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Letter to Senator James Jeffords,
Chairman,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
February 21, 2001
Senator James Jeffords
Chairman
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
835 Hart Building
Washington DC 20510
Dear Senator Jeffords:
Senator Tom Harkin will soon introduce important new legislation (The Children's Act for Responsible Employment, CARE Act) to address the shameful conditions endured by hundreds of thousands of children who work as hired laborers in commercial US agriculture. We are writing as members of the Human Rights Watch Council to urge you to co-sponsor this legislation and to schedule hearings as soon as possible after its introduction.
In a report released in June, Human Rights Watch found that child farmworkers work long hours under grueling conditions, and risk pesticide poisoning, injuries and life-long disabilities. The report (entitled Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers) found that:
- Child farmworkers frequently work long hours at young ages. Human Rights Watch interviewed children who worked ten hours a day at age twelve, and others working twelve or more hours a day at age fourteen, sometimes beginning at 3 or 4 a.m.
- Child farmworkers are routinely exposed to dangerous pesticides, suffering rashes, headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Long-term consequences of pesticide poisoning can include cancer and brain damage.
- Children working in agriculture suffer high rates of injuries. They frequently suffer cuts from sharp knives and falls from ladders. They may be crushed or maimed by tractors and other heavy equipment. Child farmworkers account for 40% of work-related fatalities among minors, even though they make up only 8% of children who work.
- Many young farmworkers are forced to work without access to toilet or handwashing facilities, and sometimes labor in 100 degree temperatures without adequate drinking water.
- Excessive hours of work interfere with the education of child farmworkers. Only 55 percent of farmworker children in the United States finish high school. Of the dozens interviewed by Human Rights Watch, nearly every one had dropped out of school for at least one extended period of time.
Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows child farmworkers to work at younger ages, for longer hours, and under more hazardous conditions than children in non-agricultural jobs. Under the FLSA, children as young as twelve are allowed to work unlimited hours inagriculture. In contrast, children in other occupations cannot work before age fourteen, and can only work three hours on a school day until age sixteen.
Dating back to 1938, the FLSA exempted agriculture from child labor standards during a time when family farming was the norm. These exemptions are no longer appropriate. Due to mechanization and the phenomenal growth of large-scale agriculture, most child farmworkers today are hired laborers for commercial enterprises and deserve the same protection as children working in other jobs.
We urge your support for amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act to ensure that all working children are protected equally. The CARE Act would amend FLSA to raise the minimum age for employment in agriculture to fourteen, limit the number of hours that children aged fourteen and fifteen can legally work in agriculture, and strengthen sanctions against egregious child labor violators. This legislation would not impact children who work on their parents' farms, but is meant to better protect children working as hired laborers on commercial farms.
We urge you to use your position of leadership to ensure the passage of such legislation and to help safeguard the health and well being of our country's children.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Geraldine Alden
Barbara Gortikov
Jane Olson
Elaine Attias
Beth Greenfield
Tom Parker
Joan Willens Beerman
Thomas Higgins
Marina Pisklakova-Parker
Rabbi Leonard Beerman
David Hirsch
Nancy Parrish
Jeff Bleich
Joseph Hofheimer
Zazi Pope
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Tammy Boyer
Yves-Andre Istel
Bruce Rabb
Terree Bowers
Robert James
David W. Rintels
Susan Bradforth
Robert Joffe
Vicki Riskin
Allan Burns
Nancy Prager Kamel
John Romano
Joan Burns
Stephen L. Kass
Alice Sandler
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Nancy Cushing-Jones
Barry Kemp
Orville Schell
Adrian W. DeWind
Maggie Kemp
Jeffrey Scheuer
Mary Estrin
Emily Levine
Sid Sheinberg
Mike Farrell
Lorraine Loder
Malcolm Smith
Jonathan F. Fanton
Jonathan Lopatin
Domna Stanton
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Jonathan Feldman
Roberto Lovato
Richard Verches
J. Robert Force
Stephen A. Mansfield
Nina Walton
Eric Garcetti
Vincent McGee
Patricia Williams
Michael A. Gordon
Joel Motley
Stanley Wolpert
Roger Gordon
David E. Nachman
Arthur Zankel
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Members of the Human Rights Watch Council
Cc: Senator Edward Kennedy, Ranking Member
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