End Child Labor in NC: A Public Service Announcement

Get involved: Learn more about legislation to end child labor
Video produced by: www.hawriverfilms.com

Agriculture is very dangerous for children. Children working on farms are more likely to die from work-related accidents, and face higher injury and illness rates than adult workers. Each year, over 100 youth die from farm-related injuries in the U.S., and many more are injured. Children who work in fields treated with pesticides are at greater risk of developing neurological and reproductive health problems, as well as cancer.

While industry likes to claim that these jobs help farmworker families, Carol Brooke, director of the Workers Rights Project at the NC Justice Center, said: “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.

Here's the 30-second version of this PSA:

All I Want for Christmas

This holiday season, send your wish for farmworker justice to North Carolina's Commissioner of Labor.

North Carolina Christmas trees generate $100 million for our state each year. But the people who do the hardest work are in danger. This holiday season, the Farmworker Advocacy Network is asking the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) to step up its efforts to protect all NC farmworkers.

Check out the links below to learn more about the dangerous and dehumanizing conditions that farmworkers face on a daily basis:

- Behind the Scenes in Santa Land
- From the Ground Up: Focus on Christmas Trees
- Farmworker Living & Working Conditions 

You can help make a difference by printing and signing our postcard (right) and mailing it to:

Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry
1101 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1101

You can also call in your wish to the Commissioner's office: 1-800-NC-LABOR.

Federal and state audits, as well as independent research, have recently revealed the following serious problems in NCDOL’s enforcement practices:

1) NCDOL is inconsistent in the way it issues penalties. 
2) NCDOL does not classify violations correctly, resulting in incorrect penalties.
3) NCDOL routinely reduces and/or negotiates fines downwards.
4) NCDOL does not focus its inspections on the worst migrant camps. 

Click here for more detailed reports on the NC Deparment of Labor.

(Robyn Levine, USA, 2011) SAF Fellow Robyn Levine documents the experiences of a group of migrant farmworkers who live together and work in the Christmas tree fields in Boone, North Carolina.