Entries by Reid Maki

When a Family Business Violates Child Labor Laws

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[From the Hartford Advocate]: By John Stoehr Where do parental rights end and children’s rights begin? Laws protecting children from the hazards of the workplace violate the constitutional rights of parents to teach their kids the family business. That’s the claim of two restaurateurs who filed suit against the state Department of Labor (DOL) in federal court on May 20. Michael and Migdalia Nuzzo, owners of Clinton’s Grand Apizza, say statutes forbidding children under 16 from working in restaurants should not apply to family-owned businesses. Their children are not “working” but learning a trade that has been passed down through generations. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, whose job is to defend the law, is currently reviewing the case. Though the Nuzzos’ case has made for good headlines — they have been interviewed by Fox News, CNN, ABC News and NPR, along with a handful of local TV and radio stations — experts say chances of victory are slim. The law is clear and there are no exceptions for family-owned businesses. What happened? In early May, a DOL officer appeared at Grand Apizza to inform the Nuzzos it’s illegal for minors under the age of 16 to work in restaurants in Connecticut. The Nuzzo kids are 8, 11 and 13. The officer represented the DOL’s Wage and Workplace Division, which investigates potential […]

The World Wide Recession?

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The number of youth, 15- to 17-years-old, who work increased 20 percent in the period 2004-2008, while child labor rates are believed to have fallen among young children, particularly girls.

Child Migrants Flock to World Cup Host (South Africa)

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The World Cup has football fans in its grip, but away from the main spectacle in South Africa, children, some alone, are fleeing Zimbabwe and flooding in to the country. UK charities are among those working with them. Leeroy Sibanda is 16. The eldest child in his family, he has left his brother, sisters and mother in Zimbabwe to cross illegally in to South Africa to seek work. According to Save the Children, he came from Harare but lacked the proper immigration documents and was refused entry at the official border point between the two countries. Instead, he swam the Limpopo river crossing. He survived the crocodiles, but was greeted on the other side by the goma-goma – robbers who occupy the areas of bush land along the border and prey on refugees who try to cross. They stole all the money he had – R150 (£13) – and beat him up.

New York Times Highlights Plight of Farmworker Children

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Efforts to protect farmworker children received a boost in June, 2010 when the NY Times front page featured an article on child labor in U.S. agriculture: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/us/19migrant.html?emc=eta1 An accompanying slide show can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/19/us/20100619_BERRY.html

World Cup Profits Bypass Asian Soccer-Ball Stitchers

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By James Rupert June 9 (Bloomberg) — Asian workers who stitch nearly all the world’s soccer balls have seen little improvement in lives dominated by poverty, a report said days before the start of the World Cup, which promises sports gear companies a sales bonanza. Thirteen years after companies such as Germany’s Adidas AG and Nike Inc. joined labor and development organizations to end the use of an estimated 7,000 children to stitch soccer balls, “child labor continues to exist” in the three main ball-making countries of Pakistan, China and India, according a June 7 report by the Washington-based International Labor Rights Forum. In those countries and Thailand, the fourth major ball- producer, adult workers often are paid too little to support their families. Some children still stitch balls at home, while others have migrated to new work, the report said. “The international campaign of the 1990s removed bonded child labor from our soccer-ball industry, but these children moved to auto workshops, brick kilns and the like,” said Arshed Makhdoom Sabir, president of Ours Pakistan, a non-profit, development organization in Sialkot, Pakistan. Sialkot is the hub of an industry that made about 75 percent of the world’s hand-sewn soccer balls in the 1990s, and still makes most high-quality balls, the ILRF report said. Adidas is marketing Sialkot-made replicas of its […]

Bill to protect domestic workers passes in N.Y. Senate

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ALBANY – The State Senate passed the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (S2311D/Savino) making New York the first state in the nation to provide new standards of worker protections for more than 200,000 employees in an industry which has gone unregulated for decades. The legislation passed 33-28 in the Senate. The Assembly has yet to act. This legislation guarantees protection from discrimination, notice of termination, paid sick days and holidays, and other basic labor protections long denied to nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers employed in private homes.

Poquoson Company Fined, Cited in Wood Chipper Death

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by Sula Kim WVEC.com POQUOSON — A Poquoson tree trimming company has been fined $185,000 in the November 2009 death of a 14-year-old worker. Frank Gornick was working for his uncle’s company Old Dominion Tree and Lawn Care Specialists and was on a three-person team doing debris removal following the Nor’easter. Police said he was using a shovel to drop debris into the wood chipper’s hopper when it got caught in the machine’s blades, dragging him in and killing him instantly. The Va. Department of Labor and Industry issued its findings Thursday, saying the machine shouldn’t have been used. “The wooden paddle was missing, the feet control was missing, the lower door hadn’t been installed. There were six things missing,” said Jennifer Wester, Cooperative Programs director. She says the report concluded a metal shovel was used to put items in the chipper, even though the manufacturer forbids it. According to Wester, workers weren’t wearing hard hats or eye protection. The company has 15 days to contest the findings or take action as outlined by the state.

US Department of Labor announces publication of final child labor rules for non-agricultural work

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News Release WHD News Release: [05/19/2010] Contact Name: Dolline Hatchett or Joseph De Wolk Phone Number: (202) 693-4676 or (202) 579-7359 Release Number: 10-0666-NAT US Department of Labor announces publication of final child labor rules for non-agricultural work Department now to begin review of child labor in agriculture regulations  WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the publication of final regulations updating protections for young employees in non-agricultural work for the 21st century economy. “Today’s regulations protect young employees from dangerous machines and tools, excessive work hours and other hazards at work,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “These rules incorporate recommendations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and take a common sense approach to keeping young workers safe from harm.” The new regulations give employers clear notice that there are certain jobs children are simply not allowed to perform. They also expand opportunities for young workers to gain safe, positive work experience in fields such as advertising, teaching, banking and information technology, as well as through school-supervised work-study programs. “With the completion of these rules, I have asked my staff to turn their attention to strengthening the regulatory protections for children working in agriculture,” added Secretary Solis. “We cannot put a price on the health and safety of a child, or on the […]

Agriprocessors Trial: Underage Workers Describe BRUTAL Working Conditions At Iowa Plant

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MICHAEL J. CRUMB | 05/10/10 06:59 PM | WATERLOO, Iowa — A former underage worker cried Monday while testifying she was exposed to harsh chemicals at an Iowa slaughterhouse where she and other teens worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. Yesenia Cordero Mendoza, now 18, was one of two former underage workers to testify against former manager Sholom Rubashkin, who faces 83 child labor violation charges stemming from a May 2008 raid at the plant in which 389 illegal immigrants, including 31 children, were detained. It’s the second trial for Rubashkin, who awaits sentencing in a separate federal financial fraud case that followed the raid at the former Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville. Mendoza began crying while testifying about the raid and the arrest of her boyfriend and other workers. “I don’t want to remember it,” she told prosecutors through a translator. She testified she was 15 when she used false documents to get hired at the slaughterhouse. It was common knowledge that the plant hired minors, so she forged documents that gave her age as older, and plant officials never asked for any other identification to verify it, she said. When government inspectors came to the plant, underage workers were sent home, she said. Mendoza and Rony Ordonez Capir, who was 16 when hired, said the work […]

Agriprocessors child-labor trial starts this week

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By GRANT SCHULTE • gschulte@… • May 3, 2010 Immigrants who were allegedly exposed to poisonous chemicals and dangerous machinery as minors will testify against their former bosses at Agriprocessors Inc. in a state child-labor trial that begins this week in Waterloo. The trial is the latest chapter in the two-year saga of Sholom Rubashkin and his former eastern Iowa kosher slaughterhouse. Prosecutors allege that Rubashkin, 50, and other top managers allowed underage workers to perform risky jobs and work excessive hours at the plant in violation of state law.