201 Organizations Endorse Legislation (CARE Act) to Close Child Labor Loopholes that Endanger the Health, Safety and Educational Development of Farmworker Children
The Child Labor Coalition is reaching out for organizational endorsements of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety, which would end exploitative child labor in U.S. agriculture. [The bill was introduced on Cesar Chavez Day, 3/31/2022 in the 117th Congress. We will post a bill number as soon as it is available.]
201 great national, regional, and state-based groups have endorsed this much-needed legislation.
We ask organizations to help us advance this vital legislation which would remove the exemptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act that allow children to work unlimited hours in agriculture at the age of 12; these exemptions also allow child farmworkers to perform hazardous work at the age of 16. A text of the bill can be found here.
The educational impact of child labor on U.S. farmworker children has been devastating. We estimate that two out of three children who work in the fields drop out of school.
The CLC’s press release explains why there is an urgent need to protect farmworker children and how the bill accomplishes this. Child farmworkers perform back-breaking work for long hours in excessive heat while they are exposed to pesticides and other dangerous agro-chemicals.
Organizations that wish to add their names to the list of endorsers, please email reidm@nclnet.org .
The 201 groups below have endorsed the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety between 2019 and 2022:
| Action for Children North Carolina |
| AFL-CIO |
| Alianza Nacional de Campesinas |
| Alliance for Justice |
| American Academy of Pediatrics |
| American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) |
| American Federation of Teachers |
| American Medical Women’s Association |
| Amnesty International USA |
| Arkansas Human Development Corporation |
| Asian Americans Advancing Justice — AAJC |
| Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance |
| Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs |
| Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) |
| Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, & Grain Millers International Union |
| Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, & Grain Millers International Union, Local 351 (NM) |
| Bank Information Center |
| Be Slavery Free |
| Beyond Borders |
| Beyond Pesticides |
| Bon Appétit Management Company |
| California Human Development |
| California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation |
| Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities |
| CATA – Farmworkers’ Support Committee (NJ, PA, MD) |
| Causa (OR) |
| Center for Childhood & Youth Studies, Salem State University (MA) |
| Center for Human Rights of Children, Loyola University |
| Center for Progressive Reform |
| Central Valley Opportunity Center (California) |
| Centro de los Derechos del Migrante |
| Child Labor Coalition |
| Child Welfare League of America |
| Children’s Advocacy Institute, Univ. |
