child labor, after much struggle, was finally deemed illegal during the Great Depression. But apparently not everyone got the memo. Today children are still being exploited and forced to work.
And three strawberry farm in Southwest Washington were found to be in violation of federal laws by having children as young as six-years-old pick berries for them – and for no pay! Labor officials reportedly discovered nine kids aged 6 to 11 working on the farms. “The kind of work that kids are doing on commercial farms, I think, is fundamentally different than the kind of berry-picking people did as kids 50 years ago,” said a source. “We’re talking about kids who are picking 100 to 200 pounds of berries a day. In strawberries, that’s a lot of stooping and standing. They complain to us about backaches — their backs hurt when they sleep at night — and we see these horribly bruised knees.” The three farms were fined a combined $73,050 for allegedly violating provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
The children were working along adults, sometimes their parents or relatives. Some kids were made to work by their parents in order to pick more fruit since workers are often paid by how much they pick.
Although this may seem shocking, this isn’t a new problem, and is evidently wide spread.
In a petition on the subject the Human Rights Watch wrote: “Hundreds of thousands of children are employed as farmworkers in the United States, often working 10 or more hours a day. They are often exposed to dangerous pesticides, experience high rates of injury, and suffer fatalities at five times the rate of other working youth. Their long hours contribute to alarming drop-out rates. Government statistics show that barely half ever finish high school. According to the National Safety Council, agriculture is the second most dangerous occupation in the United States. However, current US child labor laws allow child farmworkers to work longer hours, at younger ages, and under more hazardous conditions than other working youths. While children in other sectors must be 12 to be employed and cannot work more than 3 hours on a school day, in agriculture children can work at age 12 for unlimited hours before and after school.”
Do you think there is anyway to control this problem and enforce the laws or is it just too widespread?
Image: ABC News
I think there is a major difference between children working and children being forced to work, and under harsh conditions. I see no problem with PARENTS deciding that their children are capable of contributing to the family’s economic well-being. Hey, at least they’re not rotting in daycare. Me and my brothers all worked in our family business from the ages of six onwards, and it was nothing but an enormous sense of pleasure and pride that we could contribute. But just as it is parents who decide if their children can have wine, so it should be parents who decide how much and under what conditions children work. Workers shouldn’t be abused, no matter what their age.
Slave labor = better than daycare. When dealing with this level of logic, it’s better to just not.
I think the child labour laws are a double edged sword. In my area work eligibility starts at 14, but in some jobs (such as mining) it can go all the way up to 18. I work at a centre for homeless teenagers and it breaks my heart to see kids around 15 being kicked out, considered old enough to not go into foster care, and be forced to sleep outside and panhandle since they aren’t old enough for the types of labour jobs that would hire someone with no education, and aren’t old enough to legally rent an apartment. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to not align the ages for living independently, working, and renting or owning a home. I’ve seen it ruin a lot of lives. On the other hand, this story is just awful, and I’m sure it was prompted by a need to survive by the families which is equally awful and shows a major need for improvement in social services. It’s always horrifying to see kids unable to be kids. It’s a give and take. There’s no excuse for forcing children into work, and there needs to be an option to help poor parents put food on the table without something so drastic and wrong. Child labour laws are absolutely improperly enforced for the most part, in my opinion. I wish there were more funding to intervene before these poor kids are scarred by this loss of childhood.
I think scale matters.
A child whose family has a few horses might very well be expected to clean stalls everyday. A child whose family owns a large horse farm might be reasonably expected to be asked to clean out a small percentage of stalls. A child who lives next to a large horse farm could even be reasonably paid for cleaning stalls an hour or so a day (how is that really different than mowing lawns or babysitting?) But a child to clean out stalls all day? No.
However, I agree with Skelly point about homeless teens. Teens shouldn’t have to work to survive and should get help from the state but they shouldn’t be left with no choices besides stealing or prostitution.
Oh man. when I first saw this post, I predicted Andrea’s response but didn’t say anything because it seemed rude. And then… I was proven right. sigh.
I feel bad for the parents in this story too! They are probably on their knees all day too and bending over–their poor backs. These are lousy working conditions for anyone. Someone should invent a machine that would pick the berries so no one will have to do this terrible job. Maybe one person to operate the machine and a company to build the machine.
Scorp and Bunny, this is when I wish the comments allowed embedding…
http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/f/f3/Fanserviceftw_7538_Obvious_troll_is_obvious.jpg
… and I know I have posted it before, but it’s a classic! And an apt description, as well.