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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDepartment of Labor withdraws child farm labor restriction after misinformation campaign
by Laura Clawson
You'd think that a proposal to protect children from particularly dangerous child labor would be non-controversial. But no. Thursday evening the Department of Labor withdrew a proposed rule to keep kids under 16 from doing dangerous farm labor such as operating heavy machinery, working with pesticides, working with tobacco, and working in grain silos and other dangerous locations. The reason? Although the proposed regulation explicitly exempted kids working on their parents' farms, there was an outcry that it would ... hurt family farms by preventing kids from working on them.
After the Department of Labor clarified that the rule would not apply to kids working on their parents' farms, the opposition went in two directions. Some switched their focus to the alleged concern that kids wouldn't be able to work on uncles' and grandparents' farms and so rural life would still take a hit; others kept the focus on parents. That misinformation campaign included a Facebook post from Sarah Palin claiming, falsely, that "The Obama Administration is working on regulations that would prevent children from working on our own family farms."
In fact, the real issue here is not family farms. Last summer, two 14 year old girls were fatally electrocuted while working in a Monsanto cornfield. Child labor is common on North Carolina tobacco farms, where workers may absorb as much as 36 cigarettes worth of nicotine in a day, have limited access to water and toilets, and are exposed to pesticides.
Many of the people concerned about the proposal to restrict child agricultural labor may have legitimately, if incorrectly, believed that family farming would be threatened. But more than 400,000 kids aged 12 to 17 work on farms in the United States. Most of them are not helping their farm-owner parents or grandparents out; many of them are migrant workers trying to help their families get by, working in the same harsh conditions adults face, and dropping out of school at high rates. There's big money in children working on non-family farms, and that played a major role in the organized, powerful campaign to keep kids in the fields.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/27/1086912/-Department-of-Labor-withdraws-child-farm-labor-restriction-after-misinformation-campaign
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Labor today issued the following statement regarding the withdrawal of a proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations:
"The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations. The Obama administration is also deeply committed to listening and responding to what Americans across the country have to say about proposed rules and regulations.
"As a result, the Department of Labor is announcing today the withdrawal of the proposed rule dealing with children under the age of 16 who work in agricultural vocations.
"The decision to withdraw this rule including provisions to define the 'parental exemption' was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms. To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration.
"Instead, the Departments of Labor and Agriculture will work with rural stakeholders such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, the Future Farmers of America, and 4-H to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers and promote safer agricultural working practices."
http://www.dol.gov/whd/media/press/whdpressVB3.asp?pressdoc=national/20120426.xml
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)One less ridiculous issue that can be used against President Obama.
He has the election in the bag, stop trying to make it harder with crap like this.
He has the election in the bag, stop trying to make it harder with crap like this.
...screw regulations! Let's pray the next several months are incident free.
because farm incidents have reached epidemic proportions.
Screw feel-good regulations written by people who don't even know what a tractor looks like.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Take your tractor and shove it up your fat ass.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)this issue is dead. The RW played the outrage card and people left and right fell for it.
They literally convinced people that the rule was about family farms.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)misinformation won!
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)obamanut2012
(25,911 posts)Not ONE of them smokes or chews, and this is the reason why. Handling the plants was so dirty and gross and, literally, sickening.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)People need to smarten up, or they'll dig their own damn graves.
We need a high school class on how to understand POLICY.
Educated people on this board getting all hot and bothered. What an embarrassing display it was.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Stay away from RW sources.
Still, it's not just here: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1086912/45881574#c7
lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)"Repeat a line of bullshit often enough and loud enough and
sooner or later it becomes accepted as the truth"
Bolo Boffin
(23,796 posts)They didn't seem that onerous to me.
obamanut2012
(25,911 posts)Child labor regulations are a good thing, not a bad thing. Just because the working environment is a farm doesn't mean children should be put in danger.
Upton
(9,709 posts)this was a really, really, stupid idea..The Obama administration, indeed the entire Democratic party, already has enough trouble garnering votes in rural communities...
You can blame the backlash on misinformation if you like, but from my understanding, even with the exception, the proposed rule would have still kept kids from even working on a neighbor's farm.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)You WANT kids operating the neighbor's tractor when they're too young to even get a driver's license? You WANT kids working around 1500 lb cattle in feed lots?
This isn't about "garnering votes in rural communities". This is about safety... kid safety.
Obama and the Labor Department need to show a little leadership and fight for what is right.
Misinformation campaigns should not rule this country. Information campaigns work, too.