I don’t know what to say. Tears. From The Guardian:
More than 100 children have been discovered to be illegally employed by a slaughterhouse cleaning firm across the country, federal authorities said.
The Department of Labor announced that a federal investigation found Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI) employed at least 102 children, ranging from 13 to 17 years old, to work overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.
How does this happen? And how does the CEO avoid prison? I hope that he doesn’t avoid prison, but we know how the justice system in this country works. And, as you would expect from a company as heartless as this, there were injuries:
At one point, the child fell asleep in class and also missed class after suffering injuries as a result of chemical burns. Several other children were also reported to have suffered from chemical burns.
The Department of Labor assessed PSSI $15,138 for each minor-aged employee who was employed in violation of the law. According to the news release, PSSI has paid $1.5m in civil money penalties.
The fine better be substantially more than what they have made in profit in paying children rather than adults with the experience to work such jobs or they will simply write it off as a business expense. I also guarantee there is a crime somewhere in violating those childhood labor laws, and if no one sees prison? It will simply happen again.
One can tell that the U.S. isn’t serious about its immigration laws because they often refuse to raid slaughterhouses, knowing that many undocumented migrants are working within one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. We also know that even though it is illegal to employ such workers, only the workers actually suffer – they often are kicked out of the country. The company pays a fine, but the CEO is never, ever put in prison. If one CEO was put in prison over undocumented migrants or children, the problem would end the next day.
We need to ask ourselves hard questions about what country we want to be.Because Republicans across the country are attacking child labor laws as “anti-freedom.” Damned right, it is “anti-freedom.” It is also “anti-freedom” to outlaw you from purchasing slaves and putting them to work. So what?
And if the families need the money, then we need more aid for families!
God, WE are becoming the EVIL country, the one we used to always “police” for civil rights.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: A PRESIDENT AHEAD OF HIS TIME, JIMMY CARTER ENTERS HOSPICE AS THE BEST EX-PRESIDENT IN HISTORY
THESE SAME INSANE REMOVAL OF CHILD LABOR LAWS ARE ACTUALLY UP FOR DISCUSSION IN IOWA (THANK YOU, KIM REYNOLDS). THEY WANT TO LET 14-16 YEAR OLDS START WORKING UNTIL 9 AT NIGHT DURING THE WEEK AND 17 YEAR OLDS WILL BE ABLE TO SERVE LIQUOR. THAT STATE IS STEADILY BECOMING THE WORST STATE IN THE UNION. THEY HAVE ALSO DECLARED WAR ON THE POOR BY KICKING HUGE NUMBERS OF NEEDY PEOPLE OFF FOOD STAMPS. FOR EXAMPLE, IF A FAMILY FARM HAS MORE THAN $2700.00 IN “ASSETS” (LIKE A PAID OFF TRACTOR WORTH $2701.00), THEY WILL GET KICKED OFF FOODSTAMPS DURING NON-PROFIT TIMES LIKE PLANTING AND HARVESTING. FARMS DON’T MAKE MONEY ‘TIL THE GRAIN OR CATTLE BUYER PAYS THEM. THE REST OF THE TIME, A LOT OF SMALL FARMS RELY ON FOODSTAMPS TO NOT STARVE. THE GREAT REPUBLICAN “GREATNESS” AT WORK.
These are the people screaming to close borders, that want to deport the very people who are doing the work THEY don’t want to do and don’t want their own children to do. This has been going on forever and as it was pointed out, the workers get deported and the owners and CEOs pay the fine and start hiring the next batch of underaged or undocumented workers. If R’s were really serious about stopping the influx of undocumented folk, they would jail the people who hire them and force them to pay competitive wages to citizen employees.