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Today's Poll!Luetkemeyer opposes rule affecting farm employment of young people
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A new farm labor rule proposed by the Obama Administration has prompted opposition from Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, who represents Callaway County in Congress.
Luetkemeyer has asked the U.S. Department of Labor to drop its proposed rule that he says could “hamper young Missourians’ ability to consider agriculture-related careers and farm families’ ability to employ youth to work in agriculture.”
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced it wants to revise the Fair Labor Standards Act relating to young workers employed in agriculture.
The new regulations prohibit hiring of farm workers under the age of 16 to operate almost all power-driven farm equipment.
The regulations also prevent hiring of anyone under age 18 to work in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm-product raw materials. Prohibited places of employment would include grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.
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Comments
Rison 1 year, 5 months ago
At least one lawmaker is trying to do something good for his constituents.
JCLifer 1 year, 5 months ago
The Obama administration is out of control. The feds are trying to take over every aspect of our lives.
The states need to rise up and secceed from the feds and start a new nation with a very small federal government. This one is hopeless.
asb 1 year, 5 months ago
If ol' Blaine is agin it, I'm likely for it, but I'd have to read the law first.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Yeah, lets revolt because we can't hire a 15-year-old to drive the combine. What an outrage! Oh, the outrage! Good grief. Those kids are going to need all four limbs to get their agricultural career started. Of course, agribusiness subsidies mean that family farming is a more difficult business than ever, so maybe we need more farm accidents to weed out the competition. (Pun intended).
Rison 1 year, 5 months ago
This is rural Missouri. This is how a lot of kids grow up. Accidents happen everywhere for many reasons. I guess we should make the driving age 21, that way overbearing parents can have a few more years to keep their kids on the nip. If more kids worked on farms, we might have a little more hope for the future, when we will undoubtedly need farmers. If this overprotective nanny state agenda doesn't stop, we will become weaker and weaker as a country, eventually we will be overrun. This is not some crazy conspiracy theory, this is what WILL happen if something doesn't change soon.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
I suspect your uncle and cousin grew up on a farm, right? Since there are already child labor laws that prohibit working 11 year olds.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
How often do you hear of a kid injured working on a farm or in a livestock auction? I grew up on a family farm and was driving the tractor in the hay fields at 13 while my brother and his friends loaded bales on the trailer. Other than running the trailer over a boy's foot one time, we never had an injury. (I actually parked it on there. That takes skill at 13. lol) You have to be 15 to work at a job anyway and that requires parental consent. Or perhaps people are advocting prohibiting people from having their own children help out on the farm? What harm is there is working at the livestock auction pushing pigs and cows into a ring? Sure, certain dangerous jobs might need some regulation, combines and grain augers come to mind, but I can't imagine what good this law could really do.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
It seems like the rules just prevent hiring. Kids can still help their parents around the farm, right?
There's an interesting pattern to regulation outrage, where the outraged person outrages themselves over an outrage that's not actually in the regulation they claim is outrageous.
Read the thing before you crank up the outrage factory, and make a point instead of proclaiming that this or that regulation is going to bring about the end of Western Civilization. It's a good thing we're down on the farm, because you sound like a breathless hen. The sky ain't falling.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
What exactly did I say that makes me sound like a breathless hen? I didn't think I sounded outraged and wasn't "proclaiming" anything. Frankly, I don't care all that much about this law. I just think it's another law we don't need that won't do much good. Surely there are more important laws to pass.
I simply was making the point that, unless they are the farmer's kids, they can't work there under 15 anyway. How many kids under 18 want to work on a farm? I can't even get my kid to apply at McDonalds - I'm pretty sure he's not eager to be wading around a hog lot or cutting hay. Pretty much the only kids who want to work on farms already live on them.
I just re-read my post and seriously Dude? What post did you read?
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Sorry, I was going off Rison. I should have replied to that one.
JMO 1 year, 5 months ago
Ok, okay. That makes more sense. lol
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
Your post resembles no barnyard animal that I can think of.
Rison 1 year, 5 months ago
You're right. Only your opinion is worthy of reading. Please excuse me from submitting mine in an online forum, where, apparently, it is not ok to do so. I'm not outraged, by the way, I don't know how one could even infer that from my post. I'm just stating my opinion of another nanny state agenda, period. I read the bill, it is one that will affect myself, my family, and many friends, so I thought I had a right to comment.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
You do. But the stuff about getting "overrun" and the stuff from Lifer about "taking over every aspect of our lives" actually weakens, rather than strengthens, your legitimate points. Your points are worth making, and they stand on their own. Why add hyperbole? As you can see by this exchange, exaggeration only makes it harder for readers to see the substance in your opinion.
JCLifer 1 year, 5 months ago
Where in the constitution does it say that the federal government has a duty to regulate how farmers run their farms? Or where it says that the federal government needs to regulate the school lunch menu?
The federal government is totally out of control.
These are all states' issues. The feds should only be conserned with a few things ling national defense, interstate commerce, and that is about it. Let the states sweat the small stuff as it applies and as the people who live there desire.
Sequoia 1 year, 5 months ago
See now? That's much better. :)
asb 1 year, 5 months ago
OK, I read the bill, and I think ol' Blaine forgot to mention the family and small farm exemptions that should allow most farm kids to keep helpin out and learning their trade, and protect us from being overrun by the hordes of farm skilled invaders from . . . oh wait, we're already being overrun by the farm skilled invaders being recruited, exploited and underpaid by Ag.
JCLifer 1 year, 5 months ago
Don't worry. The powerful Farm Bureau and the FFA will never let this pass. Obama's administration is so out of touch with what happens and what is needed at the local level. OTB (One-Term-Barry) will soon be a bad memory.
TheRickster 1 year, 5 months ago
Talk about shooting off your mouth before thinking! Your own children don't fall into that rule. Like if you owned a restaurant, your kids can work without age restriction. Do you really want teens working on farm machinery? Farms have the highest accident rates of all jobs. And most are classified as serious injuries. Don't believe that I am coddling the kids because there are many other types of work on a farm that still needs to be done!
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