Children's Act for Responsible Employment

Last updated

Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act) is a United States bill that would address the labor conditions of child field workers by imposing the same age, work hour, and pesticide exposure limits as other occupations and increasing the penalties for child labor violations. Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard's introduced the Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act, HR 3564) bill in September 2009 and has subsequently reintroduced it. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

Children as young as 12 years of age who work as many as 12 hours a day, six months a year, subject to hazardous conditions: heat exposure, pesticides, and dangerous work. The agriculture industry has been subject to significantly more lenient labor laws than any other occupation in the United States. As a result, lack of consistent schooling significantly limits their opportunities of succeeding in high school or more. The hazardous conditions threaten their health and lives.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is the cornerstone law of U.S. child labor protection, was originally enacted in 1938 to address the widespread abuse and injury suffered by industrial working children. [3] At the time, family farmwork was common, and so the bill carved out lighter standards for kids working in agriculture. [3] Farm work has grown increasingly mechanized and industrialized since, due to automation and concentration of the farming industry. Today, the FLSA and related legislation adhere to the original standards for agriculture. [3] The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs estimates that there are between 400,000 and 500,000 children working in the farming industry. Children as young as 12 years of age work in the fields. There is no maximum number of hours worked a day, aside from being outside of school hours. They are exposed to the extreme heat, harmful pesticides and hazardous conditions. Children are in up to three times greater danger of exposure to pesticides than adults due to their size and stage of biological development. Injuries or fatalities occur due to untrained use of heavy powered equipment. The fatality rate is six times that in any other industry: children account for 20% of all farm deaths. Although agriculture is among the top hazardous occupations for kids, no official statistics are maintained to monitor the depth of serious accidents stemming from child labor. [4]

Children in fields or on farms spend on average 30 hours a week working, including during the school year. This impacts academic achievement, and 50% of children who work on farms will fail to graduate high school. [4] The United States Department of Labor estimates that children net an income of about $1,000 after one year of work. [5]

CARE legislation

Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard introduced of the Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act, HR 3564) bill in September 2009. The Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act, HR 3564) addresses the harshest conditions that tens of thousands of children as young as 12 years of age may be subject to, such as restrictions in the number of hours that children work in a day. The intention of the bill is to raise the standard for children working in agriculture to that of any other occupation in the United States. As of September 1, 2010 the bill had 103 co-sponsors.

While on Capitol Hill, Longoria and Romano showed scenes from the feature-length documentary The Harvest to illustrate the harsh working conditions and exploitation of children in the fields. [6]

In September 2009 a panel discussion was hosted by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and including Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers, filmmaker Robin Romano, Mark Lara from the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, and other experts. During the presentation, details of Roybal-Allard's bill were outlined: a child must be a minimum of 14 years of age to work in the fields, children under the age of 16 are restricted from working in the fields if it affects their health or school performance, and children under the age of 18 are restricted from hazardous work. [7]

The Harvest documentary film

The Harvest (documentary) film was viewed at a United States Department of Labor panel discussion in September, 2009. The film revisits Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame, filmed 40 years ago, and reveals that little has changed over the past four decades in the lives of migrant farm workers in the United States. The purpose of the documentary is to bring awareness of the harsh working conditions which tens of thousands of children face in the fields of the United States each year and to enact the Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE Act, HR 3564) which will bring parity of labor conditions to field workers that are afforded to minors in other occupations. [7]

On the one-year anniversary of the Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard's introduction of the CARE Act legislation in September 2009, Eva Longoria and film director U. Roberto Romano visited Capitol Hill to continue to bring awareness of the bill and the plight of minor children working in the fields. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in the United States</span> Major industry in the United States

Agriculture is a major industry in the United States, which is a net exporter of food. As of the 2017 census of agriculture, there were 2.04 million farms, covering an area of 900 million acres (1,400,000 sq mi), an average of 441 acres per farm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Farm Workers</span> Labor union for farmworkers in the United States

The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) led by organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. They became allied and transformed from workers' rights organizations into a union as a result of a series of strikes in 1965, when the mostly Filipino farmworkers of the AWOC in Delano, California, initiated a grape strike, and the NFWA went on strike in support. As a result of the commonality in goals and methods, the NFWA and the AWOC formed the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee on August 22, 1966. This organization was accepted into the AFL–CIO in 1972 and changed its name to the United Farm Workers Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Roybal-Allard</span> American politician (born 1941)

Lucille Elsa Roybal-Allard is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative from California from 1993 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she first entered Congress in 1993. Her district, numbered as the 33rd until 2003, the 34th from 2003 to 2013, and the 40th from 2013 to 2023, included much of southern Los Angeles, as well as several eastern suburbs, such as Downey, Bell and Bell Gardens. On December 20, 2021, Roybal-Allard announced her retirement at the end of the 117th Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labor laws in the United States</span>

Child labor laws in the United States address issues related to the employment and welfare of working children in the United States. The most sweeping federal law that restricts the employment and abuse of child workers is the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), which came into force during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Child labor provisions under FLSA are designed to protect the educational opportunities of youth and prohibit their employment in jobs that are detrimental to their health and safety. FLSA restricts the hours that youth under 16 years of age can work and lists hazardous occupations too dangerous for young workers to perform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Child Labor Committee</span> Defunct American nonprofit organization

The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) was a private, non-profit organization in the United States that served as a leading proponent for the national child labor reform movement. Its mission was to promote "the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bracero Program</span> 1942–1964 migrant worker program

The Bracero Programs were the result of a series of laws and diplomatic agreements, initiated on August 4, 1942, when the United States signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico. For these farmworkers, the agreement guaranteed decent living conditions and a minimum wage of 30 cents an hour, as well as protections from forced military service, and guaranteed that a part of wages was to be put into a private savings account in Mexico; it also allowed the importation of contract laborers from Guam as a temporary measure during the early phases of World War II.

Obreros Unidos (1966–1971) was an independent agricultural labor union founded in Wisconsin in 1966 by Mexican American civil rights activists Jesus Salas, Francisco Rodriguez and many more, originally Texas-based farm workers from the small town of Crystal City. The union took root after a march from Wautoma, Wisconsin, to Madison, Wisconsin that state's capitol to protest the working conditions of the thousands of annual Mexican-American migrant workers who traveled from Texas to Wisconsin each year. This protest march was inspired by the similar march of César Chávez' United Farm Workers (UFW) in California earlier that spring, and the Texas Farmworker march on Austin, Texas of 1966. Obreros Unidos engaged in its first labor action by seeking to organize migrant potato harvest and processing workers in the town of Almond, WI, and received support from the AFL-CIO, Cesar Chavez, and other labor unions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmworker</span> Performs agricultural labor

A farmworker, farmhand or agricultural worker is someone employed for labor in agriculture. In labor law, the term "farmworker" is sometimes used more narrowly, applying only to a hired worker involved in agricultural production, including harvesting, but not to a worker in other on-farm jobs, such as picking fruit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultivation of tobacco</span>

The cultivation of tobacco usually takes place annually. The tobacco is germinated in cold frames or hotbeds and then transplanted to the field until it matures. It is grown in warm climates with rich, well-drained soil. About 4.2 million hectares of tobacco were under cultivation worldwide in 2000, yielding over seven million tonnes of tobacco.

Shelley Davis was an American attorney and activist best known for her advocacy of rights and better working conditions for farm workers, particularly child, migrant and seasonal laborers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act of 1983</span>

The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, codified at 29 U.S.C. §§ 1801-1872, is the main federal law that protects farm workers in the United States and repealed and replaced the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PCUN</span> Hispanic-American labor union in Oregon, United States

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, more commonly known by the acronym PCUN, is the largest Latino union in the U.S. state of Oregon. PCUN is located in Woodburn. According to the Statesman Journal, the meetings that led to the formation of PCUN were held at Colegio Cesar Chavez, the nation's first fully accredited and independent Latino college. PCUN was founded in 1977 by Cipriano Ferrel, who graduated from Colegio Cesar Chavez and worked closely with Cesar Chavez himself. Ferrel was motivated to create the organization after an increase in immigration raids in Oregon. PCUN has organized the creation of migrant housing and farmworker housing. Cipriano Ferrel worked closely with Cesar Chavez.

<i>The Harvest</i> (2010 film) 2010 American film

The Harvest is a 2010 documentary film about agricultural child labor in America. The film depicts children as young as 12 years of age who work as many as 12 hours a day, six months a year, subject to hazardous conditions: heat exposure, pesticides, and dangerous work. The agriculture industry has been subject to significantly more lenient labor laws than any other occupation in the United States. As a result, lack of consistent schooling significantly limits their opportunities of succeeding in high school or more. The hazardous conditions threaten their health and lives. The purpose of the documentary is to bring awareness of the harsh working conditions which tens of thousands of children face in the fields of the United States each year and to enact the Children's Act for Responsible Employment which will bring parity of labor conditions to field workers that are afforded to minors in other occupations.

The "Faces of Freedom" photo exhibition is a collection of photographs captured by photo-journalist, filmmaker and human rights educator U. Roberto (Robin) Romano, during his travels to India, Nepal and Pakistan. Romano explores the exploitation of child labor in the production of handmade rugs in coordination with multiple international organizations, such as the World Bank, UNICEF, International Labour Organization and others to reduce the number of child laborers in that industry. The exhibit has been shown in many United States cities since its first exhibit in 2009. Faces of Freedom has been included in CNN Freedom Projects of modern slavery.

The Migrant Housing Act (MHA) of North Carolina (S.B. 631; North Carolina General Statutes 95-222:229) was made into law in the U.S. state of North Carolina in 1989. It governs migrant workers housing through regulations of housing inspections, standards to be met, and recognition of housing that meets all standards and requirements after the pre-occupancy inspection is done by the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) and the local county health department. Its goal is to ensure safe and healthy migrant housing conditions.

The Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) was a Communist-aligned union active in California in the early 1930s. Organizers provided support to workers in California's fields and canning industry. The Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) dated back to 1929 with the formation of the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL). With industrialization and the advent of the factories, labor started migrating into the urban space. An influx of immigrant workers contributed to the environment favorable to big business by increasing the supply of unskilled labor lost to the urban factories. The demand for labor spurred the growers to look to seasonal migrant workers as a viable labor source. Corporations began to look at profits and started to marginalize its workers by providing sub-par wages and working conditions to their seasonal workers. The formation of the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union addressed and represented the civil rights of the migrant workers. Ultimately the CAWIU lost the battle, overwhelmed by the combined alliance of growers and the Mexican and state governments. The eventual abandonment of the Trade Union Unity League led to the dissolution of the CAWIU, which later emerged as the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agricultural safety and health</span>

Agricultural safety and health is an aspect of occupational safety and health in the agricultural workplace. It specifically addresses the health and safety of farmers, farm workers, and their families.

U. Roberto Romano (1956-2013), also known as Robin Romano, was an American documentary filmmaker, producer, photojournalist and human rights activist. He is known for directing Stolen Childhoods (2005), The Dark Side of Chocolate (2010) and The Harvest/La Cosecha (2010) and for campaigning against exploitative labor practices. In addition to filmmaking, Romano's photography documented child and migrant labor worldwide. The Romano archives are housed at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut.

Lupe Martinez is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who has spent an entire career advocating for the living and working conditions of migrant and seasonal farm workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmworkers in the United States</span>

Farmworkers in the United States have unique demographics, wages, working conditions, organizing, and environmental aspects. According to The National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health in Agricultural Safety, approximately 2,112,626 full-time workers were employed in production agriculture in the US in 2019 and approximately 1.4 to 2.1 million hired crop workers are employed annually on crop farms in the US. A study by the USDA found the average age of a farmworker to be 33. In 2017, the Department of Labor and Statistics found the median wage to be $23,730 a year, or $11.42 per hour.

References

  1. ↑ "Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, Press Release". Offices of Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. June 12, 2017. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  2. ↑ "Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, Press Release". Offices of Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. June 20, 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
  3. 1 2 3 "Fingers to the Bone: Child Farmworkers in the United States, YouTube Video". Human Rights Watch. May 3, 2010. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  4. 1 2 "Learn the Facts". Children in the Fields. Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
  5. ↑ "2011 Year of the Farmworker Child". Children in the Fields. Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
  6. 1 2 "Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, Press Release". Offices of Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard. Sep 15, 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-06-02. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
  7. 1 2 "Department of Labor, Panel Discussion About Migrant Farm Worker Children". Newsroom, Audio and Video, Better Work Program. U.S. Department of Labor. September 16, 2009. Archived from the original on January 15, 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-27' See the video of the DOL panel discussion for more information and a trailer{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.