Our moral imperative: Protecting all children in NC

By Melinda Wiggins | Originally published by the Raleigh News & Observer

Last month, N.C. Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca refused to allow so much as a hearing of Senate Bill 707, all but killing it. What did the Henderson Republican find so objectionable?

The bill would ban the employment of children under age 14 in one of the deadliest occupations in America. But isn’t that already illegal? Didn’t child labor laws from the 1930s put an end to the industrial exploitation of kids? Not in agriculture. Not in North Carolina. Here, impoverished kids as young as 10 can be hired to work for strangers in sun-baked fields laden with toxic pesticides, doing hard labor few adults would choose to do.

We are not talking here about family farms. Senate Bill 707 – like every other proposal to bring child labor standards out of the 19th century – explicitly allows children to work on farms owned or operated by relatives. Unfortunately, this truth is routinely ignored or misrepresented, allowing legislators to brush off these reforms as threats to an American institution and parental rights.

There is no moral justification for child labor in any industry, but the economic justification is a wickedly powerful one. The denial of child labor, wage, housing and other legal rights to farmworkers – rights enjoyed by workers in every other industry in America – allows agricultural corporations to keep their labor costs at rock bottom. Growers have no control over the cost of seeds, pesticides or heavy equipment. But with the help of friendly legislators, they can hold down labor costs by taking advantage of the men, women and children who work their fields.

We understand the political realities that lawmakers face. Agribusiness carries a big stick in states like North Carolina. Fortunately, there is something the legislature can do this session to protect farmworker children from being further exploited from trafficking and sexual violence. As reported by Human Rights Watch last year, farmworking girls are subject to unwanted touching, stalking and rape. In a March 2012 Indy Week report corroborated by the nonprofit farmworker advocacy group NC Field, a 16-year-old girl tells of two young girls at one camp being offered as prostitutes to their supervisor.

Senate Bill 683, the so-called Safe Harbor Act, aims to protect victims of human trafficking and the prostitution of minors. The inclusion of simple, sensible provisions will extend this protection to children in our state who need it most.

One provision guarantees that farmworkers may receive visits during nonworking hours from church, charitable and nonprofit organizations for health care, education and other services. Another requires that the Polaris Sex Trafficking hotline be posted in migrant camps. Others require locks for doors and windows of farmworker sleeping areas and locked storage for farmworker valuables such as passports so they cannot be held to exert control.

Too many school kids are working in fields when they should be doing homework. And too many 10-, 11-, 12- and 13-year-old girls are at risk of sexual violence while helping to support their families. Our legislature is empowered to change these realities right now with bills like 707 and 683.

Melinda Wiggins is executive director of Student Action with Farmworkers, a nonprofit based in Durham.

Worked to Death

As the summer begins to heat up, it’s a good time to remember the people who work outside – especially in the fields. Hot summer days are a mild inconvenience for those with desk jobs, but for those who labor in agriculture, the heat can be a matter of life and death.

Last month, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration kicked off a national outreach initiative to educate workers and their employers about the hazards of working outdoors in the heat and steps needed to prevent heat-related illnesses. The initiative includes new training materials in Spanish and a smartphone app that workers and employers can use to monitor the heat index.

“For outdoor workers, 'water, rest and shade' are three words that can make the difference between life and death," Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said. "If employers take reasonable precautions, and look out for their workers, we can beat the heat."

Each year, thousands of outdoor workers experience serious illnesses such as heat exhaustion. For 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 4,190 workers suffered from heat illness and 40 died from heat stroke and related causes on the job. Although outdoor workers in a variety of industries are susceptible to heat illness, those in construction and agriculture are the most vulnerable.

Bringing It Home

In North Carolina, heat stroke killed seven farmworkers within a recent five-year period. One of those workers was Juan Jose Soriano, who died of heat stroke while harvesting tobacco in Wayne County on August 1, 2006.

The NC Department of Labor (NCDOL) investigation found that “the employer did not furnish to each of his employees conditions of employment and a place of employment free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees, in that employees were exposed to heat-related hazards without adequate provisions to protect them.”

The investigation also found that “12 migrant farmworkers were exposed to heat indices of 105-110 degrees without the opportunity to adequately hydrate or cool down” and that subsequently one worker died of hyperthermia. The grower has contested the findings and the proposed penalty of $2100. The Workers’ Compensation claim is currently denied by the grower’s insurance carrier. At the time of death, Juan Jose Soriano had 5 children, 3 under the age of 18.

Every farmworker should have access to clean water, breaks and shade when the temperature gets too hot. No one should be worked to death in our fields.

Get involved in the Harvest of Dignity campaign today.

Our Addiction to Cheap Farm Labor

Raleigh News & Observer
By Chris Liu-Beers, NC Council Of Churches

Immigrant farmworkers picking sweet potato

As we enter this holiday season of feasting, we need to be honest about how our food is produced. America has always relied on cheap labor to make agriculture work.

The source of much of that labor used to be slave ships making the Middle Passage. Today it’s no longer slaves but immigrant workers, primarily undocumented people from Mexico and Latin America, whose cheap labor makes possible both low prices at the grocery store and high profits for agribusinesses.

Farmworkers don’t often make the news. Even though 85% of fruits and vegetables are still harvested by hand, farmworkers and their families remain largely invisible to our society. We don’t like to think too much about who is doing the dirty work.

But recently farmers and farmworkers in Georgia and Alabama have made national headlines as labor shortages have forced us to pay attention. Crops are rotting on the vine and growers are staring at huge losses, unsure of how to move forward without a reliable pool of cheap labor.

Why Georgia and Alabama? Both states recently passed harsh new immigration laws designed to crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Proponents said the new laws would open up thousands of jobs for legal residents, especially on farms.

But with average annual salaries of $11,000, 14-hour days in the heat of summer, and shockingly unsafe working conditions, do you think U.S. citizens are rushing to fill these jobs?

The new hit NBC show Rock Center recently highlighted the labor shortage on Alabama’s farms:

We met Jess Montez Durr, who was picking tomatoes on the Jenkins tomato farm on Chandler Mountain in northern Alabama. Durr said he’d stick with this as long as he could, but he preferred his previous job as a dishwasher at Applebee’s. “The work was a whole lot more easier than this,” he said. Since our visit, he and the other American workers have quit.

Consumers, growers, politicians, we’re all caught up in this bind. We want cheap labor and cheap food, but it turns out we don’t really want the people who make it all possible – and all the “inconveniences” of educating children or protecting workers. On our farms we’ve always relied on marginalized and vulnerable workers to do backbreaking manual labor, and now we’re pretending that they are the problem. With these new state laws we’re criminalizing them, telling them that their help is no longer wanted. So they’re leaving.

In Georgia, Gov. Deal suggested that ex-cons should do the work. But it turns out even this population can turn down jobs that are “unsuitable,” and most have. It seems that the few who tried often didn’t last a day in the fields.

So how do we move forward? The solution is not to find yet another vulnerable population to exploit in the fields. Instead, we need to end our addiction to cheap labor.

To start, farmworkers should have the same protections and safety standards as other industries. Despite the passage of the 1935 Fair Labor Standards Act, farmworkers – many of whom were African-American sharecroppers at the time – were excluded from many of its provisions. Decades later, farmworkers are still fighting for the most basic protections that other workers have, like overtime and child labor laws.

Farmworkers should have legal status, too. We all benefit when workers are on a level playing field. Honest employers who obey the laws would no longer be at a competitive disadvantage against unscrupulous employers who take advantage of undocumented workers. At the same time, workers would be able to leave bad jobs and complain about unsafe conditions without fear of being deported.

Finally, farmworkers should earn more than poverty wages. A study of migrant workers in Eastern NC found that nearly half don’t have enough food to feed their families year-round. But if farm wages were to rise by 40 percent, each seasonal farmworker would be lifted above the federal poverty line. The total cost to consumers? About $15 more per household per year. (Check out “Room for Debate” at the NY Times for more on this.)

In a down economy with high unemployment, it’s no surprise when politicians heap blame on the most vulnerable populations, like undocumented farmworkers. But the hard truth these politicians won’t admit is that farmworkers didn’t steal our jobs. We invited them. We needed their cheap, reliable labor and we were content when times were good and workers didn’t complain.

Now that we’re criminalizing undocumented workers in unprecedented ways, we’re merely reaping what we sowed. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

Click here to read this editorial at the Raleigh News & Observer.

Spotlight on Child Labor

By Drew Gores, Undergraduate Student, Duke University 

Child labor has entered the spotlight in recent months as two states have introduced bills that would weaken legal protections for child workers. During the spring, Missouri State Senator Jane Cunningham introduced SB222, which aims to reduce the minimum age at which a child may be employed and eliminate restrictions on the number of hours a child is allowed to work. Elsewhere, the Maine state legislature held hearings on a bill which would permit high school students to work for more hours during the week and at later times of night.

Opponents claim that passage of these bills would facilitate the exploitation of child workers. Missing from the national discussion, however, is any mention of the fact that children working in our nation's agricultural industry already face far more harmful working conditions than even those which would be introduced by the Maine and Missouri bills. This issue is of special interest to North Carolinians. Because our state's farms employ about 150,000 farmworkers every year - some of which are children^.  

For the last 70 years, child farmworkers have been excluded from even the minimum federal legislation which protects child workers in other industries. To work at a restaurant, for example, a child must be 16, while children as young as 12 and 13 can work on a farm with parental permission.

This discrepancy in the laws persists despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control’s National Institute for Occupational Safety Health (NIOSH) has rated the agricultural industry the most dangerous occupation for young workers. Children working in the fields labor long hours in the hot sun. They carry heavy loads and face exposure to toxic pesticides and dangerous machinery. Because they are still growing, child farmworkers are extremely susceptible to illness and trauma as a result of this work.

North Carolinians are taking action to ensure that all children in North Carolina are able to enjoy a safe childhood. Representatives Jordan and Parfitt introduced the Protect Youth/Farm Family Employment Bill, which limits the number of hours that 14- and 15-year-olds can work in our state's fields.

Farm labor is the backbone of North Carolina's agricultural industry, a sector which contributes 70.1 billion dollars to our state's GSP annually. Without strict rules regulating child labor, this industry is profiting as it puts children in harm's way. 

Shameful Harvest

In late July, the Durham News published an amazing op-ed written by a rising 10^th-grader at Carolina Friends School.  Lucas Selvidge’s “Shameful Harvest” talks about his experiences during a week-long service project at Episcopal Farmworker Ministry – a member of FAN. 

While there, Lucas did everything from sorting clothes to visiting labor camps, and he talks about the lasting impression that these experiences made on him:

Some evenings, Father Tony took us to the camps where the farm workers and their families live, where we distributed toiletries, clothes, food and toys. On our first night of visiting we heard that the men had been working in the fields since seven-thirty that morning. They had worked until dusk, which was when we showed up. Hearing that fact alone made me feel tired. I was exhausted from doing two hours of easy work that day. But they work in the fields from dawn until dusk every day for almost no money, which allows us to buy food as cheaply as possible.

No wonder they were too tired to play when our class challenged them to a game of soccer.

What we saw when we went to the camps was that when the farm workers finish their long day of work, they come home to living spaces that are not very pleasant. When I had first seen the farm workers and their children at Father Tony's church service, I had no idea that they were living crammed with lots of people into small trailers with inadequate heating, cooling and insulation, as well as no indoor plumbing, no privacy in bathrooms, and minimal belongings. And that they were working hard all day harvesting our food but barely had enough to feed their own families. Seeing it with our own eyes made a big impression.

Click here to read the entire article.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of the truth that all people deserve dignity in their homes and on the job.  I think we’re all grateful to Lucas for both the week of his life that he offered to others and for raising his voice to help improve their lives over the long-term.  

Protecting farm kids: a tough row to hoe

By Harry Payne, published in the Raleigh News & Observer

RALEIGH - One in every five farm deaths in this country ends the life of a child. We must face North Carolina's role in that bloody truth.

North Carolina law doesn't allow children aged 13 years and under to be exposed to the dangers of the modern adult workplace: no construction sites, chemical plants, poultry processors or pickle factories. Sharp blades, heavy weights, power equipment, toxic chemicals, conveyer belts and the rough edges of adult behavior make these workplaces no place for kids - except if they work in agriculture.

Yet farm work has these dangers and more. Add green tobacco sickness, snakes, pesticides and rural isolation into the mix, steam it in sweltering heat and you have the real life story of "How I spent my Summer Vacation" guaranteed to a few thousand North Carolina kids not yet old enough to shave.

The continuation of this misery and danger is made possible by the efforts of the N.C. Farm Bureau and the state labor commissioner, and it may well be the story of that pint of blueberries you just picked up at the store.

Agriculture is exempt from most of the child protection laws and OSHA provisions that are intended to keep children from the worst danger and to protect folks in every other workplace. In the General Assembly this year, House Bill 838, offered by child advocates and sponsored by Ashe County Republican state Rep. Jonathan Jordan, would have taken the 10-to-13-year-olds out of the fields and restricted the older youth from specific hazards determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, such as applying pesticides and operating heavy machinery, that are the purview of those 18 and up in all other industries.

An exemption for farm family members was included - and then expanded - at the behest of the N.C. Farm Bureau. It allowed basically any work by family kids at family-owned or operated farms.

So far so good, right? But lest reason and common sense prevail at the General Assembly, the Farm Bureau and the labor commissioner intervened.

The commissioner's office reported her preference to wait on some consensus between the Farm Bureau and the bill's proponents. After much delay, the Farm Bureau revealed its position as being OK with the protections for the 10-to-12-year-olds, but not the 13-year-olds.

Negotiations broke down at this point, with child advocates again offering a slimmed-down version of the bill, without sacrificing the safety of 13-year-olds, but to no avail.

Jordan, the bill's sponsor, then explained that he would not bring the bill forward for a hearing because of his preference for consensus, the labor commissioner's opposition and the Farm Bureau's discomfort.

So the opportunity to discuss the issue or provide relief has now disappeared for the next two years - relieving the Farm Bureau and the labor commissioner of an awkward moment when they might be forced to explain their positions on child labor to the public.

If there is good reason for kids to work in these places, these people are well-positioned to make the case, and they should have to.

Forget the bucolic images of kids milking cows or raising a prized pumpkin. Farm life has changed radically since child labor laws were written at the dawn of the 20th century, and what we know about children and danger has changed.

Rather than make the case that the farm economy somehow turns on the toil of kids or reveal that somehow they see children forced by circumstance to do farm work as less deserving of protection than all other kids, they hide behind a bill sponsor they have pressured to hold the bill. They want him to take the heat for their turning their backs on children in danger.

Raise your hand if you support child labor

Photograph shows half-length portrait of two girls wearing banners with slogan "ABOLISH CH[ILD] SLAVERY!!" in English and Yiddish ("(ני)דער מיט (קינד)ער שקלאפער(ײ)", "Nider mit Kinder Schklawerii"), one carrying American flag; spectators stand nearby. Probably taken during May 1, 1909 labor parade in New York City. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abolish_child_slavery.jpg

As a society, we decided 75 years ago that child labor needed very strict guidelines to make sure that education comes first and to prevent abusive conditions.  The only problem?  Children in agriculture were exempted from these protections, in part because most farms were small family operations that needed everyone’s help.  Today, mass-scale agribusiness has replaced family farms.  But the exemption allowing child labor on farms has remained, meaning that there’s a good chance that pint of blueberries you’re enjoying was hand-picked by 12- and 13-year olds – legally.  These same children are too young to work in any other industry.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear two main arguments in favor of the status quo – in favor of child labor.

The most common one goes like this: “I worked on a farm when I was young, and it was hard work but I learned a lot.  There’s nothing wrong with hard work.”  Working on family farms is indeed our agricultural heritage, and so the proposed legislation to reduce child labor in North Carolina has a very clear exemption for the children of the farm owners.  However:

1. Today’s farms are dangerous places for children.  Large-scale agribusinesses use a lot of heavy machinery and pesticides – things that don’t mix well with kids.  Today, 20% of all farm deaths are children, even though children make up only about 8% of the agricultural work force.  From 1992-2000, 42% of work-related deaths of minors occurred in agriculture.  Half of the victims were 14 years old and under.
2. No one says that children shouldn’t be able to work at all.  But it doesn’t make any sense to exempt children working in one of America’s most dangerous industries, when those same children would be turned away from working at movie theaters or shopping malls.  Children in the fields should be protected in the same way as children in any other industry. 

Another common argument in favor of child labor goes something like this: “Farmworker families are so poor that their children have to work to support them.  It’s really an opportunity for them to save money and build their resumes.”

Most farmworker families are very poor – average annual incomes for farmworkers are around $11,000 – but the solution is not to allow child labor.  The solution is to support living wages and other safe, proven mechanisms that raise workers out of poverty.  Ending exploitative child labor is only one piece of a much larger puzzle, but it is a crucial piece.  Too often, we see that allowing child labor doesn’t break the cycle of poverty, it reinforces it.  Children who work in the fields often experience health problems and difficulty performing well in school because of the severe toll farm labor exacts on young bodies and developing minds.  

From the garment factories of New York to the coal mines of West Virginia, America decided a long time ago that child labor was not going to be the solution to bringing people out of poverty.  It’s been 75 years, and we’ve never looked back.  It’s long past time to close the loopholes and level the playing field for children working in our fields. 

Growing up working on the family farm is an important tradition that should be preserved, but employing young children in hazardous work should not be a tradition any longer.  Child labor laws should be the same for every industry.  All children in North Carolina deserve a safe, healthy and bright future.  It’s as simple as that.

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