The Associated Press publishes a series entitled “Children for Hire” on the continuing exploitation of children working in US agriculture.
Human Rights Watch publishes a report outlining the exploitation of children in US agriculture entitled “Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers.”
The International Labour Organization’s Convention 182 becomes international law. This convention defines and condemns the worst forms of child labor, which include slavery, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, trafficking, and any other “work which, by its nature… is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”
The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) is introduced by Senator Tom Harkin in the Senate and Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard in the House. This bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase penalties for violations of child labor laws and repeal certain exemptions from child labor prohibitions for agricultural employment.
The United States ratifies the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, enacted by the UN in 2000. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has still not been ratified by the US.
July 22nd, 2010: The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) would extend child labor protections to U.S. agriculture
July 21st, 2010: The penalties for child-labor law violations will double under a bill that received final approval Wednesday from the legislature
July 20th, 2010: Executive Order 13126 [Text] [PDF] on the “Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor,” was signed on June 12, 1999
July 13th, 2010: One woman said children as young as 10 working in the fields developed red rashes on their stomachs and necks as they harvested tobacco for use in cigarettes made by Philip Morris
[The Department of Labor is currently reviewing the agricultural hazardous orders. In 2002, NIOSH recommended expanding Hazardous Order #8 to prohibit all work in silos. If this recommendation is moved forward, teen workers in agriculture under 16 would be protected from silo dangers, which include suffocation and toxic gases . If the CARE Act were to pass and HO #8 is also enacted as recommended, then you would have to be 18 to work in a silo. ] Families remember two teens who died in silo accident July 13, 2010 5:53 PM BARRY COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – New details are emerging about a tragic silo accident that killed two teens on Monday night. 17-year-old Franscisco Martinez and 18-year-old Victor Perez were inside the silo at Yankee Springs Dairy when they lost consciousness, they were pronounced dead after being taken out of the silo. Newschannel 3 spoke with family of the victims on Tuesday. The families say Frascisco Martinez had worked at the dairy for just a few months, while Victor Perez had been there for about three years. “All I can say is I miss my son,” said Victor’s father Jose Perez. “I miss my son, everywhere I look I see him.” Jose Perez says the last time he spoke to his son was Saturday night. “I told him, just be […]
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