Human rights report criticizes child labor in US agriculture

Washington, DC, June 27-- Hundreds of thousands of children are laboring under dangerous conditions in US agriculture, Human Rights Watch charged in a report issued Tuesday.

The report, “Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworker,’’ charges that many young people ages 13 to 16 work 70 to 80 hours a week and risk pesticide poisoning, heat illness, injuries and lifelong disabilities.

The report said these abuses are possible because the laws governing child labor in agriculture are much less stringent than those for other types of work.

“Farm work is the most dangerous work open to children,’’ said Lois Whitman, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Children’s Rights Division. “US laws should be changed to protect the health, safety and education of all children.’’

The report cited among its evidence work done for a five-part series on child labor in 1997 by The Associated Press. It, too, found that laws on children working in agriculture are not as strict as other child labor regulations and that many child farmworkers are endangered by pesticides.

The Human Rights Watch report recommends changes in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act to limit the employment of children on farms and to raise the minimum age for hazardous agricultural work to 18.

“A 12-year-old kid can work unlimited hours on a farm but isn’t allowed to work in a fast-food restaurant,’’ said Lee Tucker, a Human Rights Watch consultant and author of the report. “There’s no good reason to have such a double standard.’’

Human Rights Watch also is recommending that the Wage and Hour Division of the US Department of Labor increase its inspections of agricultural workplaces and that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforce field sanitation regulations requiring safe drinking water and toilets.

Human Rights Watch, founded in 1978, conducts investigations of human rights abuses around the world.

Source: Grassroots Media Network
:latinonews-owner@egroups.com

American Indians protest West Virginia Wal-Mart

Morgantown, West Virginia, June 23— A coalition of American Indian and community groups says it will fight a proposed Wal-Mart in Monongalia County because the site contains an ancient burial ground.

The coalition plans a protest July 21-22 that may include an overnight occupation of the site on State Route 705, said spokeswoman Connie L. Ammons of Core.

“The site Wal-Mart plans to build on is an ancient Native American burial ground,’’ Ammons said Thursday. “You couldn’t just go into a white burial ground and dig it up and put a store there. Why can you if it’s a Native American burial ground?’’

The American Indian Movement’s national field office released a statement Thursday supporting the protest and asking Wal-Mart to respect burial grounds.

Wal-Mart is aware that the site may be historically significant, but the giant retailer has another headache to deal with first, said Keith Morris, director of community affairs.

Wal-Mart needs to link the proposed $15 million Super Center store to State Route 705 but the state Division of Highways has not decided whether to approve an access road. The agency has delayed a decision until it completes air and noise pollution studies.

“First, we need to find out if we even have access,” Morris said. “Then, if we do, we will move on to an ... archaeological dig, which will take a great deal of time and require the help of trained archaeologists. Then we would see what we found there.’’

Morris said preliminary tests at the site have not uncovered anything significant.

Ammons said artifacts from an ancient Monongahela Indian village have been found at the site, making it potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

The archaeological site was first documented in 1963 by Edward McMichaels, who estimates its age at 500 to 1,000 years.

“We are not going to take this without a fight,” Ammons said.

Wal-Mart has a deal with the West Virginia University Foundation to buy the land for $2.5 million if it gets approval for the access road.

West Virginia University Chief of Staff David Satterfield said he was disappointed that a protest was being planned.

“Although many parties disagree about this, everyone must respect people’s property,’’ he said. “I do, indeed, respect their (American Indians’) position, but there have been different settlers, different outposts of Native Americans all along, and developers have always had to deal with that.’’

Source: Associated Press