Child Labor in the USA?

The consistent attacks on organized labor are paying huge dividends for corporations.  Corporate owned politicians are passing anti worker laws at the state and federal levels, then cut the budget of the Federal Department of Labor tasked with labor oversight.

Last month a KIA plant in Alabama was found to be using child labor. More children as young as 14 have been found working at Packers Sanitation Services Inc., (PSSI) in Nebraska.  According to the Regional Administrator for the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division child labor violations up are 50%.

“The resolution comes about a month after the Department of Labor accused the company of employing at least 31 children on graveyard shifts in slaughterhouses in three states, where they were tasked with cleaning the killing floors and various machines — including meat and bone cutting saws and a grinding machine — according to the complaint, which noted that several children began their shifts at the facilities at 11 p.m. and worked until 5, 6 or 7 a.m, with some working up to six or seven days a week. At least three chiildren suffered chemical burns as a result of working in the slaughterhouses, according to that complaint.”

It's no coincidence that Republicans are trying to raise the retirement age to collect Social Security and defund the IRS. On September 28th, 2018, Trump signed a “minibus” appropriations package that includes a 21% cut to the Department of Labor.  These cuts hamper the DOL’s ability to investigate and enforce the laws protecting workers from exploitation by the corporate masters that own our legislators.