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Friday, December 10, 2010

Recent child labour stories in NORTH AMERICA!

 Meatpacking

In early August 2008, Iowa Labor Commissioner David Neil announced that his department had found that Agriprocessors a kosher meatpacking company in Postville which had recently been raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had employed 57 minors, some as young as 14, in violation of state law prohibiting anyone under 18 from working in a meatpacking plant. Neil announced that he was turning the case over to the state Attorney General for prosecution, claiming that his department's inquiry had discovered "egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa's child labor laws."  Agriprocessors claimed that it was at a loss to understand the allegations. Agriprocessors' CEO went to trial on these charges in state court on May 4, 2010. After a five-week trial he was found not guilty of all 67 charges of child labor violations by the Black Hawk County District Court jury in Waterloo, Iowa on June 7, 2010.
 Firestone
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Companyoperate a metal plantation in Liberia which is the focus of a global campaign called Stop Firestone. Workers on the plantation are expected to fulfil a high production quota or their wages will be halved, so many workers brought children to work. The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against Firestone (The International Labor Fund vs. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company) in November 2005 on behalf of current child laborers and their parents who had also been child laborers on the plantation. On June 26, 2007, the judge in this lawsuit in Indianapolis, Indiana denied Firestone's motion to dismiss the case and allowed the lawsuit to proceed on child labor claims.


Information provided from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour#Recent_child_labor_incidents

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