Govt backs off new limits on child labor on farms

SAM HANANEL, Associated Press

Friday, April 27, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under heavy pressure from farm groups, the Obama administration said Thursday it would drop an unpopular plan to prevent children from doing hazardous work on farms owned by anyone other than their parents.

The Labor Department said it is withdrawing proposed rules that would ban children younger than 16 from using most power-driven farm equipment, including tractors. The rules also would prevent those younger than 18 from working in feed lots, grain bins and stockyards.

While labor officials said their goal was to reduce the fatality rate for child farm workers, the proposal had become a popular political target for Republicans who called it an impractical, heavy-handed regulation that ignored the reality of small farms.

"It's good the Labor Department rethought the ridiculous regulations it was going to stick on farmers and their families," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. "To even propose such regulations defies common sense, and shows a real lack of understanding as to how the family farm works."

The surprise move comes just two months after the Labor Department modified the rule in a bid to satisfy opponents. The agency made it clear it would exempt children who worked on farms owned or operated by their parents, even if the ownership was part of a complex partnership or corporate agreement.

That didn't appease farm groups that complained it would upset traditions in which many children work on farms owned by uncles, grandparents and other relatives to reduce costs and learn how a farm operates. The Labor Department said Thursday it was responding to thousands of comments that expressed concern about the impact of the changes on small family-owned farms.

"The Obama administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations," the agency said in a statement.

Instead, the agency said it would work with rural stakeholders, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union and 4-H to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., a grain farmer known to till his fields on weekends away from Washington, had come out strongly against the proposed rule. The Democrat continued to criticize the Obama administration rule even after it was tempered earlier this year, saying the Labor Department "clearly didn't get the whole message" from Montana's farmers and ranchers.

Tester, who is in a tough race for re-election, on Thursday praised the decision to withdraw the rule and said he would fight "any measure that threatens that heritage and our rural way of life."

The move is sure to disappoint child safety groups who said the rules represent long-overdue protections for children working for hire in farm communities. Three-quarters of working children under 16 who died of work-related injuries in 2010 were in agriculture, according to the Child Labor Coalition.

Last month, the child advocacy group criticized GOP legislation that would have stopped the Labor Department from issuing the rules.

"They will save lives and preserve the health of farm children so they can grow up to be farmers," said Reid Maki, the CLC coordinator. "The department should implement them as soon as possible."

Associated Press writer Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.

More like this story

JCLifer 1 year, 1 month ago

FFA / BIG AG wins again!

viktorkowski 1 year, 1 month ago

I don't understand the lack of support for this. They took those jobs that had the most fatal accidents and banned children from working those jobs. It wasn't as though farmers were being banned from using child immigrant labor for all the other jobs around corporate farms.

viktorkowski 1 year, 1 month ago

26,000 injuries or deaths with a population of just over a million children on farms. if I were a business I think those numbers are enough to warrant alarm. I did see a study done by Wisconsin and Illinois that did discover that over half the injury or deaths were done when there were no adult supervision. obviously there are some jobs on the farm that the children have no business doing without some form of guidance

lovemykids 1 year, 1 month ago

BOTH sides are working together to ruin our system! They just pretend to be fighting and at odds with each other. Think professional wrestling! They fight and scream and accuse the other of being a bad guy, then after the show is over they are out having drinks and dinner with the so called enemy. It is all smoke and mirrors.

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

The key is that Sen. Chuck Grassley was still yapping about family farms after family farms were exempted from the proposal. In politics you don't use facts, you just keep shouting the slogans.

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

You understand! Why, then would Grassley and Tester and the Farm Bureau continue to oppose it so loudly? Three quarters of children under sixteen who died of work-related injuries were killed in agriculture. All of the kids who were killed at work in all the other industries made up the other 25%, and agriculture employs an extremely small number of people.

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

How about these? You can recheck them yourself. (The word you were looking for is "cites").

According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), between 1995 and 2002, an estimated 907 youth died on American farms – that’s well over 100 preventable deaths of youth per year.

In 2011, 12 of the 16 children under the age of 16 who suffered fatal occupational injuries worked in crop production, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That makes it clear enough for me.

John 1 year, 1 month ago

What part of the following do neither of you understand?

"That didn't appease farm groups that complained it would upset traditions in which many children work on farms owned by uncles, grandparents and other relatives to reduce costs and learn how a farm operates. The Labor Department said Thursday it was responding to thousands of comments that expressed concern about the impact of the changes on small family-owned farms."

And, as far as driving the farm equipment is concerned, I was driving the tractor with equpment when I was 4. Certainly there were several pieces I did NOT operate until several years later, such as a mower and brushhog. That is a major part of farming. This country began as agrarian and agriculture has continued to be a large part of our society. Now, you want to stop young people from participating? That is silly.

I wonder how much of this is brought about by large "corporate farms" in an attempt to do away with any competition from traditional farms and farming coops?

viktorkowski 1 year, 1 month ago

I had not thought that corporate ag would be pushing this bill. guess you would have to go back and look at the sponsors, co-sponsors, and who contributed to these people. what I took from the law were they were trying to cut down on severe child injury and deaths do to the more dangerous farm operations. its my understanding there are numerous deaths every year around grain silos and sadly yes numerous cultivator deaths to children.

edit: spelling

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

See viktorkowski's post above - "only" 26,000 casualties every year. I grew up on a farm and I knew several kids that got badly injured.

John 1 year, 1 month ago

I reread the article and still have not seen anything about 26,000 deaths of "kids" who were killed working on the farm.

Even the following quote hedges the message by using the phrase "were in agriculture", instead of explicitly stating that the children were actively working in feedlots or on equipment or were killed by the heifer they were training for show. :
"Three-quarters of working children under 16 who died of work-related injuries in 2010 were in agriculture, according to the Child Labor Coalition."

You cannot learn a job only by reading about it or hearing about it, it has to be experienced. Imagine, if you can, ANY family owned farm that would be able to survive without the assistance of the farmer (man and wife) AND the children. This is a dream for big-buisiness (corporate owned farms) OR for GOVERNMENT-owned farms (kolectives) that, I am sure, our POTUS and his minions would absolutely LOVE. If the family owned farms go under, the government will surely have to step in and take over the farms.

If you think this is not accurate, consider the prostitute ranch the government took over and attempted to continue operating. . . .?

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

Casualties include injuries as well a deaths. Some of the kids were only maimed and some of them recovered completely. If you look above, I found the most relevant statistic. In 2011, twelve of the sixteen teenagers who died in work-related accidents were in crop production.

Why did you mention the Henderson, Nevada Chicken Ranch? We do not allow teenagers to work in that kind of business anywhere in the USA.

asb 1 year, 1 month ago

What Grace means to say is that Obama and the Democrates want every body on food stamps so they'll vote Democrat.

John 1 year, 1 month ago

Why are so there so many worrying about the family farm injuries/fatalities[sic] when our country was built upon agriculture and family farms? Yet I hear very few, if any, cries about young people being far more endangered by their access to automobiles, motorcycles, other recreactional land vehicles, snowmobiles, jet skis, boats, and other pieces of equipment.

If you folks were truly concerned about the injuries and deaths of young people you would be advocating no driving licenses for those under 18 or 21 years of age (you pick the age). Yet, I hear no suggestions for that. What I DO hear coming as soon as I post this is the number of excuses for why this comparison isn't valid for (pick your reason) . . . . need the car, parents too busy to take them somewhere, do not want to deprive our kids, snowmobiles aren't dangerous, boats aren't dangerous, what do you mean no water skiing, etc. etc. etc.

JCLifer 1 year, 1 month ago

Our government is out of control. They cant even pass a budget for the current fiscal year, let alone next fiscal year. How many laws have not been reaurthorized because they just keep continuing them teporarily?

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

Relevance?

JCLifer 1 year, 1 month ago

Agree. There is no relevance. The Federal government has overstepped its powers limited by the constitution.

spelchek 1 year, 1 month ago

Old McObama had a farm....wait..........YES! Please government, oh please please please save the farmers from themselves. Those hicks don't know any better than those perched high in their castles drinking mimosas, bragging about their ivy leagued alumnus statuses, and making laws they don't have to abide by.

dokeus6 1 year, 1 month ago

Don't you mean Republicans?

Localroofer 1 year, 1 month ago

I think he means our exalted ruling class which are mostly democrats. It is simply sad that you think that the democrats care about you at all. They see governmental a way to enslave the masses to keep their power.

Please review our Policies and Procedures before registering or commenting

Or login with:

OpenID

News Tribune