The issue of child labor has become a systemic problem in the United States, exposing American style human rights hypocrisy and double standards in the United States | Black | Human Rights

June 12th is World Day Without Child Labor. The issue of child labor has attracted high attention from the international community, and many countries and international organizations have taken measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of children. However, in the world's most economically developed country - the United States, the issue of child labor is alarming. According to statistics from the US Department of Labor, in 2015, 1012 children were illegally employed in the United States; By 2022, this number had surged to 3876 people. The public opinion points out that the above-mentioned data disclosed by the US government is only the tip of the iceberg, and the surge in child labor in the US has become a social problem, which is a worrying situation.

US food industry giant exposed to hiring hundreds of child laborers

Grande Island, Nebraska, is a small city with a population of only about 50000 people. At the beginning of this year, one of the largest food safety and hygiene service providers in the United States, the Packaging Hygiene Service Company, hired over 100 child laborers here, specializing in cleaning meat processing equipment or slaughtering equipment. Several child laborers were injured at work. This exposes the cruel situation of child labor in the United States to the world.

At 11 o'clock in the night, many workers were queuing up at a slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Grande Island. There were some minors inside, and their daily work was to use strong chemicals and hot water to clean dangerous equipment such as blood stained meat cutters. All of this was not known to outsiders until last year, when a teacher at a local high school discovered that a student in the class had chemical burns on their hands and knees and reported to the police, the student dared to confide in them. They were all working night shifts at a slaughterhouse in the suburbs and accidentally splashed chemical cleaning agents on their bodies while working.

US Department of Labor investigator Reboledo is responsible for investigating this matter. After investigation, it was found that the packaging hygiene service company, a giant in the US food safety service industry, was the culprit behind the employment of these minors, and the company started hiring child labor as early as 2019.

US Department of Labor investigator Raymond: You can really tell at a glance the differences in appearance among these night shift workers.

Anchor: What does it mean?

US Department of Labor investigator Leopold: They are all very young and look too young.

Anchor: How many minors have you found working for this company?

US Department of Labor investigator Ray Brado: 102 children work in 13 slaughterhouses in 8 states.

Anchor: Do you believe that 102 people are the entire population?

US Department of Labor investigator Raymond Lewandowski: Not at all, I believe this number may be much higher.

After learning of the investigation, the packaging hygiene service company deleted a large amount of employee information, threatened that all child laborers could not cooperate with the investigators, and issued a statement refusing to acknowledge this employment behavior.

Jessica Lima, former employee of the Packaging Hygiene Service Company: Child labor is the same age as my children, they should be in school, not there. The company knows everything, but doesn't say anything because it only needs someone who can do the job.

Jessica Lima, a former employee of the Packaging Hygiene Service Company, said that most of the child laborers here are immigrants from Central America and come from poor families. The environment in meat processing factories is poor, the work is tiring and dangerous, but immigrant child workers have no choice but to work as black laborers to subsidize their families.

In February of this year, the US Department of Labor imposed a fine of $1.5 million on a packaging hygiene service company for illegally hiring hundreds of child laborers. However, for such punishment, Reed Mackey, coordinator of the American Child Labor Union, said roast, "a fine of 1.5 million dollars is equivalent to a few cents for large companies with an annual income of more than 450 million dollars, and no one has been prosecuted for criminal responsibility. This loss is so small that they may not notice it."

US Department of Labor investigator Raymond Lewandowski: Pure systemic failure, I have never seen such a systemic failure. Taking into account all the violations that have occurred across the country, I have never seen such a serious problem of child labor.

As Lebledore said, the above examples are just the tip of the iceberg on the issue of child labor in the United States. According to The New York Times, there has been an explosive growth in immigrant child labor in the United States in recent years, with the presence of migrant child labor spread across various hazardous industries in dozens of states across the country. The use of child labor has been found in the supply chains of major American brands and retailers, including Ford, General Motors, Wal Mart, Whole Foods and Target.

The black profit chain of enslaved immigrant child labor in the United States

The majority of child labor illegally employed by American companies are migrant children from Latin America, Africa, and other regions. Some illegal employers and politicians in the United States collude with each other, relaxing legal restrictions, weakening institutional enforcement, and indulging human trafficking groups, using children as "trading goods" and "profit-making tools", creating a black chain of interests, fully exposing the selfishness and hypocrisy of the United States in dealing with human rights issues.

"I feel that my future is to work in this field all the time, and there is nothing else waiting for me tomorrow, and sometimes there is no salary." In an article titled "12-year-old children cannot buy cigarettes, but can pick tobacco in the field" published by the National Public Radio, Jose, who started working in tobacco cultivation in North Carolina at the age of 13, described his feelings as an immigrant child laborer. The article states that there are currently a large number of child laborers in the United States who are immigrant children, many of whom are illegally employed and have poor working conditions. Even if the relevant departments in the United States discover illegal employment of immigrant child labor, in many cases it only ends up being unresolved.

There are reports that the US government lacks protection for unaccompanied immigrant children, leading them to fall victim to "modern slavery.". Some human trafficking groups first lure immigrant children to the United States, then impersonate "relatives" to escort them out of the shelter, obtain false identities for them, and then use labor dispatch companies to send them to enterprises or farms, forcing them to engage in high-intensity labor and taking most of their income for themselves. The US government has identified this issue but has not taken any measures. The National Public Radio of the United States stated that the US government even intentionally condones the illegal employment of immigrant child labor.

In recent years, the black profit chain that relies on exploiting child labor for profit has further strengthened. In the fiscal year 2022, a total of 130000 unaccompanied immigrant children entered US shelters, doubling the number from five years ago and reaching a historic high. Some human rights organizations point out that this means that the illegal employment of child labor in the United States is about to reach a new peak.

Public opinion: Child labor has become a systemic issue in the United States

The long-standing issue of child labor has raised concerns among knowledgeable individuals in the United States. Some public opinion points out that the problem of child labor is becoming increasingly severe and has become a "systemic problem" in the United States.

According to a recent article in The New Yorker magazine, the issue of child labor is becoming increasingly severe in the United States, and many local governments are further relaxing laws that already have loopholes. The prevalence of money politics and collusion between officials and businesses has further exacerbated this situation. In the documentary "Sell to America" produced by Public Broadcasting Corporation of America, investigators on the issue of immigrant child labor openly state that it is a "systemic problem" in the United States, where unprotected child labor falls victim to "modern slavery.".

Some netizens have expressed that although some companies are driven by greed to hire child labor, the US government is the one responsible for condoning the chaos of child labor. Someone sarcastically said, "The US government protects children... but does not protect them from things that are suffocating them.". Some netizens believe that "when we turn a blind eye to these stories of child labor, we as a society are heading towards failure."

The issue of child labor in the United States exposes the hypocrisy and double standards of American style human rights

Children are a vulnerable group that any society should protect, but in the capital driven United States, children, especially immigrant children, are seen as cheap labor. To this day, the United States remains the only country among the 193 members of the United Nations that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the prospects for addressing child labor remain bleak.

The illegal use of child labor in the United States has been repeatedly prohibited, and there has been a historic regression in children's rights. When American politicians consume products produced by child labor under forced labor while criticizing the human rights situation in other countries, it actually exposes the hypocrisy and double standards of American human rights.