31 Kids Found Working Graveyard Shifts on Meat Plant 'Kill Floors,' Feds Say

[babylonsister]

31 Kids Found Working Graveyard Shifts on Meat Plant ‘Kill Floors,’ Feds Say
‘HARM’S WAY’
One child worker, a 14-year-old middle school student, was injured while working from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., five to six days, officials said.
Josh Fiallo
Breaking News Reporter
Updated Nov. 10, 2022 7:42PM ET / Published Nov. 10, 2022 4:46PM ET
Department of Labor


In a complaint filed Wednesday that reads straight out the Great Depression, the feds requested a temporary injunction on a massive sanitation company that’s accused of employing children as young as 13 in “dangerous” overnight shifts at food processing plants.

Packers Sanitation Services, known as PSSI, is under investigation by the Department of Labor after a credible tip uncovered that at least 31 children were employed to clean industrial equipment, the complaint said.

At least two of the child workers suffered caustic chemical burns and other injuries while working on the “kill floor”—where cattle are butchered—at a plant operated by JBS Foods in Grand Island, Nebraska, the complaint said.

PSSI hires local workers throughout the country to sanitize industrial plants, like food processing facilities, often in overnight shifts that includes “work with and around dangerous machinery” and use of “strong chemicals,” according to an employee onboarding video on YouTube. The company’s website says it has 17,000 employees.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kids-found-working-graveyard-shifts-on-meat-plant-kill-floors-for-packers-sanitation-services-feds-say?ref=home

[Ray Bruns]

1. So it's a republican wet dream come true.

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Exactly

When they whine about the Labor Participation Rate, they're whining about how children and the elderly don't work. The Republican dream is poor people working from the moment they can walk, to the moment they drop dead. They'd just love if it if toddlers could be on factory floors rather than being indoctrinated with all that liberal math and science in socialist schools.

[PatSeg]

22. Yeah, that would be the republican

version of Head Start, a more productive early childhood education.

[Ferrets are Cool]

41. ONLY if they are poorer than "they" are OR they are not the same color.

Cuz, they would NEVER let their own kids do this shit.

[rurallib]

43. children that were born into poverty because abortion was unavailable

that is the real driver behind Republican opposition to abortion.

[justhanginon]

19. My first thought too! The good old days party of child labor.

[IronLionZion]

33. GOP wants cheap labor and to blame children for stealing our jobs

[Lovie777]

2. Well the upper class do want to bring back child labor .....

and will spend money to a certain political party to get it.

[70sEraVet]

3. Capitalism without restraints for the 'Job Creators'.

Scenes out of a William S. Boroughs novel.

[DBoon]

59. I was going to reference an Upton Sinclair novel

but Burroughs captures the nightmare quality better

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. From the source, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division:

News Release

US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SEEKS NATIONWIDE COURT INJUNCTION TO STOP PACKERS SANITATION SERVICES’ ‘OPPRESSIVE CHILD LABOR’ VIOLATIONS AT PROCESSING FACILITIES

Department finds 31 children working overnight shifts in hazardous occupations

LINCOLN, NE – The U.S. Department of Labor today asked a federal court to issue a nationwide temporary restraining order and injunction against Packers Sanitation Services Inc. LTD – one of the nation’s leading providers of food safety sanitation – to stop the company from illegally employing dozens of minor-aged workers while the department continues its investigation of the company’s labor practices.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for Nebraska in Lincoln, the complaint was prompted by an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that discovered that PSSI had employed at least 31 children – from 13 to 17 years of age – in hazardous occupations. The jobs performed by children included cleaning dangerous powered equipment during overnight shifts to fulfill sanitation contracts at JBS USA plants in Grand Island, Nebraska and Worthington, Minnesota, and at Turkey Valley Farms in Marshall, Minnesota.

Investigators also learned that several minors employed by PSSI ­– including one 13-years-old – suffered caustic chemical burns and other injuries.

In its filing, the department alleges the food sanitation contractor interfered with an investigation by intimidating minor workers to stop them from cooperating with investigators. PSSI also allegedly deleted and manipulated employment files.

“The Department of Labor will use every available legal resource to protect workers – regardless of their age – and hold to account those employers who mistakenly believe they can violate the Fair Labor Standards Act, obstruct federal investigations, and retaliate against workers who assert their rights,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Christine Heri in Chicago.

The investigation at PSSI began on Aug. 24, 2022, when the division received credible information alleging the company assigned minors to work in hazardous occupation. The division executed warrants for the company’s operations at the three plants, its local offices and at PSSI’s Keiler, Wisconsin, corporate office.

“Federal laws were established decades ago to prevent employers from profiting by putting children in harm’s way,” said Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Michael Lazzeri in Chicago. “Taking advantage of children, exposing them to workplace dangers – and interfering with a federal investigation – demonstrates Packers Sanitation Services Inc.’s flagrant disregard for the law and for the well-being of young workers.”

PSSI provides contract sanitation services, chemical innovations, pest prevention and other solutions for about 700 food processing facilities nationwide and employs about 17,000 workers.

The FLSA prohibits minors under the age of 14 from working and 14- and 15-year-old employees from working later than 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day and past 7 p.m., the remainder of the year. Additionally, they cannot work more than 3 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day or more than 18 hours per week. The law also prohibits minors from operating motor vehicles, forklifts and using other hazardous equipment. To assist employers in avoiding violations, and inform young workers and their parents, the division has published its “Seven Child Labor Best Practices for Employers.”

Learn more about the Wage and Hour Division, including a search tool to use if you think you may be owed back wages collected by the division and how to file an online complaint. For confidential compliance assistance, employees and employers can call the agency’s toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (487-9243), regardless of where they are from.

Download the agency’s new Timesheet App for android devices to ensure hours and pay are accurate.

Agency: Wage and Hour Division
Date: November 9, 2022
Release Number: 22-2162-NAT

Media Contact: Scott Allen
Phone Number: 312-353-4727
Email: [e-mail]

Media Contact: Rhonda Burke
Phone Number: 312-353-4807
Email: [e-mail]

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Disgusting

13 year old working with caustic soda? What, couldn’t they find a treadmill for the kids?
This is ridiculous behavior in 2022. It was ridiculous in 1822.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. PSSI:

Last edited Fri Nov 11, 2022, 11:32 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/2022/11/SOLWHDPSSI%20FILINGS.pdf

{snip}

FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS

The Parties

10. Plaintiff, Martin J. Walsh, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor, is vested with authority to sue to restrain violations of the FLSA.
11. Defendant Packers Sanitation Services Inc., Ltd. is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Ohio, with its principal office located in Kieler, Wisconsin.
12. PSSI operates an office in Grand Island, Nebraska and has employees working in a workplace in Grand Island, Nebraska.
13. In addition to the locations in Grand Island, Nebraska where PSSI employees work, PSSI operates offices and has employees working in slaughtering and meat packing establishments throughout the United States of America, including in Worthington, Minnesota and Marshall, Minnesota.

{snip}

https://www.pssi.com/

[Warpy]

49. A lot of industrial cleaning products are worse than that

and come in a super concentrated form that needs to be diluted. Even the diluted products are nasty when you get them on your skin.

I think the real problem here is kids who are still in school working full graveyard shifts. That's hard enough for adults who can go home and sleep. These kids finished work and had to go right to school. Exhausted teenagers got clumsy and made mistakes.

I suppose the parents of these kids were largely immigrants and probably thought the kids would be less interested in gangs and drugs if they had jobs and paychecks.

The company needs a hefty fine.

[ProfessorGAC]

51. Sorry But That's Not True

I worked on MANY projects involving the manufacture of and phase stable formulations of industrial cleaning products. They are NOT more dangerous than caustic soda or chlorine bleach, which due to the way it’s manufactured is still around 5% caustic soda.
Can they be dangerous as concentrates? You bet.
Are they more dangerous to work with than the things I mentioned. Not even close.
Their capacity to do contact tissue damage is orders of magnitude lower, and the rate of intended reaction is far slower. So, getting a a little caustic soda on you means your burned RIGHT NOW! A little of these concentrates and you’ve got a few minutes to wash it off, and they’re completely water soluble.
You can’t be careless or capricious with them, but they’re way safer.
And I’m someone who dealt with lots of very dangerous chemicals trying to perform reactions that resulted in a far safer, less reactive states.

[Warpy]

53. They were unlikely to be using lye or concentrated chlorine bleach

It is possible they were using something like LpH se and I can tell you from dismal experience and a long story I won't go into about corporate greed that yes, it does cause immediate burns in concentrated form. I was just lucky there was a sink nearby. A kid wouldn't know to flush the area with water immediately, so the burns might have been significant. Once diluted, the stuff wasn't any worse than any other cleaning agent.

Kids don't think the way grownups do. It's why we don't want them doing jobs on graveyard shift in meat packing plants.

[ProfessorGAC]

55. They Use Caustic Soda All The Time

Lye & caustic soda are related but not the same thing. Different cations.
But, caustic soda is used at around 30% for 4 reasons:
1. The tallow saponfies into soap which mixes with the water to become it's own cleaning agent.
2. Proteins in the lean rapidly hydrolyze into unlinked structures that become soft and less sticky, become partially water soluble and are more easily micellized by the effect of #1.
3. Bacteria and very high pH are not compatible. A 10% solution of caustic soda has a bacterial kill rate of at least 99.99% in one hour at 25°C. The time goes down an order of magnitude for every 10% of concentration. So, a 30% solution hits that efficacy in 36 seconds, and;
4. It's super cheap. Like 1/10th the cost.
I've worked with many microbiologist on sanitization of process equipment. None in meat packing, but I know the mechanisms quite well.
As to failure to wash off other less aggressive substances, you'd be be on to something except, another advantage of those alternatives is that the irritation is slowly progressive.
So, the itch would drive one nuts very long before it started to do substantial tissue damage. It would be strictly epidermal and would easily wash away.
It's why they're used in household sanitizers . They're orders of magnitude less dangerous to work with.

[secondwind]

14. WOW!!!!!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. You really want to tick DOL off?

Intimidate workers and delete files.

In its filing, the department alleges the food sanitation contractor interfered with an investigation by intimidating minor workers to stop them from cooperating with investigators. PSSI also allegedly deleted and manipulated employment files.

[jaxexpat]

38. Would be interesting to see how/if/when they're sentenced.

Do you know if this will provide exposure to potential imprisonment or merely monetary? Years ago, when I wore a tool belt for a living, there was a construction company notorious for unsafe conditions that had an employee death. The jobsite superintendent got 6 months, but the owner got no time at all. And the fine was ridiculously low as well.

[LeftInTX]

26. I also wonder if they're immigrants?

Who else would do this job?

[Lonestarblue]

31. The kids were Spanish speakers, so they likely are immigrants.

[LeftInTX]

32. OK...thx

[Bristlecone]

5. Jeezus H. Graveyard shifts no less

JBS will claim they had no idea. Just as culpable as PSSI.

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[Blue Owl]

8. Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

[niyad]

9. JFC. Oliver Twist time.

[HAB911]

10. I would like to know if they were

local white kids or did undocumented immigrants steal those jobs from the locals?

1/2

[LeftInTX]

27. Immigrants was my first reaction

One of the requirements of asylum seekers are that they are required to attend school.
Some have run away from host families for that reason.

[bullwinkle428]

11. We could shut this kind of thing down TODAY, if we were willing to prosecute

these employers beyond some slap-on-the-wrist fine.

[area51]

36. +1 n/t

[I_UndergroundPanther]

54. Shut down the company

And use the ceo's assets to pay reparations and the other parts after that to strengthen the labor boards that investigate corporate abuse and crime. Hire more people afford more projects.

Ceos would just hate that enough to stop disregarding labor laws if they knew they'd lose both thier business and thier money hoard.All of it. And have to get a low wage job working making someone else's profits.

Enforce that punishment for labor violations I bet this bullshit would stop.

[Javaman]

16. aside from the kids doing this work being illegal.

who was the manager on duty? they knew damn well these kids were under age.

aren't the right wing always yelling about how immigrants are taking away our jobs? and here they are employing fucking kids!!!!

more over why are these kids wanting to take these jobs? because their families can't make ends meet because of low wages in this nation.

also, bet your ass this isn't a union shop.

the repukes look at anyone "beneath" them as disposable.

this is just so completely fucked up.

Upton Sinclair weeps in his grave.

[pandr32]

21. This! Everything you said.

[LeftInTX]

28. I would not be surprised if they are immigrants

Kids who are asylum seekers are here legally, but they are supposed to be attending school. Some have run away from host families for that reason. Hence they are not bringing up immigration in this case if they are here legally. (This is just my opinion)

[haele]

44. Especially if in the countries they were fleeing from, child labor is normal.

The military took me to a lot of countries where unless they were from a well off family (professional class or above) children were expected to quit school and work at the family business or employer when they turned 12 or 13.
Girls were expected to be getting groomed to find a husband by the time they were 15.
There was no such thing as "Teen-age" in those countries unless your family could afford to let you be a teenager. Just as it was prior to the 1940's in poorer or rural communities in the US.

I suspect that's why immigrant communities are often baffled when the government comes down hard on child labor. It's not that education isn't important; it's that culturally, education isn't as important as supporting the family that raised you.
Many immigrants are coming up for work to pull their families out of increasingly squalid poverty, and coming to the USA includes expecting not only work waiting for them, but work waiting for the older children they are bringing up with them, or have contacted older family minors to come up and live with them while they are pursuing or have been granted asylum.
That good old American "work ethic" is still in play, it's just that now all US citizens tend to expect their kids to at least finish high school before they have to find a job to support themselves, while those desperate immigrants still aren't expected to have that 'luxury' and need to prove themselves and their poor families worthy of being in the US.

IMO, the basis for many of the gangs in these poorer countries immigrants are fleeing comes from three components - Class structure in those countries, technology and nepotism reducing employment, and an high cost of attending secondary school to the poorer families requiring poor children to find jobs to support their own schooling (or drop out) once they get past basic letter and number recognition, let alone basic reading and math.
The poor are stuck with a hard decision; either they give themselves and their families up to a perpetual cycle of increasing poverty and slow death, or they flee to somewhere they can work their way out of desperate poverty into some form of self-sufficiency. And that means everyone in the family does their part, which leaves them and their children open to exploitation by "it's just business" folks making profits off cheap labor.

Haele

[Hekate]

46. This. Thanks

[keithbvadu2]

17. Newt Gingrich: Child Labor Laws Are 'Stupid'

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=newt+gingrich+child+labor

[harumph]

18. Blast from the past:

[keithbvadu2]

20. In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.

https://www.history.com/news/child-labor-lewis-hine-photos

These Appalling Images Exposed Child Labor in America

In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.

Cheap, pliable, easily replaced if maimed/injured, do not know about safety regs.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

57. Thanks for the link. I had not seen all of those before.

[Joinfortmill]

23. WTF???

[keroro gunsou]

24. Any amount of money says

The children in question are:

A - non-white or
B - undocumented or
C - all of the above

what the hell is wrong with this country? Oh yeah, the almighty, hell-bent pursuit of the bottom line, no matter the cost. Silly me.

[LeftInTX]

29. Yep!

[Hortensis]

37. :) Plus, D - from impoverished backgrounds. Discrimination against

"poor people" just for being poor is huge. They're natural targets for abuse and are systematically -- and righteously -- abused and deliberately neglected. I grew up poor and lived this.

Just cut and paste all the openly abusive, contemptuous attitudes and behaviors some ordinary people, police, teachers, store clerks, etc,etc, display toward minority races and immigrants, but leave out insults specific to skin color, accents, etc.

Notably, one very common way that abuse of other, NOT impoverished targets, like nonwhites, is justified and triggered is to first dishonestly regard them as poor -- even when they're clearly not, thus classifying them as inferior and unworthy. And probably up to no good when found in nice neighborhoods.

[intheflow]

25. I'm curious about the age and race of the children.

While still illegal, a 17 year cleaning power saws is vastly different than an 8- or 12-year-old. And of course, are these kids migrants and/or nonwhite? Do their parents know about youth labor laws? We’re they able to be employed because they’re undocumented? Shoddy reporting meant to sensationalize than inform.

[LeftInTX]

30. I'm willing to be bet that they are migrants...

However, their status in the US may be "legal"*, hence immigration laws are not broken.

*Asylum seekers and their families are in the US legally, while awaiting their hearing, hence they are eligible for employment
Their parents can also be recent citizens
They could have run away from host families looking for work. (Yes, this frequently happens because laws require minors to attend school, which is very difficult for some migrants)


____________

Also, this is a civil complaint by the DOL
If immigration laws are broken by the employer, it would then be a separate criminal complaint filed by the DOJ.

[Farmer-Rick]

34. With no unions to worry about

Child labor is back in style.

Back in the 1800, the political pamphlets printed by the filthy rich said: "Factories are made for children and children are made for factories." It was a win win for starving families, massive orphan populations, abusive parents and the filthy rich. Not so much for the kids. Imagine being born poor, losing a hand at 8 and not being able to work again, with no disability or workman's compensation.

Some writers in the mid 1800s noted that walking into factory towns was like walking into an abandoned war field because there were so many people with missing feet, hands, legs and arms around.

This is what the Federalist Society is pushing for again. Check out their approval of the end to the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act. Where the Supremes struck down the act. The Federalist Society wants to return to easily exploited child labor.

Here's a quote from their website, it's all there in black and white. They want your 6 year old child back doing factory work.

"The end result of child labor laws is ultimately not child protection but prohibiting children from using their innate potential to earn their own money."

[BonnieJW]

35. Reads like a Dickenson novel

Or maybe Les Miserables?

[Phoenix61]

39. As long as it's profitable for companies to engage in this

type of behavior they will. Especially when individuals aren’t held personally libel. I was, at one time, married to a man who worked on off shore oil platforms. Companies would get hit with huge fines for things like, “Main safety system in manual override mode.” Ok when someone is working on something but definitely not ok when they “get tired of hearing all those false sirens and alarms.” His company issued a bulletin that any employee caught engaging in that behavior would be fined $10,000 and that was the end of that.

[childfreebychoice]

40. Remember when newt said kids could work as janitors, at schools

...with those caustic chemicals. Smh

[Hortensis]

42. I'm feeling shocked, even though this is expected result of RW extremism

and inadequate, or in this case unapplied, government controls.

As for these companies, IMO, every adult complicit in the abuse of these children, including coworkers who didn't report it to the proper authorities, should be liable for criminal charges. Eliminating "just following orders" excuses from liability at any level would empower employees to refuse to participate in illegal practices while decreasing the power of management to require it, thus forcing major changes in company cultures and practices.

This would be a major progressive advance whose societal time should have come a century ago.

[AKwannabe]

45. Who owns PSSI?

PSSI is sold and is purchased by Dan Zelman and three other investors. Dan becomes CFO of PSSI, beginning a period of immense growth over the next decade, including the addition of accounts like Cargill, Hormel and American Food Group.

https://www.pssi.com › ... ›
https://www.pssi.com/pssi-homepage/about/about-pssi/our-leadership/

All white people in leadership

Probably all Mexican descent kids.

Fucking sick

[hunter]

47. There is nothing good about industrial scale meat production. Absolutely nothing.

The meat industry requires strict regulation or it goes rotten fast.

It's not good for the environment, it's not good for the workers, and it's not good for the animals.

Most of the beef and dairy products you buy in the supermarket doesn't come from happy cows grazing on green hillsides.

Most days I avoid meat in my own diet but I'm a complete hypocrite when it comes to our dogs.

The kibble they eat is a product of these industries.

[Hekate]

48. The soul of America ... KnR

[Stinky The Clown]

50. Charles Dickens sent a time warp message . . . .

. . . . . he wants his story's characters back.

[appalachiablue]

52. Mother Jones, Children's March - 1903, Phila. to Long Isl., NY, Pres.Theo. Roosevelt's summer home

https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/mother-jones-march-mill-children/

[Faux pas]

56. Kickin' with DISGUST

[Permanut]

58. I would like to see names..

The people who do these things hide behind logos, like "PSSI" and "JBS", and "Turkey Valley Farms".

The only name listed in the complaint is a Les Goff, a manager at one of the plants, who of course had "no comment".

[appalachiablue]

60. ** CAN I X-POST THIS IN THE *'OS LABOR' GROUP? THANKS..