Entries by Reid Maki

Tell Congressional Leaders It’s Time to Protect Farmworker Children–Pass the CARE Act Now

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Help us protect migrant children by contacting your member of Congress today* and urging them to pass the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment:   Summary of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act) H.R. 2234 Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act) on June 16, 2011. The CARE Act addresses the inequities faced by the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 children currently employed in agriculture in the U.S. The CARE Act: Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) by bringing the age and work hours standards for children working in agriculture up to the standards set under FLSA for all other forms of child labor. There is currently a loophole that permits children working in agriculture to work longer hours, at a younger age, and in more hazardous conditions than children working in other jobs. The FLSA currently allows children as young as 12 years of age to work in agriculture, while children in non-agricultural work must be at least 14 years of age (often, they must be 16 or older), and are limited to 3 hours of work a day outside of school hours while school is in session. Farmworker youth can work an unlimited number of hours, as long as those hours are outside of school time. The CARE Act […]

Craigslist is hub for child prostitution, allege trafficked women

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Open letter to founder Craig Newmark in Washington Post tells stories of young women sold for sex through ‘adult services’ ads The online classified advertising site, Craigslist, is facing accusations that it has become a hub for underage prostitution after two young women placed an advertisement in the Washington Post saying they were repeatedly sold through the site to men who “paid to rape” them.

Poverty robs Yemeni children of their young years

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[Note: Blindness is listed as one the consequences of Yemeni children working with pesticides in agriculture!] JAMAL AL-JABERI | SANA’A, YEMEN – Aug 11 2010 13:02 After their father died two years ago, Raseel and Anwar left their family to work in a car garage, joining the millions of Yemeni children forced into the impoverished country’s labour market. Eleven-year-old Raseel al-Khameri and his eight-year-old mute brother, Anwar, spend their days working in the garage in Sana’a in an attempt to sustain a needy family in the village of al-Akhmoor, 300km south of the capital. “I work day and night. You’ll find me here [in the workshop] anytime from 9am until 4am,” Raseel says shyly, as his small hands skilfully work with various car parts. With an innocent smile never leaving his face, little Anwar closely follows his older brother’s moves as he also tries to master the job. A study carried out in 2010 by the United States-based aid group CHF International revealed that out of Yemen’s 11-million children, five million are currently employed. Three-fifths of those do not receive an education while the remaining two million both study and work at the same time. CHF said that 40% of Yemeni children are drawn into the labour market between the ages of seven and 13. CHF said that 80% of […]

Despite problems, egg farmer embraced by local governments Central figure in recall has history of run-ins with regulators

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By Andrew Zajac, Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau 8:23 PM EDT, August 27, 2010/WASHINGTON Long before Austin “Jack” DeCoster became a central figure in one of the largest egg recalls in history, he had paid more than $10 million in fines and lawsuit settlements, his eggs were banned in one state and quarantined in another, and he was almost single-handedly responsible for new restrictions on child labor in his native Maine.

Pennsylvania Official Calls for Updated, Comprehensive Child Labor Laws

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HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A comprehensive overhaul of Pennsylvania’s Child Labor Law is needed to ensure safer working conditions for young people, Labor & Industry Executive Deputy Secretary Robert V. O’Brien testified today before the House of Representatives’ Labor Relations Committee. The House panel discussed two pieces of legislation: House Bill 19, sponsored by Rep. Jaret Gibbons; and House Bill 2515, sponsored by Rep. Thomas P. Murt. “The enforcement of child labor standards is an important department function,” O’Brien said. “The current law – which dates back to 1915 – is antiquated, confusing and has not evolved along with Pennsylvania’s occupational diversity. Updates are needed because the department’s ability to regulate the employment of minors has been constrained by deficiencies with the current law.

Reports from the Uzbekistan Cotton Harvest 2010

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From: Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights [mailto:cotton.harvest.uzbekistan@googlemail.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 4:40 PM   Issue 5, October 12, 2010 Context: Forced Child labour is an endemic and widespread practice in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan.  According to experts, between 1.5 and 2 million schoolchildren between ages 10-16 are forced by the local authorities to pick cotton each harvest season from September until the end of November. This practice has been in place and almost unchanged since the Stalin era. Observers claim that forced child labor is orchestrated by the Uzbek central government, which in turn, denies its responsibility for it.

Timeline of Child Labor Developments in the United States

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  1832 – The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen officially condemns child labor. 1836 – Massachusetts creates the first state child labor law requiring factory children under 15 to go to school a minimum of 3 months per year. 1836 – Early trade unions at the National Trades’ Union Convention propose requiring state minimum age laws for factory work. 1842 – Massachusetts limits children to working 10 hours per day. Many states do the same but are not consistent in enforcing their laws. 1876 – The Working Men’s Party proposes prohibiting the employment of children younger than 14. 1881 – The American Federation of Labor at their first national convention calls for states to enact legislation barring children under 14 from wage labor. 1883 – The New York labor movement, under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, attempts to end child labor in the cigar industry by successfully sponsoring legislation that bans production in tenements, where many of young children work in the trade. 1889 – Florence Kelley publishes “Our Toiling Children,” which outlines the state of child labor and urges consumers to use their influence to improve working conditions. 1892 – The Democratic Party adopts a plank in their platform, which recommends banning factory employment for children under age 15. 1899 – The National Consumers’ League […]