U.S. berry farms fined for hiring 6-year-olds as workers

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

PORTLAND, ORE. — Three strawberry farms were fined a total of US$73,000 for employing children as young as 6 as pickers, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

A child-labor investigation in June discovered nine underage workers at farms in the Washington towns of Woodland and Ridgefield. Investigators found several violations of labour law, including failing to maintain proof-of-age records and pay minimum wage among others.

The farmers were Marty Peterson from Columbia Fruit in Woodland; George Hoffman of George Hoffman Farms and Lee Nguyen of Berry Good Farms of Ridgefield.

... A farmworker advocate said child labour is a recurring problem in farms in southwest Washington. Many underpay their workers, leading families to bring their children to help harvest.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1034994--u-s-berry-farms-fined-for-hiring-6-year-olds-as-workers?bn=1

[Mnemosyne]

1. I just saw an ad locally, lowering hiring minimum to age 12 picking blueberries

It may be an Amish only ad, not sure. Many, many Amish here in NW PA.

[yellerpup]

2. Vital for people to know this.

Is this our future? :kick: & Rec.

[Shining Jack]

3. If this is our future...

then it awfully looks like the 19th century. :(

[yellerpup]

31. If it hadn't been happening all along

I'd say the Republicans had gotten their wish to 'take the country back." Exploitation is rampant worldwide and it does look like the 19th century and even farther back than that. Sad.

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. Looks like 1958 to me. I picked berries as a kid, for school money.

Every summer from age 12 to 16.
Made enough money for my school clothes for the year, it was perfectly legal, got paid at the end of every day, cash.
My family was poor and it was the only way to have decent clothes.

The company had a bus to carry the pickers ( most of them same age as me) from a local grocery store parking lot at 6 am, I seem to remember, we picked all day, had a lunch break ( bring your own, of course)
and then were bussed back to lot around 3 in the afternoon.

I think the season lasted about 6 weeks.

[Cal Carpenter]

30. Yes, it is our past, present, and future**

Just because we don't hear about child labor in this country every day doesn't mean it isn't happening.

This is the *exception* because they got caught.

(**our future unless we create something better out of the ashes of capitalism)

[yellerpup]

32. Yup, I don't even mind being called a socialist any more.

The ones who fear a socialist attitude would stone me to death and let the one who stole their life savings (stock market crash), all the equity in their homes, the natural resources that belong to ALL of us, our social safety net including a right to healthcare, the quality of our water, air, and food -- those guys are the Capitalist Heros. F 'em. I'm all for creating a better future, but I'll probably need to get over this headache before I can begin. :hi:

[udbcrzy2]

4. That seems to be a popular choice for the growers

Walmart and the Kroger supermarket chain have severed ties with one of the country's major blueberry growers after an ABC News investigation found children, including one as young as five-years-old, working in its fields.

The children were discovered at the Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company, in South Haven, Michigan, this summer by graduate school students working with ABC News as fellows with the Carnegie Corporation.

A five-year-old girl, named Suli, was seen lugging two heavy buckets of blueberries picked by her parents and brothers, aged seven and eight.

An 11-year-old boy in the Adkin fields told the Carnegie fellows he had been picking blueberries since the age of eight.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/young-children-working-blueberry-fields-walmart-severs-ties/story?id=8951044

[Lorien]

5. Aren't repugs fighting to end child labor laws in some States?

they want us all to work from cradle to grave while they sit on their vast riches, whining about having to contribute one dime to the Country that permitted their immoral acts. :mad:

[LetTimmySmoke]

6. Child labor - one of the many parts of the Tea Party vision for America.

[Judi Lynn]

10. They are morally deformed. Not really civilized. n/t

[Sherman A1]

17. Yup!

Missouri for one. I don't think the bill got very far this session, but I am sure they will bring it back.

[StarsInHerHair]

35. yes, this is why they want to end public education, most people wont have

the money to pay for private schools & charter school vouchers will be getting slashed...they WANT child labor back in the U.S.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Growing up, my uncle had orchards

There was a paid crew that picked the fruit except in one small section which was reserved for kids in the family and their friends to pick to make some pocket money.It had to be completed when the rest of the trees were done, and the fruit was sold. He paid the same rate per pound etc. I did it one year, but picking clearly takes time to learn how to do well. He was far from the only grower doing it in the area.

Clearly underage child labor is unacceptable. However I am not sure I would have a hard time if it was more like I experienced. Call it nostalgia for a simpler time with family farms etc

[No Elephants]

12. Eery time I see a thread like this, there is a post like yours on it.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Who from the confederacy doesn't long for those days?

One can only recall the fond images they etched on their money, with slaves happily working hard until they dropped for nothing for their masters, far from their childhood homes and loved ones.

http://www.jopart.com.nyud.net:8090/images/confederate-money.jpg http://listverse.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/12/conf-money.jpg http://www.deerrunmercantile.com.nyud.net:8090/ProductImages/confederatemoney/t13F6540a.jpg

[ProgressiveProfessor]

29. The two are no where near comparable...

but thanks for playing

[ProgressiveProfessor]

28. I see considerable difference...

[Downwinder]

19. I started working cattle and roundup when i was six. Never thought

of it as work. I had to be doing something and six or seven hours on horseback was enjoyable and educational. Not a whole lot different than a summer camp. We had dudes that come down and paid for the experience.

[trud]

22. we worked laboring as kids too

If the kids are okay and it doesn't interfere with school, it's none of the government's business.

[kimsarah]

8. 6 years old

No insurance, no minimum wage, no benefits. Why does government always have to mess up a good thing?

[No Elephants]

11. Exactly why government should be kept busy interfering in people's private lives.

Keeps it from making problems for job creators.

And kindergarteners didn't even know they needed jobs, so it was a nice surprise.

[Turborama]

9. These must be the "regulations" that the Teahadists want lifted to help create jobs

They probably want to reward these three strawberry farms with tax breaks for doing it, too.

[No Elephants]

13. And we worry if playing Little League will do permanant damage to still growing bodies.

[StarsInHerHair]

37. YEAH1!1! because it's JUST like THIS!1!!1

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/12/03/child-labor-in-america-1908-1912/

http://alittlereality.blogspot.com/2011/01/child-labor-in-america.html

http://www.weirdpalace.com/lost-youth-child-labor-in-america/


all these kids from 1910 to around 1930 LOOK SO HAPPY1!!!1 like little league1!111


troll, ennabler!

[alp227]

14. I'm 20, unemployed, and would be willing to pick fruits.

But farmers would rather hire children or Mexicans for cheaper.

[Citizen Worker]

16. If congress would get rid of those onerous regulations this wouldn't be a problem. Eliminate the

child labor laws and minimum wage laws and voila! Problem solved.

[libmom74]

18. I am disgusted that

this is happening in my state!

[Selatius]

20. Quite a lot of Libertarians want the US to revert back to the 19th century as far as regulation goes

In those days, employers could pretty much do whatever they pleased to their employees, including discriminate on account of their religion, race, color, sex, or national origin. They could also run workplaces as dirty or as dangerous as they pleased, even to the detriment of their own workforce. Children once worked in the coal mines with their parents, and many of them died in tunnel collapses or from "black lung." People could be worked 80 hours a week regularly with no guarantee of breaks or time off or sick leave or any of that rubbish capitalists hate. If you lost an arm in the gears of some of your employer's machinery, you were fired, and there was no disability insurance. If you tried to form a labor union, you were typically met with police brutality or a visit from company thug enforcers who literally would smash your kneecaps in with crowbars or baseball bats for daring to provoke a union drive at your employer's workplace.

Yes, that's employers' paradise: The freedom to be as greedy as you want to be.

[formercia]

25. "It's what built this Country", they will say.

There's only so much room at the Top. :sarcasm:

[StarsInHerHair]

38. I posted some pics, dont forget the kids who had their arms chopped off

because they worked in boxing factories

[bread_and_roses]

21. Fined? Fined? Why are they not charged as criminals? (n/t)

[SomeGuyInEagan]

23. Welcome to the TeaParty America!

It's their own damn fault they are six-years-old. If they were only stronger or smarter or older or monied, they wouldn't be sic-year-oldl berry pickers!

(Do I really need to add a sarcasm smiley here?)

[OwnedByFerrets]

24. Where are the fucking jail times??? No, I'm sorry, all the jails

are filled with pot users.

[mainer]

26. Our school schedule is based on agrarian labor by children

But that's labor by children on their own family farms. I guess I'd like clarification that these child laborers aren't actually family friends and relatives, which seems to me a different kettle of fish.

[AsahinaKimi]

27. I am sure that Republicans will want to recend this Child labor law

As quickly as possible so these berry farms can get back to work, without all this hassle, after all they have money to be made, and what better way for them to do it, then on the backs of children! :sarcasm:

baaaka!

[Ian David]

34. We've gone berry picking for fun, and six year-olds suck at it.

[rug]

36. I don't see the problem. They're closer to the ground.

[Shining Jack]

39. They are also small which is handy in coal mines.

"Thousands of children, some as young as 8, are believed to toil alongside adults in the northeast mines; their small bodies are well suited to the narrow coal seams."

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/15/world/la-fg-india-child-coal-20110515