America's child labor outrage

The New York Times investigation of child labor in the United States by Hannah Dreier is an epic piece of journalism that represents the very finest traditions of a free press in a free society. The story is breathtaking and simply astonishing.

Did you know that America’s factories are filled with children stuffing Cheerios into cardboard boxes, and working with hazardous machinery? Did you know that some of the children are as young as 13 years old, and some of them are working 12-hour shifts after finishing up 8th and 9th grade class for the day? Mostly, they are immigrants to America. They have arrived at the American border alone, and have found their way into the country where they have been exploited like no child should ever be. This abomination is occurring in America. Some of the largest consumer brands in the world who target child consumers with animated advertising are implicated. Are you outraged? Shocked? Did you suspect child labor wasn’t just widespread in America, but apparently common?  

What should happen?

The president of the United States should invite the White House press corps to join him in the Oval Office with the secretaries of Labor, Agriculture, Housing & Human Services, Commerce, the US attorney general, and the director of the FBI to talk about the nation’s child labor laws and their progressive era history, reaching back more than 100 years in America. President Biden should express his deep anger about this revelation of greed, corruption and immorality. He should let the American people and the world know that this abuse and degradation of children for profit will not be tolerated in the United States. He should make clear that he expects his Justice Department to enforce the law vigorously. What a disgrace.

From Dreier’s reporting:

Federal law bars minors from a long list of dangerous jobs, including roofing, meat processing and commercial baking. Except on farms, children younger than 16 are not supposed to work for more than three hours, or after 7 p.m. on school days.

But these jobs — which are grueling and poorly paid, and thus chronically short-staffed — are exactly where many migrant children are ending up. Adolescents are twice as likely as adults to be seriously injured at work, yet recently arrived preteens and teenagers are running industrial dough mixers, driving massive earthmovers and burning their hands on hot tar as they lay down roofing shingles, The Times found.

Unaccompanied minors have had their legs torn off in factories and their spines shattered on construction sites, but most of these injuries go uncounted. The Labor Department tracks the deaths of foreign-born child workers but no longer makes them public. Reviewing state and federal safety records and public reports, The Times found a dozen cases of young migrant workers killed since 2017, the last year the Labor Department reported any.

The deaths include a 14-year-old food delivery worker who was hit by a car while on his bike at a Brooklyn intersection; a 16-year-old who was crushed under a 35-ton tractor-scraper outside Atlanta; and a 15-year-old who fell 50 feet from a roof in Alabama where he was laying down shingles.

Migrant child labor benefits both under-the-table operations and global corporations, The Times found. In Los Angeles, children stitch “Made in America” tags into J. Crew shirts. They bake dinner rolls sold at Walmart and Target, process milk used in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and help debone chicken sold at Whole Foods. As recently as the fall, middle-schoolers made Fruit of the Loom socks in Alabama. In Michigan, children make auto parts used by Ford and General Motors.

This apparently takes place in the open, across America. It should be noted that Pepsi declined to comment. Think about that the next time a Pepsi ad comes on, or you’re about to buy a Pepsi product. 

This exploitation of immigrant children in 2023 is shameful and unacceptable. How has this been allowed to happen, and what will be done about it? 

My hope is that the White House press corps explodes in a torrent of questions today during the press secretary’s briefing. They should demand to know what the Biden administration, the DOJ and HHS are going to do about this tragic situation.

What can YOU do about it?

1. Contact your congressman and senator(s) and demand action.

2. Contact these companies that have been identified in the story to express your outrage that this is happening and demand that they stop this illegal activity immediately.

3. Boycott these products until this illegal activity ends.

Something must be done. Immediately.