Discussion of two human rights reports, released this summer, that highlight the ongoing struggles of American farmworkers, particularly children.
Producer: Andrew Zimmerman Uploaded by: Andrew Zimmerman
During the large anti-globalization protests in Seattle and Washington, DC, in the past year, one of the most common issues raised by demonstrators was the increasing use of sweatshops and child labor by multinational corporations in the third world. While the problem of labor standards and working conditions is important and must be confronted on a global scale as the global economy grows, we must be aware that in looking so far a field, we run the risk of ignoring problems closer to home. While America may not have as many sweatshops as Southeast Asia, we do have a large migrant farmworker population whose plight is just as deplorable as any Indonesian in a Gap or Nike factory. Bringing this situation into the spotlight are two human rights reports, released this summer, that highlight the ongoing struggles of American farmworkers, particularly children. Both Human Rights Watch and the Farmworker Justice Fund say in recent reports that growers, farm owners, and government agencies are extremely negligent in enforcing safety and health regulations on American farms, particularly in regards to pesticide use and exposure. Furthermore, both organizations say that laws biased against agricultural workers force them to work longer hours, in less safe conditions, than non-agricultural workers; the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act imposes neither a daily nor a weekly limit to the number of hours children may work in agriculture. In this program, Bruderhof Radio speaks with Lee Tucker of Human Rights Watch, who penned a report titled "Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers," and Shelley Davis of the Farmworker Justice Fund, co-author of "The Ones the Law Forgot: Children Working in Agriculture."
Bruderhof Radio is a semi-monthly production of the Bruderhof Communities, www.bruderhof.org. Bruderhof Radio is provided free of charge to all public, progressive, and community radio stations. For more info, see our website at www.freespeech.org/bruderhof or contact the producers at (800) 778-8461ext 239 or redzim@bruderhof.com
![<?php echo $config['site_title']; ?>](/static/images/rp-navimg.gif)
![Support the <?php echo $config['site_title']; ?>](/static/images/support.png)
