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Washington, DC
– The vast majority of American consumers would not allow their
own children to work on a commercial farm at ages that the
government currently allows, according to a survey released
today. The survey, commissioned by the National Consumers League
(NCL) for the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), found that more than
half of respondents think agriculture is a dangerous
occupation—and they think workers should be protected: the
majority of respondents agreed that children working in
commercial agriculture deserve protection equal to that enjoyed
by their counterparts in retail stores and restaurants.
At a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington,
the CLC, which is co-chaired by the NCL and the American
Federation of Teachers, released its survey findings, joined by
Linda Chavez Thompson, AFL-CIO vice president; Hector Flores,
League of United Latin American Citizens president; Norma
Flores, a 20-year-old former child farmworker from Texas; and
other advocates. The CLC called on Congress to act upon public
support to amend the child labor laws failing America’s young
farmworkers.
NCL, which coordinates the 30 member CLC, commissioned Opinion
Research to conduct a national random-sample telephone survey of
1,016 adults earlier this year to gain an understanding of
consumers’ views on child labor in American commercial
agriculture. A majority was unaware of the current child labor
problem in the United States: 65 percent believed such a problem
does not exist; however, a majority agreed that agriculture is
an industry that is dangerous for all its workers.
“When the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, there was
little interest in protecting the health, safety, and education
of hundreds of thousands of child farmworkers in the United
States,” said Linda Golodner, NCL President and Child Labor
Coalition Chair. “They were not protected as other working
children. This travesty has remained unchanged for more than 65
years.”
Currently, U.S. law allows children as young as 10 years old to
legally work in commercial agriculture, while children of the
same age are prohibited from working in nearly all other
industries (with only a few exceptions such as delivering
newspapers). An estimated 400,000 to 500,000 children work
America’s fields, often working eight-hour, nine-hour, and
ten-hour backbreaking shifts in intense heat, often exposed to
pesticide application, runoff, and drift. While only about
eight percent of youth are employed in agriculture, the industry
comprises 40 percent of child worker fatalities.
“As millions of our children return to school this week, we need
to focus on eliminating obstacles to their ability to learn,”
said Antonia Cortese, the American Federation of Teachers
Executive Vice President and CLC co-chair. “For children who
work on commercial farms, those obstacles are particularly
great, as they may be employed earlier in the morning, later at
night and for more hours per day and week than any other child
during the school year. We must bring an end to this
inappropriate and unfair practice.”
Perhaps the survey’s most telling findings, respondents
demonstrated differing levels of concern for different types of
children – strangers’ as opposed to their own children. Although
nearly half of respondents appeared tolerant, in principle, of
children ages 12 and 13 working in agriculture, only four
percent said they would allow their children to work in
fields as a hired farmworker under the age of 13.
“Clearly, the U.S. government is under a moral obligation to
treat all working children fairly, especially in protecting
their health, safety, and education” said Darlene Adkins, CLC
Coordinator. “Our survey should serve as a mandate to Congress:
protect all working children today.”
For additional
information regarding the survey results:
Survey
results
Questionnaire
Raw data
For more survey results, including consumers’ attitudes towards
importing and exporting of products made or harvested with child
labor, respondents’ comfort with their own children working, and
thoughts on the safety of agricultural work for laborers of all
ages, visit
www.nclnet.org. |
