Entries by Reid Maki

Summer Homework: Plow the Field

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from the American Prospect By: Marie O’Reilly From age 12, López, who is now 26, worked 12-hour days, seven days a week on farms during peak season. Children must be at least 16 years old to work in most industries in the United States, and generally do so with strict limitations on the number of hours they work. For hazardous work such as manufacturing and mining, the minimum age is 18.After another spring break spent lugging 50-pound buckets of vegetables and using sharp shears to cut onions, Norma Flores López returned to school with her hands too swollen to hold her pencil. She fell behind in her schoolwork. It wasn’t the first time But an exemption for agriculture in U.S. law means employers can hire children as young as 12 , and sometimes younger, to work in the fields. Restrictions on the number of hours children can work outside of school in other industries don’t apply here and work deemed particularly hazardous can begin as young as age 16. A low minimum age for farmworkers may have made sense when the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted in 1938, when family farms needed extra hands to bring in harvests, but agricultural enterprises today are different from those in that era. There are 400,000 to 500,000 child farmworkers in the United […]

60 Minutes Piece on Child Farmworkers Misses the Mark

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The Missing Piece Posted on May 27, 2011 by Ayrianne Parks, Communications Director, AFOP; and Reid Maki, Coordinator, Child Labor Coalition This past Sunday, 60 Minutes focused much needed attention on the issue of child labor in U.S. agriculture. The piece, which may have seemed balanced to the average viewer, failed to convey the dangers child farmworkers are exposed to, including toxic pesticides, razor-sharp tools, and the educational harm that they suffer. The show’s segment called, “The debate on child labor,” focused mostly on agricultural economics from the perspective of a migrant farmworker family and a grower—both struggling to get by. However, this is an issue that existed far before the recession. Farmworkers make an average of $10,000 to $12,000 annually with no benefits. These extremely low wages in farm work, often compel parents to bring their very young children to work in agriculture, an environment most—including the father interviewed—hope their children will have the opportunity to escape in adulthood to pursue their dreams. The grower interviewed pointed out that Americans want cheap produce and that comes at a price paid by the sweat and toil of laborers. Byron Pitts, who reported on the issue, also interviewed Norma Flores López, AFOP’sChildren in the Fields Campaign Program Director and Domestic Issues Chair of the Child Labor Coalition. Several months ago, when 60 Minutes filmed its interview of Flores López, […]

Poquoson Company Pleads Guilty in Wood Chipper Fatality

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Associated Press POQUOSON (AP) — A landscaping company has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor safety violation stemming from a wood chipper accident that killed a 14-year-old worker. The Daily Press reports that Old Tree Dominion and Lawn Care owner Robert Lee Strickland Jr. entered the plea Thursday on behalf of his company. Assistant York-Poquoson Commonwealth’s Attorney Patricia A. Dart says a felony child endangerment charge against Strickland was dropped. Strickland was the guardian of the victim, Frank Anthony Gornick, who was killed in November 2010. Authorities say the teen was using a shovel to drop debris into a wood chipper’s hopper when he was pulled into the machine. Dart says the company was fined $35,000 with all but $1,000 suspended for five years. Information from: Daily Press, https://www.dailypress.com (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Ghana Police Rescue 116 Children from Forced Labor

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ACCRA, Ghana—Ghanaian police say they have rescued 116 children who were forced into child labor in the country’s Volta Lake area. Human Trafficking Unit leader Superintendent Patience Quaye said Friday that police found parents in fishing communities who had sold children as young as four years old for sums as low as 150 Ghana cedis — about $100. Quaye says child labor is a widespread problem in the West African nation. She says police rescued 284 children in a similar operation last year. Interpol, which worked with Ghanaian police, said the operation earlier this month led to 28 arrests and convictions. Interpol also said they conducted a separate operation in the capital, Accra, that rescued 29 minors who had been trafficked into the sex industry.

Maine lawmakers loosen teen work rules–roll back Child Labor Protections

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By Mal Leary, Capitol News Service Posted May 26, 2011, at 6:13 p.m. Last modified May 27, 2011, at 9:46 a.m. AUGUSTA, Maine – Gov. Paul LePage is expected to sign into law legislation allowing 16- and 17-year-olds in Maine to work longer hours during the school year, his office confirmed Thursday. But the legislation provoked lengthy debate before being enacted earlier this week, with some lawmakers arguing students need to be students first. “In this case Maine has had the most restrictive laws related to 16- and 17-year-olds in the nation,” Sen. Chris Rector, R-Thomaston, the co-chair of the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, said during debate on the bill.  ”We have been the outliers, far more restrictive than our New England counterparts and far more restrictive than most other states.” He said the legislation brings Maine more into line with other states, although the bill was considerably watered down from its original version, sponsored by Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden, which would have lifted all restrictions on the number of hours 16-year-olds could work while school is not in session. It also would have repealed all limitations on the hours a 17-year-old may work. As amended by lawmakers, the limit for both age groups is 24 hours in a week, with a six-hour-per-day limit, up from the current four-hour limit per day. It also […]

On Missing Children’s Day, Murray Pledges Trafficking Bill Passage

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By Colleen Quinn State House News Service Cambridge- Senate President Therese Murray promised advocates of missing children Monday that lawmakers would pass legislation targeting human trafficking.Cambridge — The Plymouth Democrat made her commitment as Magi and John Bish, whose daughter Molly went missing in 2000, gathered with a group of parents at the State House to mark something no parent ever wants to make note of – their missing children. The Bishes returned to the state capitol Monday for the 11th annual Massachusetts Missing Children’s Day. They come every year to bring attention to abductions and to missing children never found. Currently, 38 children are missing in the state, according to the Molly Bish Foundation. Attorney General Martha Coakley thanked the Bishes for reminding law enforcement about “all the people who are touched by a missing child.” Coakley is pushing for Massachusetts to pass legislation that would establish state crimes of human trafficking in labor and sex. She wants to create a task force to study human trafficking, and increase the penalties for “Johns” to target the demand side of trafficking in prostitution. Massachusetts is one of four states in the nation that does not have human trafficking laws. “We have this problem right in our own backyard,” Coakley said. The Bish Foundation presented Murray with a legislative award and […]

Bill eases Child Labor Restrictions in Maine

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AUGUSTA, Maine—A bill to ease Maine’s child labor restrictions faces further House and Senate action after winning preliminary House approval. Assistant Senate Republican Leader Debra Plowman’s bill would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work longer hours and more often while school is in session. Those teen-agers would be allowed to work as many as 24 hours rather than the 20 per week under current law. The bill would also increase from four to six the number of hours students can work on school days. The Sun Journal of Lewiston says the bill won preliminary House approval Wednesday. A separate bill that sought to allow lower minimum wages for youths and remove limits on their school-week work hours has been killed. Information from: Sun-Journal, https://www.sunjournal.com

Child Soldiers Add Questions for Pakistan

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Bill Gunyon, OneWorld Guides (OneWorld.net) – A new focus on Pakistan in the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict may complicate the task of rebuilding relations with the US in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Submitted to the Security Council as part of the UN’s responsibility for promoting and protecting the rights of children, Ban Ki-moon’s 55-page report paints a grim picture of the entrapment of both boys and girls in the world’s most degrading conflicts. From the section headed “Developments in Pakistan”, it is clear that children have become active agents within the flow of warmongering personnel and equipment across the notoriously porous border with Afghanistan. Their assignments range from passive couriers to tragically unwitting suicide bombers in both countries. The report refers to the escalation of terrorist and sectarian violence across Pakistan by groups linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, such as Tehrik-i-Taliban and Lashkar i Jhangvi. “Children have been used by these armed groups to carry out suicide attacks,” the UN says. The most damning evidence is cited by the UN child rights monitoring team in Afghanistan which claims to possess “documented and verified cases of Afghan children recruited and trained in Pakistan by armed groups, including the Taliban.” Such exploitation of children from both countries inside Pakistan will come […]

Burkina Faso: Texting to Help Domestic Workers

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Ouagadougou — Naba Wangré, manager of the child labour project at the Burkina Faso Red Cross, sends bluntly worded text messages to government officials, employers, traditional leaders, teachers, business owners and housewives several times a year, trying to reduce the widespread exploitation of domestic workers by raising awareness of their rights. “Employers: domestics have the same rights as your children. Stop under-paying them; stop subjecting them to mistreatment, sexual violence, and long hours”, said a recent SMS from Wangré, who uses lists of phone numbers provided by the local network.

Child Labor Rates Go Up in Colombia

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BOGOTA, May 2 (UPI) — Colombia experienced a sharp rise in the volume of child workers in the last five years, officials say a study reveals. A report by the non-profit communications agency PANDI said there was about a 35 percent spurt in child labor between 2007 and 2009, Colombia Reports said Monday. The agency said at least 1,050,147 children were employed in 2009 compared with about 787,000 in 2007. Colombia’s rural areas constitute the highest proportion of the child workers with 37 percent of the underage workforce associated with some form of agricultural work. The current law permits children to work up to 14 hours per week. At least 58 percent of child laborers work more than the daily maximum, while 11 percent work more than 48 hours a week. The rise in the underage workforce has been primarily attributed to the global economic crisis. © 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.