MICHIGAN Blueberry Farms uses CHILD LABOR

[Buster]

What's next from Michigan's scum...White Slavery?

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/4/blueberry_farming_giant_found_to_use

 

[burrocrat]

Easy on the fruit, it's all about blubbery muffins.

 

[James48843]

What's next from Michigan's scum...White Slavery?

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/4/blueberry_farming_giant_found_to_use

Immigrant workers- harvesting for Wal-Mart. What did you expect? It's always the low road at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart and the Kroger supermarkets were among Adkin’s high-profile customers that have now cut ties with the blueberry grower. A Wal-Mart company spokesperson told ABC News it will not buy anything from Adkin, pending the outcome of an investigation by the company’s own ethical sourcing team.

This is a direct result of the decline of farm worker Unions in this country.

JUAN GONZALEZ:
And Teresa, speaking about the long-term nature of this problem, I remember in the early 1970s, when I lived in Philadelphia, actually going blueberry picking when I was a youth. The buses would come into the poor neighborhoods of Philadelphia and pack whole families out to go out to South Jersey to pick blueberries. But in those days, you had unions that had developed, farm worker unions. You had FLOC in Ohio. You had the Committee of Agricultural Workers in South Jersey and, of course, the United Farm Workers in California. Have you seen, with the decline of union organizing in the fields, that these child labor conditions have gotten worse?


TERESA HENDRICKS: Yes, we have seen conditions go gradually down every year. And we’ve tried to organize farm workers here, but they’re so afraid of retaliation and losing the job that they have, that it’s even hard to get them to stand up for themselves, even when they’re in the most dire of situations.

You get rid of Unions, and child labor in the famr fileds flurishes.

One more reason we need STRONG unions in this country.

 

[weatherweenie]

You get rid of Unions, and child labor in the famr fileds flurishes.

One more reason we need STRONG unions in this country.

And spell checkers.

 

[RealMoneyIssues]

Just out of curiousity, why did you dig up a 2 year old article? Something new going on?

 

[weatherweenie]

Just out of curiousity, why did you dig up a 2 year old article? Something new going on?

Good question. I was wondering the same thing.

 

[Birchtree]

When I was just a kid under 14, I used to pick green beans for a Farmer and made fairly good money for each basket picked. No one forced me to do this but it was quicker than finding bottles to return. If you're not from Mexico who else will do this work. It's so much easier to be a parasite on welfare or simply sell drugs for someone else.

 

[RealMoneyIssues]

When I was just a kid under 14, I used to pick green beans for a Farmer and made fairly good money for each basket picked. No one forced me to do this but it was quicker than finding bottles to return. If you're not from Mexico who else will do this work. It's so much easier to be a parasite on welfare or simply sell drugs for someone else.

I started working when I was 12 and had jobs fairly regularly through school, whether it was a paper route, working at the corner store, busing tables at restaurants, or pumping gas at a service station (remember those?). If you want to have spending money (or need it to live on) then you work. As a society, we have lowered ourselves to demanding too much, for little to no work... I am sure there are plenty of socialists out there that love what we are becoming. Seriously America, work for what you have; don't demand it because you convert O2 to CO2...

 

[James48843]

When I was just a kid under 14, I used to pick green beans for a Farmer and made fairly good money for each basket picked. No one forced me to do this but it was quicker than finding bottles to return. If you're not from Mexico who else will do this work. It's so much easier to be a parasite on welfare or simply sell drugs for someone else.

Minors age 14 are eligible in Michigan for a work permit.

A minor must be at least 14 years old for most occupations, unless exempt from the Youth Employment Standards Act.

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A work permit is required, unless the minor is exempt from the Act or employed in corn detasseling.​

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Minors may be employed in most jobs, except those considered hazardous.​

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Minors may only work certain hours.​

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Workers under 18 may not work more than five hour without a 30-minute break.
​

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Brochure_90_89260_7.pdf

There is a big difference between a 14 year old working under a work permit, and being a seven year old picking blueberries all day until 9 p.m. ​

 

[RealMoneyIssues]

Just out of curiousity, why did you dig up a 2 year old article? Something new going on?

Again, why was this dug up?

 

[Buster]

Again, why was this dug up?

It ain't old news..It was all over CNN, ABC, NBC, last night about this child labor crap in Michigan and how the Company supplies Wal-Mart and other major food chains with these Child picked Blueberries..Turn on a TV bro..

 

[James48843]

It ain't old news..It was all over CNN, ABC, NBC, last night about this child labor crap in Michigan and how the Company supplies Wal-Mart and other major food chains with these Child picked Blueberries..Turn on a TV bro..

The Michigan story was two years ago. There was an ABC news report this week about Washington State. Here:

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.

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

 

[burrocrat]

The Michigan story was two years ago. There was an ABC news report this week about Washington State. Here:


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

Before I was old enough to deliver papers on my own and mow lawns with power equipment, I did the trap gophers in the fields thing for $0.25 per head, rode my bike to work, that will teach you something about life. But back then 25 cents went a long way, and the return on the bottles of pepsi made it like a 1 to 5 deal, but if you figured out how to twist your arm up there and stack them right before the coin drop you got 4 bottles for the price of one out of the machine, that's the closest I've seen to perpetual motion, but I know it's out there. On the other hand, the moral cost never crossed my mind at that point.

Berrys vs. gophers sounds like a picnic to me, them kids is saving big time on the lunch money racket, which one would you rather eat?