Working conditions of field migrant workers, who is responsible?

[wedigfood]

Hundreds of thousand? I think that is a profound exaggeration, according the the BLS there are ~750,000 agricultural jobs in the US. Also many children working on farms are children working on their family farms.

Take a look at this link, I didn't make it up. TAKE ACTION: End Child Labor in US Agriculture | Human Rights Watch

Children between 12~14 can only legally work on farms if their parents also work on the farm , can only work during non-school hours, can't work anywhere near 14 hours a day and aren't allowed to do hazardous agricultural work. Here is the youth employment guide for agricultural employers:

http://www.dol.gov/whd/AG/ag_pocket_guide.pdf

Banning children on farms would actually hurt small local farms as many of them are family farms and have their children working on the farm.

Just because there is a law regulating child labor doesn't mean anyone follows it. We are talking about money and greed.

The same government also told us that Iraq had WMDs. Trillions of dollars changed hands and thousands of lives were lost. No WMDs found. Thats why groups like Human Rights Watch are vital.

And you know full well I wasn't talking about small family farms where the kids of the owners work on the farm, i.e. chores.

 

[ledboots]

There aren't very many small family farms anymore. Just north of me in western Florida, there are many seasonal farm workers. They work sun up to sun down, every day, and sometimes the fields are even lit at night so the strawberries can be picked in the dark. After elementary school (5th grade), not too many migrant workers' children are in school anymore. They are either working the fields or watching younger siblings, sometimes doing both at once.

 

[flyingsnail]

Take a look at this link, I didn't make it up.

I didn't suggest you made it up.....I suggested it wasn't accurate. I couldn't find any citation for the claims made on the website you linked to.

Just because there is a law regulating child labor doesn't mean anyone follows it. We are talking about money and greed

True...but you can say the same about adult labor as well. If the issue is that people aren't following the rules than we need to focus on better enforcement of labor regulations rather than a change in regulations.

The same government also told us that Iraq had WMDs.

Best not to mix government propaganda with economic data, the economic in the data in the US tends to be high quality.

 

[flyingsnail]

There aren't very many small family farms anymore. Just north of me in western Florida, there are many seasonal farm workers. They work sun up to sun down, every day, and sometimes the fields are even lit at night so the strawberries can be picked in the dark. After elementary school (5th grade), not too many migrant workers' children are in school anymore. They are either working the fields or watching younger siblings, sometimes doing both at once.

I don't know about Florida but I know of many small family farms in California and I buy food from them all the time....but small family farms hire seasonal workers all the time. Kids have to be 12 or older to legally work in agricultural and school age kids legally must be in school during school hours, if one sees fields with kids younger than 12 or with kids working during school hours they should be repeated. I've yet to see that sort of thing around here and there are plenty of farms here.

 

[wedigfood]

True...but you can say the same about adult labor as well. If the issue is that people aren't following the rules than we need to focus on better enforcement of labor regulations rather than a change in regulations.

Unfortunately "we" isn't working too well. I suggest, aside from making all the issues as public as possible, everyone who can, convince the other 50% of the electorate to VOTE!