… the US Department of Labor (DOL) reached an agreement with Monogram Meat Snacks whereby the company ‘will be fined $30,276 in civil money penalties for employing “at least two 16- and 17-year-old children” at its plant in Chandler, Minnesota.’ This incident is one small example of an appalling growth in child labour throughout the US that has come to light in recent months.

A report issued in March of this year by the Economic Policy Institute found that states ‘across the country are attempting to weaken child labor protections, just as violations of these standards are rising.’ The report identifies ‘bills weakening child labor standards in 10 states that have been introduced or passed in the past two years alone.’…

In February, the DOL released some of the findings they had uncovered in an investigation of Packers Sanitation Services, Inc (PSSI). These showed the illegal employment of ‘over 100 children between the ages of 13 and 17 in hazardous occupations at 13 meatpacking facilities owned by JBS, Cargill, Tyson, and others.’…

Despite inspiring and enormously important efforts by workers to organise and resist, trade unions remain relatively weak in the US and the rate of unionisation is very low…