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It is clear that many aren't reading the article. This is not about kids working at McDonald's for a summer job: "In February, the Labor Department announced t

It is clear that many aren't reading the article. This is not about kids working at McDonald's for a summer job: "In February, the Labor Department announced that it had found more than a hundred children between the ages of thirteen and seventeen working in meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses, in eight states, for Packers Sanitation Services, one of the nation’s largest food-sanitation companies. The facilities themselves are owned by major corporations, including Tyson Foods and JBS. (All three companies denied that they had engaged in any wrongdoing.) The children worked overnight shifts at such jobs as cleaning bone saws and head splitters with hazardous chemicals. At least three were injured."

koboll 3y ago
A little misleading, perhaps, that at the top of the article is an illustration of a kid working at McDonald's.
chasd00 3y ago
> with hazardous chemicals. At least three were injured. Windex is a hazardous chemical and scratching yourself on a bandsaw is an injury. Needs more details.
- grumple 3y ago
  You say that like you can't cut off a limb with a bandsaw! [0] > The accident summaries from 2021 to 2023 show that most injuries involve hands and fingers. While some are only cuts and lacerations, most incidents proceed to partial and full finger amputations. My guess is that minor injuries usually go unreported. 0. https://www.sawinery.net/bandsaw-accidents/#:~:text=Even%20today%2C%20some%20bandsaw%20injuries,partial%20and%20full%20finger%20amputations https://www.sawinery.net/bandsaw-accidents/#:~:text=Even%20t....
  - jstanley 3y ago
    You can cut off a limb with a bandsaw, but scratching yourself and cutting off a limb are different injuries.
  - jonfw 3y ago
    These kids are cleaning bandsaw blades, not making furniture with them
  - klyrs 3y ago
    Best quote from that page > No matter what you’ll use the bandsaw for, loose clothing and pieces of jewelry should be part of your work attire.
- lozenge 3y ago
  I'm going to guess the companies that are willing to employ kids are not going to report when said child grazes their knee.
- green_man_lives 3y ago
  What an argument in bad faith. You are being extremely reductive in order to glaze over the litany of other issues here. Minors should not be cleaning dangerous equipment in slaughterhouses. Not to mention the lack of labor protections, blatant disregard for existing labor laws, the fact that most of the children are undocumented... need I go on?
  - zamalek 3y ago
    And I was called out for a slippery alope argument when critiquing loosening child labor laws (https://apnews.com/article/child-labor-laws-alabama-ohio-c1123a80970518676be44088619c6205 https://apnews.com/article/child-labor-laws-alabama-ohio-c11...). Seems like we are at the bottom of the slope already. Either way, disregard for child labor law might not be happening in some of these cases.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
NickBusey 3y ago
The amount of “pro child labor” comments in this thread is truly disheartening.
- l3mure 3y ago
  Extremely on brand for HN, there's always a notable contingent in these kinds of threads.
  - libraryatnight 3y ago
    There's a lot of people here who forgot what they were before the internet made them comfortable livings, and then a bunch more that are MBA types willing to say anything that makes money makes sense
- lowbloodsugar 3y ago
  There is a war going on, and HN is influential enough that it warrants propaganda.
  - green_man_lives 3y ago
    I have felt that way for a while. It seems like a place where propaganda would have a very good ROI. I see fewer and fewer tech articles on here and more and more "culture war" stuff. But I have only been active about 2 years. I'd like to know if the vibe was different before.
- codegeek 3y ago
  As a parent, I am watching the latest generation of kids where they are struggling to find meaningful work because some of them never worked a day in their life. I want to avoid that situation. I obviously am not advocating for child labor in a meat packing plant working night shifts around dangerous tools and machinery.
  - mmarq 3y ago
    I “never worked a day in my life” until I turned 19 and found my first job. You don’t need to work in you mid teens to find a meaningful job as an adult.
bko 3y ago
Keep reading. The next paragraph: > It was clear, in any case, from a range of reports, that they were all, or nearly all, drawn from the great underage labor pool of children who have crossed the border in recent years. “Unaccompanied minors” who arrive from non-neighboring countries—which, in effect, means Central America—are permitted to remain in the U.S. and are remanded to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which delivers them as quickly as possible to a sponsor while asylum applications are processed. The asylum processing typically takes years. The problem seems to be driven by undocumented workers crossing the border. There are a lot of dangerous second order effects from having a porous border and this is one of them. It's also interesting how they talk about it. "crossed the border". You won't find Mexico, undocumented or migrant in the rest of the text. Without a careful reading you'd think these are lower middle class American's sending their children to coal mines because free school lunch plans were cut due to austerity. There is only one mention of "the border" in the last paragraph: > Republicans say that the problem is an insecure border.
- green_man_lives 3y ago
  > Keep reading. I did. > The problem seems to be driven by undocumented workers crossing the border. There are a lot of dangerous second order effects from having a porous border and this is one of them. Ok? They are still children. Child exploitation is not an immediate downstream effect of having illegal immigration. It is a downstream effect of having an exploitative system. > It's also interesting how they talk about it. "crossed the border". You won't find Mexico, undocumented or migrant in the rest of the text. Yeah probably because the exploitation of children is much more disconcerting than people overstaying their visas or escaping violence. I think the only benefit that the added context would be to segue into arguing for stronger protections for undocumented laborers. > Without a careful reading you'd think these are lower middle class American's sending their children to coal mines Again, I don't care if it is undocumented migrant children or middle class Americans. I don't understand why you think this context would change the impression the article is going to give on readers. I feel like the point you are trying to make is that "It's only the exploitation of people who came here illegally, so it's no big deal."
  - 3y ago

koboll 3y ago

A little misleading, perhaps, that at the top of the article is an illustration of a kid working at McDonald's.

chasd00 3y ago

> with hazardous chemicals. At least three were injured. Windex is a hazardous chemical and scratching yourself on a bandsaw is an injury. Needs more details.

grumple 3y ago
You say that like you can't cut off a limb with a bandsaw! [0] > The accident summaries from 2021 to 2023 show that most injuries involve hands and fingers. While some are only cuts and lacerations, most incidents proceed to partial and full finger amputations. My guess is that minor injuries usually go unreported. 0. https://www.sawinery.net/bandsaw-accidents/#:~:text=Even%20today%2C%20some%20bandsaw%20injuries,partial%20and%20full%20finger%20amputations https://www.sawinery.net/bandsaw-accidents/#:~:text=Even%20t....
- jstanley 3y ago
  You can cut off a limb with a bandsaw, but scratching yourself and cutting off a limb are different injuries.
- jonfw 3y ago
  These kids are cleaning bandsaw blades, not making furniture with them
- klyrs 3y ago
  Best quote from that page > No matter what you’ll use the bandsaw for, loose clothing and pieces of jewelry should be part of your work attire.
lozenge 3y ago
I'm going to guess the companies that are willing to employ kids are not going to report when said child grazes their knee.
green_man_lives 3y ago
What an argument in bad faith. You are being extremely reductive in order to glaze over the litany of other issues here. Minors should not be cleaning dangerous equipment in slaughterhouses. Not to mention the lack of labor protections, blatant disregard for existing labor laws, the fact that most of the children are undocumented... need I go on?
- zamalek 3y ago
  And I was called out for a slippery alope argument when critiquing loosening child labor laws (https://apnews.com/article/child-labor-laws-alabama-ohio-c1123a80970518676be44088619c6205 https://apnews.com/article/child-labor-laws-alabama-ohio-c11...). Seems like we are at the bottom of the slope already. Either way, disregard for child labor law might not be happening in some of these cases.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

NickBusey 3y ago

The amount of “pro child labor” comments in this thread is truly disheartening.

l3mure 3y ago
Extremely on brand for HN, there's always a notable contingent in these kinds of threads.
- libraryatnight 3y ago
  There's a lot of people here who forgot what they were before the internet made them comfortable livings, and then a bunch more that are MBA types willing to say anything that makes money makes sense
lowbloodsugar 3y ago
There is a war going on, and HN is influential enough that it warrants propaganda.
- green_man_lives 3y ago
  I have felt that way for a while. It seems like a place where propaganda would have a very good ROI. I see fewer and fewer tech articles on here and more and more "culture war" stuff. But I have only been active about 2 years. I'd like to know if the vibe was different before.
codegeek 3y ago
As a parent, I am watching the latest generation of kids where they are struggling to find meaningful work because some of them never worked a day in their life. I want to avoid that situation. I obviously am not advocating for child labor in a meat packing plant working night shifts around dangerous tools and machinery.
- mmarq 3y ago
  I “never worked a day in my life” until I turned 19 and found my first job. You don’t need to work in you mid teens to find a meaningful job as an adult.

bko 3y ago

Keep reading. The next paragraph: > It was clear, in any case, from a range of reports, that they were all, or nearly all, drawn from the great underage labor pool of children who have crossed the border in recent years. “Unaccompanied minors” who arrive from non-neighboring countries—which, in effect, means Central America—are permitted to remain in the U.S. and are remanded to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which delivers them as quickly as possible to a sponsor while asylum applications are processed. The asylum processing typically takes years. The problem seems to be driven by undocumented workers crossing the border. There are a lot of dangerous second order effects from having a porous border and this is one of them. It's also interesting how they talk about it. "crossed the border". You won't find Mexico, undocumented or migrant in the rest of the text. Without a careful reading you'd think these are lower middle class American's sending their children to coal mines because free school lunch plans were cut due to austerity. There is only one mention of "the border" in the last paragraph: > Republicans say that the problem is an insecure border.

green_man_lives 3y ago
> Keep reading. I did. > The problem seems to be driven by undocumented workers crossing the border. There are a lot of dangerous second order effects from having a porous border and this is one of them. Ok? They are still children. Child exploitation is not an immediate downstream effect of having illegal immigration. It is a downstream effect of having an exploitative system. > It's also interesting how they talk about it. "crossed the border". You won't find Mexico, undocumented or migrant in the rest of the text. Yeah probably because the exploitation of children is much more disconcerting than people overstaying their visas or escaping violence. I think the only benefit that the added context would be to segue into arguing for stronger protections for undocumented laborers. > Without a careful reading you'd think these are lower middle class American's sending their children to coal mines Again, I don't care if it is undocumented migrant children or middle class Americans. I don't understand why you think this context would change the impression the article is going to give on readers. I feel like the point you are trying to make is that "It's only the exploitation of people who came here illegally, so it's no big deal."
- 3y ago