CARE Act Would Protect 500,000 Child Farmworkers
On Capitol Hill today, the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) called for members of Congress to improve the bad conditions facing child laborers in American agriculture by pledging their support to new legislation. Under the Children's Act for Responsible Employment of 2007 ( CARE Act ), a new bill introduced today by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), protections for young farmworkers would be considerably increased for the first time since the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.
"I commend the Child Labor Coalition for organizing this important advocacy effort on Capitol Hill on behalf of children who work in our nation's agricultural fields," Rep. Roybal-Allard said. "I have introduced the CARE Act today to curb unfair child labor practices in agriculture that allow young children to work in dangerous conditions, and I am grateful for the Coalition's efforts to help pass this needed and long overdue legislation."
In spite of agriculture's ranking as one of the three most hazardous industries in the United States, the law permits children to start working on a farm at a younger age and for longer hours than other working youth. The CARE Act raises protections for child farm workers to the same level as children working in other industries, increases the highest civil and criminal penalties for child labor violations, and strengthens pesticide safety provisions in agriculture to account for the higher risks pesticides pose to children and women. The bill preserves the family farm exemption, enabling children of any age to continue to work on their parents' farms.
The briefing also featured Norma Flores, a former child farm worker, and Armand Pereira, Director of the Washington branch of the International Labor Organization. Besides, two CLC members introduced new educational materials on child labor in agriculture: In Our Own Backyard: The Hidden Problem of Child Farm workers in America, an online curriculum from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and Children in the Fields: An American Problem, a report from the Association of Farm worker Opportunity Programs.
"The notion that oppressive child labor occurs legally within the United States shocks us as educators and will likely shock students as well," said Antonia Cortese, AFT Executive Vice President and Co-Chair of the CLC. "This topic is important for us to address in the classroom and can serve as an effective tool for teaching students about the human impact of public policy and how they can change it."
The Child Labor Coalition is a group of more than 40 organizations that go all-out to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad.
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