Feds find 6 year olds working in our Strawberry Fields.

Nearly two years after ABC News cameras uncovered young children toiling away in Michigan's blueberry fields, federal investigators have found yet another disturbing example of illegal use of child labor in the berry industry.

Three southwest Washington strawberry growers were fined $73,000 last week after the U.S. Department of Labor found children between the ages of six and 11 working in their strawberries fields in June.

While an exemption in the federal child labor law allows 12- and 13-year-olds to work for unlimited hours on large agricultural operations, children under the age of 12 are strictly prohibited from working under similar conditions.

Andrea Schmitt, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services in Olympia, said that the low wages made by workers in the Northwest berry industry are a key factor driving young kids into the fields. She said that berry pickers, who are usually paid a piece rate instead of an hourly wage, often struggle to make the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/feds-find-young-children-working-strawberry-farms/t/story?id=14281166

The farm industry will do what they can to get the cheapest labor possible. They will prefer using 6 year olds to paying an unemployed adult. Shame on them.

What the fuck is this, the late 19th/early 20th century?

Horrible, just horrible, to think a kid whose only 2 years older than my niece is working their ass of in a field! Shouldn't they be in a school somewhere?

When I was in junior high I worked every summer in the fields. The small kids are there because the parents have no day care. So I guess you want to toss the parents in prison for that.

But I showed my Auntie. I ate 5 berries for every one I put in the bucket. Thank God they were organic. I volunteered to go the next day but she said she couldn't afford me.

They know 6 year olds are not going to be productive pickers. These small kids are there because their parents brought them because they don't have day care. Now one of the parents will have to stay home to take care of the kids and the low income family will lose a bread earner. Great results. It just shows how out of touch some federal workers are with the real world.

Federal workers aren't out of touch. They are enforcing child labor laws that were developed specifically to keep young children out of the fields and factories.

The real problem is that the laws don't require employers to accommodate the real world situations of farm workers. It'd be different if the growers were required to establish a safe place for the children to hang out near the parents in the fields.

but not any other employer where employees face the same problems. OK, we know where your priorities are.

Okay, I know where your priorities are. Better to have a child injured in the fields than to address the specific issues related to migratory work.

You are just making up things because you are losing the argument. The kids are there so the parents don't have to pay for day care which they could not afford. If you demand that farmers pay for day care then you have to demand every single employer in the U.S. pay for day care. I don't see anyone doing that.

I think you are mistaken in your assumption they weren't working.

There is no place to "simply sit around". Especially if the parents were to keep an eye on them. Yes they probably were doing some picking and probably adding to the baskets of their mother or father. So they were helping the income of the family. What a great crime! I hope you are happy a very low income family just got their income pushed down farther. A great day for the working class!!

These are jobs that many say are too dirty and difficult for adults to do and you want 6 year olds out there in the sun for hours and hours on end lugging around our food? Brutal.

In junior high I worked the strawberry fields every summer. I don't know who the unnamed "many" who say the jobs are too dirty and difficult for adults to do. There are things about any job that certain adults can't do. Adults and children can easily work in the fields. No it is not fun but it provides a good summer income for kids. Not everything in life is fun. Maybe it has been for you. I don't advocate 6 years olds to work in the fields but I completely understand why their parents brought them there. I'm sorry you have absolutely no compassion at all for low income working class people.

If it brutal we should ban all fruits and vegetables no matter where it is grown and just go to meat and grains. If it is brutal for some it is brutal for all.

The kids are there because they show up under the supervision of their mothers who are picking. They aren't really working very hard. The reason younger kids were banned from fields was due to pesticides. When they started caring about it, they outlawed kids under 12. Berry fields have always had young workers. And the poor. The local farms sent a second hand school bus to pick up the city kids. We earned money for school clothes, got in lots of berry fights and enjoyed being in the country in the summer.

This is not the worst place a kid could be.

Are you kidding me?

No child is being exploited by the farmers. They are there as an convenience to the parents not the farmers. No I am not kidding you. You are as out of touch with the real world as are the federal inspectors.

They let the 6 year olds work alongside the parents.

Expel the kids from the fields? So one of the parents would have to leave and the family would have their income cut in half? That would make you happy I'm sure. No, sorry the growers did not recruit 6 year olds to pick in the fields. They were brought there by the parents. High crimes in rural America are being prevented!

just like you require growers to provide sanitation and water.

So you want the growers to "accommodate" but you don't want any other employer in the U.S. where workers have similar problems to accommodate. Are you saying every employer in the U.S. should provide daycare? How come you have not called for that? Just the farmers?

As it is, "other" will have to do.

:puke:

- K&R

:crazy:

Actually this story is pretty insane for the US.

The growers did not bring these kids to the field. Their parents did. When I was in junior high I picked every summer. Yes we were lower to the berries and and more limber than the adults. We could pick faster than the adults and make more money. Is that a crime?

Local farmers had a field where they exclusively used the local junior high and high school kids. They paid per pound and the kids that were serious made money, the kids that were there to have fun had fun and ate most of their strawberries. The farmers usually broke even but it was part of the Skagit Valley experience. The agricultural community in that part of the state is very accomodating to farm laborers, providing affordable daycare (Mike and Jean's Berry Farm started a pre-school program for their workers) as well as housing. By doing so, workers that would normally move on after the season stay around and become part of the community.

for the general public to take photos on agricultural properties. They wanted to
protect the mega-farmers and make it easy for them to ignore the labor laws.

I worked very little at my regular job this summer (they cut back hours) and applied at quite a few farms/orchards/operations. Most stated that they were not hiring, except for one who actually admitted that I was "too old to work." He said he could get a 12 yr old out in the field and give them a gift certificate for Walmart instead of paying for an adult to work the fields.

I think it might do some of the kids in this country good to spend some time picking strawberries though.

Let those with the money do whatever they wish. If you don't like it become a millionaire at 12.

Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me