Xinhua News Agency, Washington, June 13th Roundup: America’s child labor problem is alarming
Xinhua News Agency reporter Sun Ding
Last year, the United Farm Workers Union posted a photo on social media of a 7-year-old boy picking strawberries in a field in Indiana under the scorching sun.
In the American fields, some teenagers and even children are doing the work of adult farm workers. According to estimates by the nonprofit American Farm Worker Employment Training Program, there are still regarding 500,000 child laborers in the country who work in agriculture, and child labor deaths are frequent.
Throughout American history, child labor has emerged in a variety of forms, including child slavery and indentured labor. In 1938, the United States promulgated the “Fair Labor Standards Act”, which stipulated and restricted the use of juveniles and children by employers to participate in labor, but “opened the net” to farmers, and even allowed them to hire children to harvest crops under certain conditions.
To this day, some children in the United States start working from the age of 8, working up to 72 hours a week. In October last year, due to the “labor shortage”, some parts of the United States took up the idea of minors once more and passed legislation to extend the hours that teenagers can work.
U.S. farms are laborious and difficult, and child labor is often exposed to hazards from weather, pesticides, and the use of farm implements. A report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2018 revealed that from 2003 to 2016, 452 children died from work-related injuries in the United States, of which more than 230 died from agricultural-related activities.
While working, children can experience health problems from exposure to the sun, including heat stroke, dehydration, and even death. In addition, many tobacco farms in the United States employ children to harvest and dry tobacco leaves, resulting in nicotine poisoning and even lung infection in many child laborers. At the same time, child laborers on farms are often required to operate farm implements intended for adults only, including large equipment such as tractors, without adequate training or supervision.
On October 17, 2019, in Iowa, the United States, agricultural machinery was busy in the corn field of Grant Kimberley’s family farm.Xinhua News Agency
For growing children, long-term work can take a toll on the body, damage their mental health, and even cause psychological trauma.
Children are the hope of the future. It is the consensus of the international community to respect and protect children’s rights and free them from heavy labor. The United States has yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and has even been repeatedly named and criticized by the International Labor Organization for its serious child labor problem.