A disturbing amount of child labor!

[Beezle2]

I guess I can still be shocked. A local food processor has been caught using child labor and it is not the first one to be busted lately. Seems to be either on the rise or far more prevalent than I would have thought. I find it disturbing and disappointing.

 

[Karin1984]

Which company amd where located? Are we talking 5 year olds, 15 year olds? What do they need to do? What do they earn?

 

[Beezle2]

Which company amd where located? Are we talking 5 year olds, 15 year olds? What do they need to do? What do they earn?

In Michigan it was Hearthside who packages food for many big name food companies. The kids were high school age 14, 15 yr old and working overnight shifts. In MN it was highschoolers as young as 13 working overnights cleaning up meat processing plants. In both cases their teachers we concerned about them falling asleep in class and had asked them why they were so tired. What I have read on it says the kids are mostly immigrant kids who are here as unaccompanied minors who are being exploited.

 

[PollyannaMom]

In Michigan it was Hearthstone who packages food for many big name food companies. The kids were high school age 14, 15 yr old and working overnight shifts. In MN it was highschoolers as young as 13 working overnights cleaning up meat processing plants. In both cases their teachers we concerned about them falling asleep in class and had asked them why they were so tired. What I have read on it says the kids are mostly immigrant kids who are here as unaccompanied minors who are being exploited.

Yikes! That's awful.

 

[Southernmiss]

This issue is more complex than teens working in food processing plants.

And I get the safety factor. Reminds me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle that I read long ago.

Why are they needing to work? What happens to their money they earn? How did they get here? Who do they live with?

 

[Douglas Dubh]

There’s also this - https://nypost.com/2023/02/28/ben-jerrys-suppliers-using-child-labor-despite-progressive-values/

 

[Beezle2]

This issue is more complex than teens working in food processing plants.

And I get the safety factor. Reminds me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle that I read long ago.

Why are they needing to work? What happens to their money they earn? How did they get here? Who do they live with?

Exactly..so many questions!

 

[Beezle2]

There’s also this - https://nypost.com/2023/02/28/ben-jerrys-suppliers-using-child-labor-despite-progressive-values/

So many employers are named in that article! It is really shocking to me that this happens.

 

[Colleen27]

Honestly, it doesn't really surprise me all that much. Employers in certain industries know they can exploit migrant and undocumented workers without fear of them going to authorities to report the abuses, even if they do happen to know that the employer is violating labor law. And those same easily-exploited people aren't earning enough to live and have no social safety net to fill the gap, so it is only a matter of time until older children in their household become another means of bringing in the money they need to have food and housing and other basics, if the kids are fortunate enough to be living in a family household at all. If they're here as unaccompanied minors, they're even more easily exploited. And our supply chains are sufficiently opaque that everyone except the actual plant cited has plausible deniability.

 

[HopperFan]

My son taught at a high school where many of his students worked night shifts at a local food plant. Quite sad, but they feel that is their destiny. Many were failing but could care less. They were only in school to keep their driver’s license.

Our state …

 

[ronandannette]

There’s also this - https://nypost.com/2023/02/28/ben-jerrys-suppliers-using-child-labor-despite-progressive-values/

Ugh...why does that article feature one of those weird Balenciaga ads? That’s another, different type of child exploitation for profit.

 

[Beezle2]

My son taught at a high school where many of his students worked night shifts at a local food plant. Quite sad, but they feel that is their destiny. Many were failing but could care less. They were only in school to keep their driver’s license.

Our state …


View attachment 743601

12??

 

[HopperFan]

12??

My HOPE is that this is to cover farmers whose children work it, things like family owned candy store or luncheonette where kids sweep or stock etc and most the state is rural. But who knows, we have lots of backward thoughts here that need updating.

And as far as the upper ages, there are rules that I know for a fact are rarely followed like under 16 can't work after 7 pm, HAHAHA, plenty of 15 year olds work fast food, theaters, ice cream and smoothie shops etc. evenings.

 

[kymom99]

My HOPE is that this is to cover farmers whose children work it, things like family owned candy store or luncheonette where kids sweep or stock etc and most the state is rural. But who knows, we have lots of backward thoughts here that need updating.

And as far as the upper ages, there are rules that I know for a fact are rarely followed like under 16 can't work after 7 pm, HAHAHA, plenty of 15 year olds work fast food, theaters, ice cream and smoothie shops etc. evenings.

My husband worked in his family’s store when he was 12.

 

[HopperFan]

My husband worked in his family’s store when he was 12.

Now that I think about it both my kids worked at age 12 as Soccer Referees.

DD was a certified Recreational Soccer Referee and DS was Grade 8 Referee (I believe rules have changed and you now need to be a bit older for this one). She refereed the young kids usually under 8 and he refereed kids up to 16 years old.

They both worked most the day Saturday, sometimes on Sunday and were paid via 1099.

 

[goofyernmost]

So many employers are named in that article! It is really shocking to me that this happens.

The article has a damning headline and First sentence. After that it fails to mention whether or not Ben and Jerry's were aware that was happening. (Their headquarters are in Vermont not Michigan or Minnesota) If they sent people to check things out I am pretty sure that they didn't schedule that for overnight.

The remainder of the article spent many paragraphs telling us all the positive progressive things that they have done and are proof that they wouldn't do that if they knew about it. I'm not necessarily referring to the other companies listed but I feel safe in saying that about B&J's

The real evil are the people heading those companies and shameful leadership that seems to not really care about the older kids. Perhaps we should focus our anger there instead of a number of rungs below the actual problem. However, since the public is unwilling to help these kids what do we expect them to do. The are living in a country that requires money to survive. So it's do that or die. No other choice.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

12??

For my state it's "generally" (by state definition) of minimum of age 14 with the exception of "include but are not limited to children employed by their parents in non-hazardous occupations, household chores, paper routes, farm work and child actors/actresses."

I had been working for my dad's insurance office since I was a young kid, earning a wage that grew as I got older and that is permissible by law in my state.

I filled out birthday cards of his clients, getting things off the printer for him and tearing off the sides from the paper (it was a dot matrix printer). Then as I got older I filed the paperwork along with answering the phone when he was busy and taking down messages. I logged my hours and then at some point would clock out for lunch (so I wasn't paid for it just like you would in an outside job). I did all of that up to age 16 when I transitioned to a job in the outside world.

It was certainly not exploitative nor taking advantage of me. My sister also had done the same too.

However, what you were originally talking about was the exploitation of primarily migrant or undocumented individuals which is deplorable no matter the age.

I will say there is still a pocket in our society of what amounts to household slavery of children (usually bought children or kidnapped children) and that isn't always exclusively migrant or undocumented.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I saw this in the news recently and it got my attention.

Apparently, all the unattached children who have migrated here are being exploited which isn't as much of a shock since it is how my grandma got TB back in the 20's and why neither of my grandmothers were educated past 6th & 8th grades. What IS a bigger shock is the spin argument that is it tolerable because they could be being exploited in worse ways. WHAT?

Why do we not have more CPS, should be literally a million more CPS workers to match the volume of kids.
States shouldn't be paying for this BTW, not a State decision is it? Gotta own it.

My math: How about zero kids exploited is the goal, change the laws exonerating stoners & change the laws to beat down abusers to a pulp. Empty the jails of the stoners and lock up all the abusers and let them rot, boom now room for all the kids who need housing. Hire more CPS with the money saved on Corrections because the freaks stay in jail forever, just swapping out the variables.

Stoners in jail + abusers in housing = abusers in jail + kids in housing going to school learning to be productive

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Why do we not have more CPS, should be literally a million more CPS workers to match the volume of kids.

If you have to ask that question it means you need to delve more into the topic.

 

[mrodgers]

So many employers are named in that article! It is really shocking to me that this happens.

Note, the way they write it makes it look like all those companies are employing children under the age of the child labor laws. If you read carefully, it's not Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Ford, General Motors, and Ben and Jerry's that are employing children, it is companies that supply those listed. It's written like that because saying Ralph's, an unknown company that makes a little product, happened to get it on Walmart's shelves like Duck Dynasty did with their duck calls breaking child labor laws doesn't raise up your eyebrows as it does to throw Walmart's name in the text.

Same with using Ben and Jerry's name for this article. Ben and Jerry's isn't doing anything. It says a supplier. I suppose one could interview a supplier before contracting with them, "Before we move on, one more question. Do you employ minor children under the age of child labor laws in your company?" Said company who does is not going to admit to that. Ben and Jerry's has done nothing wrong in the least.

It's not an article of news. It's an article to rile people up. If the article was about Ralph's little operation, everyone would be remarking, "Who or what the heck is Ralph's?" rather than clutching their pearls about Ben and Jerry, Walmart, Target, etc.

Where I'm at, if Exxon was employing children, we wouldn't have a clue unless it was revealed to us. Exxon is our supplier. If Exxon was employing children, it would also have absolutely nothing to do with us. I also highly doubt if we were employing children under the age of the child labor laws, I doubt we would let it known to GM whom we supply.

That's how it happens, as the article is written.