more gruel for the capitalists, more labor for the kids
October 4, 2023 9:45 AM Subscribe
Tyson and Perdue directly under investigation for 'illegal' child labor.
According to the NYT, "The investigations are a rare instance of two major consumer brands facing federal scrutiny over child labor. Many meat-processing companies outsource cleaning to sanitation firms [...] After another investigation recently found more than 100 children cleaning plants around the country, [...] the corporations that benefited from the children’s work, including Tyson, did not come under investigation.
In other recent 'illegal' child labor news:
Court orders operators of 14 Bay Area Subway locations to pay employees nearly $1M in wages, damages; sell or shut down their businesses
"14 Bay Area Subway restaurants to pay employees nearly $1 million in back wages and damages after federal investigators found they directed children as young as 14 and 15 to use dangerous equipment and assigned minors to work hours not permitted by law; failed to pay employees their wages regularly, including by issuing them hundreds of bad checks; and illegally kept tips left by customers."
"Illegal" child labor has apparently seen more than a doubling from 2018 to 2023. Thank goodness for our Congress which has introduced a plethora of child labor related legislation, the vast majority of which... hmmm didn't make it beyond a committee read. This is following a spate of child labor related news from just the last year like this one or this one or this one from just one year earlier. Thankfully, state legislatures are picking up the slack and are moving to make... hmmm child labor less "illegal". "Over the last two years, at least 14 states introduced or passed laws eroding child labor standards, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank."
Also there was that Cargill child slave labor piece of news from last year too but that was outside the US so... it's not as serious. Oh and there was also that time an 8-year-old child was run over and killed on a dairy farm where he was being raised while his father was working but the child wasn't... employed? So it's just a child human rights issue that's tangential. There were also a bunch of stories from 2021 and 2022 like this one and this one, and likely there are a bunch more that aren't reported since there's an overall growing trend in combination with all of the ways this labor is being legalized
"The number of minors employed in violation of child-labor laws last year was up thirty-seven per cent from the previous year, according to the Department of Labor, and up two hundred and eighty-three per cent from 2015. (These are violations caught by government, so they likely represent a fraction of the real number.)"
Apparently any kind of child labor is probably bad for kids except for, of course, the legal kind of child labor we have here which are based on the Fair Labor Standards Act of... hmmm 1938 (FLSA) which apparently don't apply to the 500,000 or so kids picking produce in the USA.
Luckily they have Tiktok and don't face age discrimination as much as other generations.
According to the NYT, "The investigations are a rare instance of two major consumer brands facing federal scrutiny over child labor. Many meat-processing companies outsource cleaning to sanitation firms [...] After another investigation recently found more than 100 children cleaning plants around the country, [...] the corporations that benefited from the children’s work, including Tyson, did not come under investigation.
In other recent 'illegal' child labor news:
Court orders operators of 14 Bay Area Subway locations to pay employees nearly $1M in wages, damages; sell or shut down their businesses
"14 Bay Area Subway restaurants to pay employees nearly $1 million in back wages and damages after federal investigators found they directed children as young as 14 and 15 to use dangerous equipment and assigned minors to work hours not permitted by law; failed to pay employees their wages regularly, including by issuing them hundreds of bad checks; and illegally kept tips left by customers."
"Illegal" child labor has apparently seen more than a doubling from 2018 to 2023. Thank goodness for our Congress which has introduced a plethora of child labor related legislation, the vast majority of which... hmmm didn't make it beyond a committee read. This is following a spate of child labor related news from just the last year like this one or this one or this one from just one year earlier. Thankfully, state legislatures are picking up the slack and are moving to make... hmmm child labor less "illegal". "Over the last two years, at least 14 states introduced or passed laws eroding child labor standards, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank."
Also there was that Cargill child slave labor piece of news from last year too but that was outside the US so... it's not as serious. Oh and there was also that time an 8-year-old child was run over and killed on a dairy farm where he was being raised while his father was working but the child wasn't... employed? So it's just a child human rights issue that's tangential. There were also a bunch of stories from 2021 and 2022 like this one and this one, and likely there are a bunch more that aren't reported since there's an overall growing trend in combination with all of the ways this labor is being legalized
"The number of minors employed in violation of child-labor laws last year was up thirty-seven per cent from the previous year, according to the Department of Labor, and up two hundred and eighty-three per cent from 2015. (These are violations caught by government, so they likely represent a fraction of the real number.)"
Apparently any kind of child labor is probably bad for kids except for, of course, the legal kind of child labor we have here which are based on the Fair Labor Standards Act of... hmmm 1938 (FLSA) which apparently don't apply to the 500,000 or so kids picking produce in the USA.
Luckily they have Tiktok and don't face age discrimination as much as other generations.
Teens*! If you need resources about whether or not your employment, the capital of which is being exploited and skimmed off to fund various retirement funds like 401ks, Roth IRAs, and also just billionaires, check out this super cool site youthrules.gov where you too can find out about how you can stay legally employed as a farm worker.
*teens in this context refers to children under the age of 12
posted by paimapi at 10:04 AM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
*teens in this context refers to children under the age of 12
posted by paimapi at 10:04 AM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I always wondered - when I was a kid (8-10), my mom used to have my sister and me help her out on the Sunday paper route. Wake up Saturday night at 11:30PM or so. Grab the newspapers, drive out to the delivery space, bag and deliver them and return home at 5-6AM.
Seems like the sort of thing that would get exempted. (Sunday delivery would take longer and she didn't want to leave us alone at home)
I never minded it because I just stayed up to watch cartoons on USA afterwards, but I'm fairly certain its why my sleep schedule to this day is wonky.
But that's a world different than any of this, which is just the latest dollop of crap on modern business practices.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:11 AM on October 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
Seems like the sort of thing that would get exempted. (Sunday delivery would take longer and she didn't want to leave us alone at home)
I never minded it because I just stayed up to watch cartoons on USA afterwards, but I'm fairly certain its why my sleep schedule to this day is wonky.
But that's a world different than any of this, which is just the latest dollop of crap on modern business practices.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:11 AM on October 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
I just started reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers and I have gotten to a part inside a juvenile prison. A clutch of 8 year old prisoners are there because they got picked up for violating India's child labor laws.
posted by Pembquist at 10:26 AM on October 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Pembquist at 10:26 AM on October 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Not to compare my experiences to children working in fucking mines and shit like that, but I got a little lesson in profits being prioritized over safety at my first salaried job at a golf course driving range when I was 14. One morning, on a day when the course was hosting a big (non-member) tournament, the cart we used to pick up the range balls (which had a cage protecting the driver) broke down. The range was extremely busy and we quickly started running short on golf balls, so my boss insisted that I hook the picker up to a small flatbed truck, which didn't have a cage, and get back out there. When I asked how I would avoid getting hit by golf balls (the range had about 12-15 spots and they were all full of customers) he told me to "just keep an eye out." So there I was, driving the damn truck around and weaving around dozens of these fucking things whizzing around and past me. In the end I never got hit, but it was scary. The whole thing was almost certainly a violation of labour/safety laws, but at that age what was I going to do, go to the Ministry of Labour and file a complaint? And my boss clearly decided that my risk of injury was less important than the prospect of losing out on a couple of dozen customers paying two or three bucks each (this was the late '80s).
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:32 AM on October 4, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:32 AM on October 4, 2023 [12 favorites]
Tyson and Perdue directly under investigation for 'illegal' child labor.
I'm sure the eventual negotiated token settlement and maybe a toothless consent decree where they pinky swear to never do it again will teach them. Maybe one or two mid-level slobs who have no real authority but were dumb enough to put something on paper will see some jail time if the DOL really goes nuts.
posted by star gentle uterus at 10:37 AM on October 4, 2023 [13 favorites]
I'm sure the eventual negotiated token settlement and maybe a toothless consent decree where they pinky swear to never do it again will teach them. Maybe one or two mid-level slobs who have no real authority but were dumb enough to put something on paper will see some jail time if the DOL really goes nuts.
posted by star gentle uterus at 10:37 AM on October 4, 2023 [13 favorites]
It takes a tough tween to make a tender chicken.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:43 AM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 10:43 AM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
Republican policies leaving you with insufficient migrant labor to exploit?
Try Child Labor™. Guaranteed not to get deported or your money back!
posted by tommasz at 11:22 AM on October 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
Try Child Labor™. Guaranteed not to get deported or your money back!
posted by tommasz at 11:22 AM on October 4, 2023 [6 favorites]
At Tyson and Perdue it’s probably not an “either or” situation, as much as a “why not both?”
posted by Selena777 at 11:27 AM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 11:27 AM on October 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
Yeah, some years back Tyson got busted for employing underage undocumented immigrants in some of their chicken processing plants.
posted by wierdo at 12:15 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by wierdo at 12:15 PM on October 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't know, why, in particular, the blatant Republican push to make child labor easier has shocked me. They're fine with it in the fields and overseas in factories, but I guess it never occurred to me that they would be so open about it as a great overall business practice.
You think you're a cynical bitch and then you find an unexpected pocket of naivete in yourself, and that makes you more angry, because damnit, why does everything have to be so shitty?
posted by emjaybee at 2:21 PM on October 4, 2023 [22 favorites]
You think you're a cynical bitch and then you find an unexpected pocket of naivete in yourself, and that makes you more angry, because damnit, why does everything have to be so shitty?
posted by emjaybee at 2:21 PM on October 4, 2023 [22 favorites]
Jesus, they really are aiming for a full return to the "gilded age." That ended in global economic depression and world wars, but hey the profit charts are going up and to the right!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:14 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:14 PM on October 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
This is a great example of how the opposite of "red tape" isn't "profits" but "children being maimed and killed at work".
posted by LegallyBread at 4:12 PM on October 4, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by LegallyBread at 4:12 PM on October 4, 2023 [11 favorites]
When I was young, Iowa legislators fought each other to see who could bring more money into the school system. How times have changed, earlier this year they made it much easier for children to serve alcohol or work in freezers, meat coolers, or industrial laundry facilities. The governor could not wait to sign it.
Think of the value to shareholders! Brings a tear to one's eye.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:19 PM on October 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Think of the value to shareholders! Brings a tear to one's eye.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 4:19 PM on October 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Arkansas Gov. Sanders Signs a Law That Makes it Easier to Employ Children (NPR)
Tyson is, as of a few years ago, the third-largest employer in the state.
posted by box at 12:03 PM on October 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Tyson is, as of a few years ago, the third-largest employer in the state.
posted by box at 12:03 PM on October 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
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