Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs Opposes Holdup in Protecting Farmworker Children
October 28, 2011—Yesterday, the Department of Labor sent notice that it would be extending the comment period and further delaying its proposal to update child labor regulations. The postponement will be announced in the Federal Register on Monday. The DOL released the proposal in August to update child labor regulations, which have not been updated in almost 40 years. Comments were set to be due November 1, 2011, 60 days after the proposal was introduced by the DOL, the standard time allotted for such changes. As a result of lobbying efforts by the Farm Bureau and other agribusiness groups, 78 Members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis pressuring the DOL to further postpone these important updates.
“As farmworker advocates, we are opposed to additional delays that may lead to further deaths and the maiming of children working in agriculture,” said Norma Flores López, director of AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign and a former farmworker child. “These updates are too late for the hundreds of children who have died as a result of these out-of-date child labor regulations, but it’s not too late for those children currently laboring in hazardous conditions.”
The National Safety Council ranked agriculture as the most dangerous industry for even adult workers, with 28.7 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2008. For youth, agriculture has the highest fatality rate of any industry, with 40% of all youth fatalities occurring on farms. This year alone, two 14-year-old girls were killed and eight others were injured while detassling corn in Tampico, Illinois after being electrocuted by irrigation equipment in July. In August, two 17-year-olds each lost a leg when they became trapped in a grain auger in Kremlin, Oklahoma.
The proposed hazardous orders continue to protect the family farm exemption. The revisions would extend restrictions on child labor including barring children under 16 from cultivating, harvesting, or curing tobacco. Farmworkers in tobacco fields have been shown to have nicotine exposure equal to the worker smoking 36 cigarettes per day, according to Public Health Reports. Children working in tobacco fields are particularly vulnerable to acute tobacco poisoning, known as green tobacco sickness, which has no special treatment or cure.
The DOL is also proposing, under recommendation by NIOSH, to prohibit all work inside grain silos. In 2010, 51 workers were engulfed by grain stored in towering metal structures, and 26 died — the highest number on record, according to a report issued by Purdue University. These restrictions, which were delayed nearly nine months rather than the usual 90-day review procedure, could have also prevented the death of 14-year-old Wyatt who drowned in a grain bin earlier this year.
“While we applaud the Department of Labor’s efforts to update these regulations and better protect working children, this delay is alarming,” notes López. “The safety of America’s children must be our nation’s priority.”
The full text of the proposed update to child labor regulations can be found on the DOL website. Comments are now being accepted until December 1, 2011.
The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs is a non-profit, national federation of 52 non-profit and public agencies that provide training and employment services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Our goal is to improve the quality of life for all farmworkers and their families through advocacy, education, and training. For additional comment or an interview, please contact Ayrianne Parks at 202.828-6006 ext. 140 or Parks@AFOP.org.
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PLEASE PROTECT OUR CHILDREN!!! This delay is inexcuable.
Your organization has a great idea. Let us create more regulations for small family farms so we can force all of our farms products ie. fruits, grains etc. to other countries that do not have these regulations. Wait a minute! That is what we have done to our manufacturing sector. Our government has regulated many manufacturing companies abroad due to excessive regulations. Everyone wonders what has happened to our manufacturing jobs? Stick around and you will wonder why a single orange will someday very soon cost $1.50 to $2.00 for one. Someday soon nothing will be made or produced in this country we will be service only. Every time a new regulation is created by our government who pays for it? We do! Far more children are killed or maimed in car accidents – it is not even close. Can your organization seek to ban kid’s from cars as well.
Over 100 kids a year die on farms. Thousands of others are injured. Child farmworkers deserve the same protections that all other kids in America deserve. The protections against known hazards in agriculture have not been updated for four decades during which hundreds of farm kids have died unnecessarily.
It’s time to implement a few common-sense restrictions to keep farm kids safe!—Reid Maki, the Child Labor Coalition
When a child works on the family farm, there are parents and those who love them to watch out for their safety. when a neighbor hires a young person to help out, again, there is a sensitivity to watch out for the youngster as they are a ‘ neighbor.’ But when a large mega corporate entity whose motivation is profit margins; too often the exploitation of the weakest among us occurs and in agribusiness its our children, our future. Its the regulations and criminal penaties and jail time that is needed when its exploitation costs lives and does great harm. as the concern for the teenager or child isn;t always there and only the full force of the law can put it there. The initial regulations were too far reaching into the personal farms of families. It became a reach into areas where state laws regarding safety of children already exist. I remember as a very young child, my Dad [opening the door of a silo and explaining the terrible dangers that were present around grain. We had a storage area in the barn and my Dad even explained how one could get buried in just a few feet of stored grain and not be able to get out. This is the same training that every worker should receive before they ever enter on the job. That’s not just for teenagers; Many are out of work and taking any kind of job to support themselves and families and too often do not understand the dangers and no employer should require they put themselves at risk. its basic job safety for anyone as even adults may not be trained in the dangers. For younger persons with their futures ahead of them; they may not have the general wisdom of life to avoid dangers when their responsible employers ask them to do something for the profit of some mega company. we need “Cody’s law.” Linda Joy Adams, great aunt of Cody Rigsby