Op-Ed by Rep. Nick Pisciottano (D-Allegheny)
They were called “Breaker Boys” – boys as young as eight years old perched above fast-moving conveyor belts carrying tons of raw coal, picking slate out of the coal with their bare hands 10 hours a day, six days a week. They bled. Their young lungs were poisoned. They were caught in machinery and died.
They were garment workers – girls working 10-hour days, six days a week, sewing clothes they could never afford. They bled. They inhaled toxic chemicals. Infamously, 123 women died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire because management kept the exit doors chained shut to prevent unauthorized breaks from the endless hours of hazardous work. Two of them were only 14 years old.
These tragedies helped create America’s modern labor movement and the child labor laws we take for granted. It was a terrible sacrifice to get where we are today, and a shameful chapter of our past. But we decided kids should have a chance to grow up and go to school, not be forced into hard, dangerous work just to provide some meager wage for their family.
As a father, it chills my soul to think of any child being forced into the mines or the factories. And yet, in 2023 in the world’s only superpower, the richest, most powerful nation the world has ever known, we confront the reality of child labor again.
The endless pursuit of ever-larger profit by corporations monopolizing our economy means searching for ever-cheaper labor – and putting kids back in harm’s way.
Child labor violations are up nearly 300% since 2016. Right-wing extremists and their political allies are loosening laws protecting children to avoid paying adults competitive wages. They’re taking advantage of immigrants facing language barriers and fear of retribution. They’re putting parents in no-win situations for their family’s survival. They’re describing illegal underage employment as “character-building.”
- Wisconsin advanced a bill to allow 14-year-olds to serve alcohol in bars. The same state where a 16-year-old was killed while working at a sawmill — legal under Wisconsin state law — and more than two dozen children were illegally working overnight cleaning slaughterhouses.
- Arkansas removed work permit requirements and parental permissions for 14-year-olds.
- Ohio wants to let 14-year-olds to work until 9 p.m.
- Iowa’s governor bragged they “allow young adults to develop their skills in the workforce” while signing a law letting 16-year-olds work in factories. Only a last-second amendment removed language that would have allowed 14-year-olds to work in meatpacking plants or – yes – jobs that allow kids back down in the mines.
Kids deserve to go to school, get an education, and live their early lives as children. Sure, safe jobs can teach teenagers about adult behaviors and responsibilities. But kids don’t need to risk their health and safety in the sawmill or the slaughterhouse just so big corporations can find cheap, exploitable labor.
I can guarantee that Pennsylvania will never be on the list of these other states rolling back protections against child labor.
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently passed a bill to double the state’s penalties for employers violating child labor laws. Too often, fines for illegal behavior are seen as the cost of doing business, but in Pennsylvania, companies exploiting our children will be held accountable.
I wish it passed the House unanimously, but unfortunately 23 House Republicans voted against increasing penalties for child labor-law violators. If you’re represented by one of those 23, you should ask them why they’re opposed to holding employers accountable who knowingly hire children to do dangerous jobs.
While you’re at it, ask your state senator to support the bill as well. Taking action to prevent child labor should be one of the easiest votes of any elected official’s career — but the state senate hasn’t even discussed the bill.
House Democrats have done more in the last six months for workers than was accomplished in the last 12 years, and we’re just getting started. We remember the history of the working class and you better believe we stand against all attempts to exploit children for the greater profits of the billionaire class.
The famous song Florence Reece wrote when she was only 12 years old during a coal mine strike in Harlan County, Kentucky asks “which side are you on?”
As we pause to celebrate Labor Day this weekend — a pause we can enjoy thanks to the sacrifices of those workers who came before us and risked it all to do the right thing – it’s time to ask yourself the same question: Which side are you on?
I’m proud to be on the side of letting our kids grow up, get an education, and avoid a childhood of backbreaking work in hard, dangerous jobs. I hope that you — and the Pennsylvania state Senate – will join us.
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