Tag Archive for: Hazardous Work

Press Release: 100+ organizations urge full restoration of USDOL/ILAB programming and staffing to fight against child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking

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Contact: Reid Maki, Director Child Labor Issues and Coordinator of Child Labor Coalition 

More than 100 organizations urge full restoration of USDOL/ILAB programming and staffing to fight against child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking

Washington, DC—In a bold show of unity, more than 100 organizations have issued a new statement urging Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer and the U.S. Congress to restore essential programs and staffing levels of the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), a frontline force in the global fight against child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. ILAB also plays an important role in expanding global labor protections, with the aim of ensuring a level-playing field for American businesses at risk from overseas manufacturing that relies on exploited labor.

In late March, the Trump Administration terminated more than $500 million in ILAB grant programs. The Bureau is now bracing for catastrophic staff reductions and is expected to lose at least half its personnel this week. 

For decades, ILAB has stood as a global leader and the primary U.S. government funder of child labor remediation and a major funder of efforts to reduce forced labor and human trafficking internationally.

The signatories of the ILAB-support statement include human rights, labor rights, anti-trafficking, and child rights organizations, as well as representatives of the U.S. business community. Faith-based groups and two of the largest unions in the U.S.—the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers—who share deep concern about the development of children at risk of child labor, are also among the signatories. 

We are unified in our message: the United States must not abandon its global leadership role in defending our most vulnerable workers.

The ILAB-support letter and list of signatories can be found here.

 

 

A list of quotes from some of the statement signatories follows:

“The ILAB team has deep expertise in carrying out important priorities to all Americans, including ensuring that products that come into our country are made free from child and forced labor. It also works on monitoring and enforcing the effective implementation of our trade agreements. The ILAB programs provide a vital tool for our nation to fight against trafficking, child labor and exploitative cheap labor. The elimination of these grants and possible staff positions undermines the interests of workers in the United States and around the world.”  — Liz Shuler, president, AFL-CIO 

 

“The dismantling of ILAB grants and accompanying staff reductions threatens to unravel decades of progress in combating forced and child labor, human trafficking and exploitation around the world. For over 20 years, ILAB-supported programs have helped uphold the values of dignity, freedom and fairness by supporting grassroots efforts to ensure safe workplaces and human rights protections across global supply chains. Crucially, many of these programs were established to enforce labor provisions in countries where the United States has trade agreements. They help ensure that our trading partners live up to their commitments. Cutting these programs risks turning a blind eye to violations that directly impact the fairness of our trade relationships.” — Shawna Bader Blau, executive director, Solidarity Center 

 

“ILAB’s work reflects the values of the American people and the Trump administration by putting American workers and businesses first. Eliminating all ILAB grants instead puts American workers and American businesses last, leading to unfair competition with countries and foreign businesses that are not held to the same laws and standards for labor abuses, forced labor, human trafficking, and child labor.” — Nate Herman, senior vice president of policy, American Apparel and Footwear Association 

 

“Workers around the world are at higher risk of exploitation and abuse because of these cuts. Without ILAB programs, more children will end up in dangerous work that could harm their health, disrupt their education, and rob them of their childhood.”  — Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch 

 

“Forced labor and child labor are ubiquitous in global supply chains, harming the victims and creating an unfair playing field for U.S. workers. For more than two decades, the Department of Labor’s international grant programs have made tremendous strides in combating human trafficking and abuse. That has now ended. The administration’s counterproductive decision to eliminate $500 million in funding for this work undermines progress in the global fight to end forced labor and child exploitation. We strongly urge Secretary Chavez-DeRemer to restore this essential funding immediately and to end the attack on ILAB.” — Martina E. Vandenberg, president, Human Trafficking Legal Center 

 

“We call on Secretary Chavez-DeRemer to restore ILAB’s funding. Through our work and partnerships, we have seen how this funding and the bureau’s partnership has been pivotal in addressing forced labor, human trafficking, and child labor by supporting organizations in developing enforceable brand agreements in India and Lesotho, strengthening labor standards for seafood workers in the Asia Pacific, advancing freedom of association in Mexico, and more. The loss of $500 million will have crippling effects around the world and impact those most vulnerable.” — Kehinde A. Togun, managing director, Public Engagement, Humanity United 

 

“Restoring these grants gives child laborers a fighting chance at an education, better jobs as adults, and raises wages and living standards world-wide.” — Tim Ryan, chair, Global March Against Child Labour 

 

“For decades, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) has been the U.S. government’s primary funder of child labor remediation projects around the world. ILAB also funds projects to reduce and end forced labor and human trafficking and to expand labor rights to ensure that American businesses do not face unfair competition from overseas companies that engage in exploitative labor practices. Over the last 25 years, ILAB has played a leading role in the remarkable reduction of global child labor from 246 million to 168 million—by more than one third. Cuts to ILAB’s programming and staff threaten to spark a dramatic increase in global child labor.” — Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy, Child Labor Coalition and National Consumers League 

Press Release: National Consumers League condemns legislation in Florida that preempts local ordinances to protect workers from heat exposure

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March 15, 2024

Media contact: National Consumers League – Melody Merin, melodym@nclnet.org, 202-207-2831

Washington, DC – The National Consumers League is condemning a vote by the Florida House of Representatives to approve legislation that will upend Miami-Dade’s proposed local workplace standards requiring drinking water, cooling measures, recovery periods, posting or distributing materials informing workers how to protect themselves, and requiring first aid or emergency responses. The Florida Senate approved the measure yesterday.

This measure rushed through the state legislature ahead of adjournment on Friday, March 8th and will prevent local governments throughout Florida from requiring water, shade breaks or training so workers can protect themselves from heat illness, injury, and fatality.

Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy for the Child Labor Coalition under the National Consumers League, made this statement:

“Not only is the Florida legislature usurping the duty of local government to protect workers from heat stress in one of the hottest states in America, but by denying workers access to water and protection this Dickensian measure ignores the reality of heat and heatstroke among Florida’s workers. Indeed, hundreds of workers die across the U.S. from heat exposure each year. The legislation also forbids the posting of educational materials to help workers protect themselves from the heat.

NCL has throughout its history worked to eradicate child labor and abusive labor practices, including protecting children in America working in the fields from exposure to heat, dangerous chemicals, and long hours. U.S. law allows children to work at younger ages in the agricultural sector despite its significantly increased danger. It also allows teens to do work known to be dangerous at younger ages—16 versus 18. NCL works to close both of those loopholes and protect children from agricultural dangers and exploitation. These vulnerable teen workers in agriculture are at great risk from heat exposure.

NCL is urging Governor Ron DeSantis to veto this legislation. NCL also urges the United States Congress to enact the Asuncíon Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury and Fatality Prevention Act, which would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt interim heat standards, while the agency continues its years-long slog of adopting a final heat protection rule. NCL is a member of the national Heat Stress Network, which works to protect outdoor works from heat dangers.

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Do Children in America Ever Work in Deplorable, Dangerous, Dickensian Conditions?  The Short Answer is “Yes” — The Child Labor Coalition’s Top Ten U.S. Child Labor Developments in 2022

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By Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition

 

Most Americans are unaware that the U.S. still has child labor, but 2022 made it abundantly clear that we do, and stories in the news exposed conditions that were often downright shocking. Here are 10 child labor stories or developments that indicate child labor in the U.S. is not something in the past and continues to be a serious concern. The  Child Labor Coalition brings together 39 groups to work collectively to reduce international and domestic child labor and to protect working teens from occupational dangers. Our top 2022 U.S. developments:

  • Minors found working illegally in Brazilian-owned JBS meatpacking facilities in Nebraska and Minnesota. Several children suffered caustic chemical burns, including one 13-year-old. The children worked on the killing floor in cleaning crews, toiling long nights in the graveyard shift and used dangerous pressure-washing hoses while they stood in water mixed with animal parts. Initially, the number of children numbered 31 in Nebraska and Minnesota, but U.S. DOL has suggested the number of illegally employed teens in processing plant cleaning crews may be much larger. The CLC has expressed concerns about teens illegally working in meat processing plants since a large immigration raid in Iowa in 2003 found 50 minors working illegally in the plant.
  • Teens found working in an Alabama factory that supplied parts to Hyundai. In July, labor officials found three siblings, aged 12, 14, and 15, working in an Alabama stamping plant that supplied part to the car manufacturer Hyundai. According to reports, a larger number of minors worked in the factory in recent years. The story drew enormous publicity because factory-based child labor in the U.S. has become rare.
  • The Wisconsin legislature passed a bill to weaken child labor laws by expanding the hours of teen work, which endangers children’s educational development and presents certain health risks. The CLC amplified the work of labor unions on social media, we also wrote a letter to Gov. Tony Evers, urging him to veto the proposed legislation, which he did in February. According to research, high school age workers who toil more than 20 hours a week get lower grades and have an increased risk of dropping out.
  • An estimated 300,000 children still work for wages in agriculture, performing backbreaking labor in searing heat. Currently, federal law allows children who are only 12 to work unlimited hours as long as they are working when school is not in session. Federal legislation which would protect child farmworkers, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE), H.R. 7345, would raise the minimum age of farm work from 12 to at least 14 and lift the age of hazardous work from the current 16 to 18—the same as all other sectors. CARE saw some promising developments in 2022, including the holding of a congressional hearing on the bill—the first since 2009. We also secured over 200 organizational endorsements for CARE and we worked with CLC-members Human Rights Watch, Justice for Migrant Women, and First Focus Campaign for Children to obtain 47 CARE legislative cosponsors.
  • The Children Don’t Belong on Tobacco Farms Act, H.R. 3865 –and its companion bill S.2044—would ban child labor on U.S. tobacco farms where children toil long hours and routinely suffer symptoms of nicotine poisoning such as vomiting, fainting, dizziness, headaches and nausea. In a desperate attempt to keep nicotine off their skin, many teen tobacco workers toil while wearing black plastic garbage bags with holes punched out for their arms and head. Some teens work at great heights and great danger in tobacco drying barns. In the U.S., you have to be 21 to buy cigarettes but at age 12, you can work on tobacco farms and suffer poisoning from toxic nicotine. In the 117th congressional session, we helped secure 32 cosponsors for H.R. 3865—more than double the amount of cosponsors in the 116th.
  • Enforcement of domestic child labor laws in 2022 through mid-November saw an almost 40 percent increase in the number of child workers involved in a violation of child labor rules—nearly 4,000 children, according to reporting by DailyMail.com, using Department of Labor data. Nearly 20 percent of the violations involved teens performing hazardous work.
  • USDOL and state labor agencies frequently found child labor violations among fast food restaurants. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey fined Dunkin’, the donut franchises, $145,000 for over 1,200 child labor violations in 14 stores. U.S. DOL found violations in 13 Pittsburgh area McDonalds restaurants in which teens worked too many hours or too late, as well as a case of a teen doing prohibited hazardous work
  • In September, Human Rights Watch, a CLC member, issued a child rights report card for all U.S. states related to child marriage, child labor, juvenile justice, and corporal punishment, and how well they meet the standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Alarmingly, only four states earned passing grades: 20 received an “F”; 26 received a “D”; four received a “C” and none received a “B” or and “A.” See the grades and report here.
  • In July, Massachusetts became the seventh US state to ban entirely child marriage. Like child marriage globally, U.S. child marriage has substantial health, educational, and financial impacts on teen girls who marry. Most states have broad exemptions that allow teens to marry with the approval of parents or the courts. Massachusetts joins six other states that passed legislation to end child marriage: New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Minnesota. The CLC is a member of the National Coalition to End Child Marriage, headed by the NGO Unchained at Last.
  • The CLC and HRW held a series of meetings with Wage and Hour in 2022 to secure the reopening of the occupational child safety rules for agriculture called “Hazardous Occupation Orders.” These common-sense rules have not been updated for agriculture in roughly four decades despite many lessons-learned about farm injuries during that time. We also helped Rep. Roybal-Allard and Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) draft and circulate a letter to DOL Secretary Walsh urging enhanced safety precautions. The letter had 46 congressional signatories.

                                                             #END#

 

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US Should Protect Young Farmworkers–Lawmakers, Labor Department Need to Act

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Margaret Wurth
Margaret Wurth
Senior Researcher, Children’s Rights Division

[This piece originally appeared on at www.hrw.org on June 13, 2022]

As the world marks another World Day Against Child Labor, US leaders should commit to ending child labor at home.

Globally, countries have reduced the number of children involved in child labor – defined as work performed by children below the minimum age of employment or children under age 18 engaged in hazardous work – from 245 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2020. Meanwhile, US protections for child farmworkers are as weak as ever.

Under US law, children can work in agriculture from younger ages, for longer hours, and in more hazardous conditions than children working in any other sector. Today, it is legal for 12-year-old children to work unlimited hours on a farm of any size, as long as they have a parent’s permission and they don’t miss school. Children that young cannot legally work in any other sector in the US. In agriculture, children at age 16 can do work considered “hazardous” by the US Labor Secretary, while in every other sector children must be 18.

Lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation to close these gaps. The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE Act) would amend US labor law to raise the minimum hiring age in agriculture to 14, and the minimum age for hazardous work to 18, matching the minimum ages for other areas of work.

Another important bill, the Children Don’t Belong on Tobacco Farms Act, would prohibit children under 18 from work involving direct contact with tobacco , a toxic crop containing nicotine. Congress should pass both of these bills.

But child farmworkers also need the Department of Labor to take action to provide safer work environments. The Labor Department has the authority to determine which jobs are considered hazardous and off limits to the youngest children working on farms. The list of hazardous occupations in agriculture has not been updated since 1970 and is way too narrow.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh has repeatedly committed to ending child labor worldwide. At an event this month, he said child labor is, “a denial of fundamental human labor rights and it’s unacceptable.” He’s right. And he has the power to do something about it. Secretary Walsh should initiate a new rulemaking process to update these regulations.

Child farmworkers have waited long enough for the basic workplace protections that all other working children have.

“Sofia,” a 17-year-old tobacco worker, in a tobacco field in North Carolina. She started working at 13. She tries to protect herself from nicotine poisoning by wearing plastic trash bags and a mask. COVID presents new and scary risks. © 2015 Benedict Evans for Human Rights Watch

10 Stats about Women and Girls on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021

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  • Of the 152 million children trapped in child labor, 64 million are girls [source].
  • 73 million children are trapped in hazardous child labor—27.8 million are girls.
  • 29 million women and girls are in modern slavery—71 percent of the overall total of enslaved individuals [source].
  • Women represent 99.4 percent of the victims of forced labor in the commercial sex industry [source].
  • Women and girls represent 84 percent of the victims of forced marriages, now categorized as a form of modern slavery [source]. There are an estimated 15 million individuals in forced marriages.
  • Worldwide, there are an estimated 67 million domestic workers—3/4 are women [source].
  • 132 million girls were out of school in 2016 [source].
  • 9 in 10 girls complete their primary education, but only 3 in 4 complete their lower secondary education [source].
  • In low-income countries, less than 2/3 of girls complete their primary education [source].
  • 42 million people have fled their homes because of armed conflicts; 50 percent are women; 10 million are estimated to be girls and young women. [source]
  • In 2017, there were an estimated 68.5 million forcibly displaced people, including 25.4 million refugees—half are women and girls. [source]

Child sugarcane worker. Photo by Noah Friedman-Rudovsky. Courtesy of Green America.

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Why Won’t New York’s Governor Cuomo Ban the Nasty Pesticide Chlorpyrifos which Harms Children?

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Something really curious is happening in New York State. In June, the New York Assembly passed a bill to ban the nasty pesticide chlorpyrifos that damages the development of children. That’s not the weird part. What’s surprising is that Governor Andrew Cuomo has not signed the bill, despite the fact that the NY Attorney General Letitia James joined five other attorneys general in suing the Trump administration’s federal Environmental Protection Agency because it overturned an Obama administration ban on the pesticide.

“Chlorpyrifos is extremely dangerous, especially to the health of our children,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “Yet, the Trump Administration continues to ignore both the science and law, by allowing this toxic pesticide to contaminate food at unsafe levels. If the Trump EPA won’t do its job and protect the health and safety of New Yorkers, my office will take them to court and force them to fulfill their responsibilities.”

“The governor shouldn’t be striving to protect some of the people some of the time, but should protect all of the people all of the time.” — Reid Maki

The other states that joined the suit are Washington, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts, and California—the latter is the country’s largest agricultural producer (measured by cash receipts) and has decided to remove chlorpyrifos from the market in 2020.

Studies have also linked chlorpyrifos to autism, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention deficit disorders and delayed motor development.
Nationally, home use was banned in 2001 because of its impact on children’s developing brains. In 2018, Hawaii became the first state to enact a complete ban on its use, which includes farms.

Chlorpyrifos is also thought to damage male reproductive organs to the point that it can make men sterile.
After food safety authorities determined that there was no safe exposure level to chlorpyrifos—that any trace of the pesticide was too dangerous, the European Union is expected to ban entry of food products contaminated with the pesticide next year.

In August, The National Consumers League (NCL) and the Child Labor Coalition, which NCL co-chairs, joined over 80 groups—including many from New York—on a letter, urging Governor Cuomo to sign the chlorpyrifos ban. We were naïve enough to think he would.

With an avalanche of data suggesting it is too dangerous to use and his own attorney general suing over its use, why has Cuomo seemingly decided not to ban the pesticide? We can only guess. In July, the governor signed landmark legislation to protect farmworkers from labor abuses, ensure equitable housing and working conditions, and grant them collective bargaining, overtime pay, unemployment compensation and other benefits.

Farmworkers are some of the most exploited workers in America and we applaud the governor for doing the right thing, but he seems to be taking the position that having done something farm owners didn’t like, he shouldn’t sign the chlorpyrifos ban because they won’t like that either. The farmers see the pesticide as an effective tool to help them grow crops.
The problem is that chlorpyrifos doesn’t just harm consumers—those who eat farm produce. It harms the very people that produce crops: the farmers and the farmworkers and the children of both.

Should giving farmworker labor rights mean that it’s okay to endanger their fertility and cause their children to suffer developmental delays or autism? And from the farmers’ perspective, shouldn’t their children be protected from those afflictions. The governor shouldn’t be striving to protect some of the people some of the time, but should protect all of the people all of the time.

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127 Groups Ask EPA Not to Reverse Ban on Pesticide Application by Children

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Dear Administrator Pruitt:

The undersigned organizations write to oppose any changes by the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to the requirements in the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (“WPS”) and Certification of Pesticide Applicators rule (CPA).

Over 15 years ago, an EPA report stated that “pesticide poisoning in the United States remains under-recognized and under-treated…despite the ubiquity of pesticides in our homes, workplaces, and communities, and despite the considerable potential for pesticide-related illnesses and injury.” Farmworkers have one of the highest rates of chemical exposures among U.S. workers and they suffer acute pesticide poisoning every year through occupational exposures and pesticide drift. Studies have shown that agricultural workers suffer serious short- and long-term health effects from exposure to pesticides. The WPS and CPA rules provide vital protections from exposure to toxic pesticides for hired farmworkers, pesticide applicators, their families and the general public in communities across the United States. In revising these rules, the EPA recognized that the weight of evidence suggests that the new requirements, “will result in long-term health benefits to agricultural workers, pesticide handlers,” and “to certified and noncertified applicators, as well as to the public and the environment.”

After more than a decade of stakeholder input and analysis, the EPA revised the WPS and CPA rule to prevent injury and illness to the children, women and men who work around pesticides in agriculture, or who come into contact with pesticides in other settings. EPA found that the new safeguards are necessary to address the known dangers associated with pesticide use. The WPS applies to hired workers and pesticide handlers who labor in farms, fields, nurseries, greenhouses and forests. The CPA rule governs the training and certification requirements of workers who apply Restricted Use Pesticides (“RUPs”) in a variety of settings, including homes, schools, hospitals, as well as agricultural and industrial establishments. RUPs are some of the most toxic and dangerous pesticides on the market.

 

We are concerned that the EPA may weaken critical safeguards meant to protect agricultural workers, the public, and the environment. Among the many important provisions in the rules, the Agency has stated its intent to reconsider the minimum age protections that prohibit children from applying pesticides, the right of farmworkers to access pesticide application information through a designated representative, and protections for bystanders through “application exclusion zones,” which require that an applicator suspend pesticide application if “an unprotected/non-trained person” enters the area around the application equipment.

Undermining these important protections cannot be justified. We urge you to preserve the existing protections and to move forward with full implementation and enforcement.

Respectfully,

127 child, faith, agricultural, health, labor, human rights, consumer and environmental groups, including the Child Labor Coalition have signed the letter.

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CHILD LABOR COALITION statement on new estimates of child labor

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Two 13 year old boys digging for gold in a mine in Mbeya region, Tanzania. (c) 2013

Two 13 year old boys digging for gold in a mine in Mbeya region, Tanzania.

 

The Child Labor Coalition applauds progress in child labor remediation indicated by new estimates released by the International Labour Organization, but expresses concern that progress in fighting child labor is slowing

September 22, 2017
Contact: Reid Maki, (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org

(Washington, DC) The Child Labor Coalition (CLC), whose 37 member organizations fight exploitative child labor and represent millions of Americans, welcomed new child labor estimates released Tuesday, September 19th by the International Labour Organization (ILO) which found that the number of children in child labor is 10 percent lower than 2012. The CLC, however, is concerned that the pace of ending child labor has slowed decidedly.

During the period of 2000 to 2012, the ILO found “significant progress” in the reduction of child labor as the estimate of children in child labor fell from 246 million to 168 million—a reduction of 78 million. Progress was pronounced among younger children and girls, who experienced a 40 percent decline in child labor. The greatest portion of that decline occurred in the period 2008-2012, despite a global economic recession.

The new data from the ILO estimates child labor trends from 2012 to 2016 and found that child labor dropped from 168 million to 152 million—16 million fewer children representing a 10 percent drop. Between 2008 and 2012, the level dropped from 215 million to 168 million—47 million children or 22 percent. The most recent data represents a one-third reduction of the prior four years.

Children in the most dangerous forms of work labeled “hazardous labor” dropped from 171 million to 85 million from 2000 to 2012—a reduction of 50 percent. The number of hazardous child workers dropped 30 million between 2008 and 2012 but only 10 million in the last four years—once again, about one-third the level of the prior four years.

Infographic from the ILO.

Infographic from the ILO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A jointly released estimate by the ILO and the Walk-Free Foundation also released on Tuesday estimates that there are 40 million victims of modern slavery in the world and that about one in four of these victims are children.

The following statement may be attributed to Reid Maki, Director of Child Advocacy for the National Consumers League and Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition:

“The United Nation’s sustainable development goal 8.7 targets the complete elimination of child labor by 2025. If we are to achieve this extremely difficult objective or come close to achieving it, it is imperative that we pick up the pace of child labor reduction significantly.

This means more resources to fight child labor–not less as the Trump Administration is trying to push through as it tries to end US financed child labor remediation projects. At this critical juncture, we must continue to fund the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, which has helped reduce the number of child laborers in the world by nearly 100 million since 2000. But governments alone cannot end child labor, the corporate entities that benefit from labor exploitation must do more to remove child labor from their supply chains. A massive international effort is needed. We must declare war on poverty, provide living wages for adults so they do not feel compelled to have their children work and we must fight to protect the labor rights of all adult workers. Government must administer financial assistance for the neediest families, provide quality education for all children, pass stronger child labor laws and enforce those laws more robustly.

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About the Child Labor Coalition

The Child Labor Coalition, which has 37 member organizations, represents consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups. It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the American Federation of Teachers. Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad. The CLC’s website and membership list can be found at www.stopchildlabor.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rep. Cicilline and 46 Members of Congress Ask President Obama to Ban Child Labor in US Tobacco

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October 18, 2016

 

The President

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20500

 

Dear Mr. President:

As you approach the final months of your term in office, we would first like to commend you on the Strides your administration has made in combatting the dangers that tobacco and nicotine products pose to children. With those accomplishments in mind, we ask that you take immediate action to amend existing rules which allow children under the age of 18 to do dangerous work on tobacco farms. The hazards to children associated with this type of labor make closing this loophole essential.

Current U.S. law allows children as young as 12, or even younger, to work as hired laborers in agriculture, and there is no special provision in law or regulation which accounts for the unique risks to children who work in tobacco fields. According to detailed reports published by Human Rights Watch in 2014 and 2015, children allowed to work on tobacco farms often work excruciatingly long hours in harsh conditions, and often without protective gear. They routinely handle tobacco plants containing nicotine, and many of these children experience symptoms such as nausea, Vomiting, and dizziness- which are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, an occupational illness that occurs when workers absorb nicotine through their skin. The long-term impacts on children are unknown, but research on Smoking suggests nicotine exposure during childhood and adolescence may have lasting consequences on brain development.

Because of this, it is critical that the Department of Labor issue a new rule specifically identifying labor in tobacco fields as hazardous and prohibiting children from working in direct contact with tobacco in any form. In order to avoid placing an undue burden on family farms, the rule need only apply to farms using hired laborers. Additionally, such a rule would be met with Support among many in the tobacco industry as many companies have already taken Steps to combat child labor practices. U.S. companies such as Altria Group and Reynolds American have Voluntarily prohibited their suppliers from employing children under the age of 16. These important steps made by industry should be met with strong action by the Department of Labor.

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Statement by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on the passage of India’s Child Labour Amendment Bill of 2016

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2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has long been a collaborator of the Child Labor Coalition

2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has long been a collaborator of the Child Labor Coalition

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016 is a missed opportunity.

I was hoping that today the elected leaders of our country will acknowledge that the value of freedom and childhood is greater than the value of a vote; that they would respond to the voices of the most exploited and vulnerable children. I had hoped that the first phase of my struggle of thirty-six years would culminate in the creation of a strong law and I would work with the Government for its effective implementation.

Despite its progressive elements, the lacunae in this Bill are self-defeating.

The definition of family and family enterprises is flawed. This Bill uses Indian family values to justify economic exploitation of children. It is misleading the society by blurring the lines between learning in a family and working in a family enterprise.

The Bill reinforces status quo in society by hindering socio-economic mobility of the marginalised and furthers the rigid norms of social hierarchy.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have fixed targets for elimination of child labour and accomplishment of universal, inclusive education for children, rights which I had fought and advocated for.  As the world progresses towards this goal, India threatens to unravel the pace of progress by opening a back door for large number of children to enter workforce.

Children of any age, under the garb of family enterprises, can now legally work in brick kilns, slaughter houses, beedi making, glass furnaces and other hazardous labour.  Children have been failed again.

However, I applaud the strong concern raised by several parliamentarians across party lines in the Lok Sabha.

The Hon’ble Labour Minister, who is a dear friend and elder brother assured that my serious reservations would be accommodated. Especially the reduced list of hazardous occupations, the ambiguity regarding the definition of family and family enterprises and the weakening of the conviction through the provision to compound offences. However, the Bill passed by the Parliament today does not address any of these concerns.

But I am a hopeful man. I believe in the children, the young people, the mothers and fathers of this country. I know we stand together to end child labour.

I call upon the conscience of our nation.

Today, justice must rise above the law.

 

CLC members—the Ramsay Merriam Fund, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association—made this web site possible through their generous support.

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