Teen dies in sawmill accident as US states aim to roll back child labor laws

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Investigation underway after police were called to find unresponsive teenager last week at Florence Hardwoods sawmill

Maya Yang
Thu 6 Jul 2023 11.48 EDT

A 16-year-old boy has died following an industrial accident at a sawmill in Wisconsin.

Police received an early-morning call last Thursday regarding an unresponsive teenager at Florence Hardwoods, a sawmill in northern Wisconsin, according to the Florence county sheriff’s office. Deputies and paramedics transported the teenager to a local hospital before transferring him to Milwaukee children’s hospital.

The boy, whom authorities have not identified by name, died from his injuries on Saturday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been notified about the incident and an investigation is taking place.

. . .

Fourteen states across the country – including Wisconsin – have introduced proposals to roll back child labor protections.

“The trend reflects a coordinated multi-industry push to expand employer access to low-wage labor and weaken state child labor laws in ways that contradict federal protections,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/06/boy-16-dies-sawmill-accident-wisconsin

[XanaDUer2]

1. This makes me sick

[DENVERPOPS]

2. The companies/corporations can pay the child laborers less

and people aren't earning what they should, esp considering this new tsunami of price increases of EVERYTHING, so the kids need to work.......The Repubs don't care, and are creating profits for corporations any way they can.

Merger of Gov't and Corporations is in the dictionary as a definition of what???? FASCISM

Upton? Sinclair's THE JUNGLE anyone?????????????????

[Dustlawyer]

11. Just like Texas governor Abbott's donors got him to sign off on eliminating a 10

minute water break every 4 hours for construction workers while we are in a heatwave. Our heat index last week was 110-116.

[LymphocyteLover]

3. horrifying ... I don't even want to think what could have happened to him

[NBachers]

4. "Who cares? There's plenty more where that one came from."

[ShazzieB]

32. Accurate.

Tragically accurate.

[slumcamper]

5. Tragic & predictable. Stay tuned; more to follow (Iowa here). n/t

[Evolve Dammit]

6. One more assault and rollback of protections, with real consequences. GOP is evil, not us.

[Lonestarblue]

7. Many Republicans don't care because their kids aren't the ones taking these jobs.

Even moderately well off people would not push their kids to work in dangerous jobs, but they don’t necessarily even think about the dangers to poor kids, of any race. If their parents were paid better, kids would not have to work at dangerous jobs. Why has the US become so uncaring and hateful?

[IronLionZion]

8. Yep, make America great again like 100 years ago

before these pesky job killing regulations and unions ruined abuses of child workers.

[Delmette2.0]

9. My Dad was born in 1922 his sister in 1919

My Aunt wrote a short letter about what live was like growing up on a farm. Keep in mind that my Dad was the 5th child, 12 children in all.

Everyday was feed the chickens, feed the pigs, feed the cows. ( my Dad also had rabbits for a few years.)
As they get older they helped with planting and harvesting. I'm guessing even a 5 year old could feed the chickens.They would move the cattle down the road to a different field.

I certainly didn't grow up like that. Maybe a few of my grade school class mates did some of that.

Who on earth thinks that teenagers today are able to work safely at any dangerous job??

[demigoddess]

31. I remember being six years old and assigned to pluck the feathers from dead chickens! Put me off

eating chicken for decades.

[Delmette2.0]

34. I helped my Mother gut the chickens.

Every once in awhile we would find an egg ready to be laid.

It never bother me. A family of 7 goes through a lot of food. The dead animals never bothered me. I watched the whole process since I was a toddler.

[yellowdogintexas]

38. I have helped with cleaning hens which contained

6 or 7 eggs still unshelled. Don't know about other parts of the country, but in the rural South those eggs were added to the giblet gravy which is made with the liver & gizzard and some broth from the roasting pan (farmers pretty much use everything)

Eventually ready to cook chickens became easily available, and the unshelled eggs disappeared. So cooks used hard boiled eggs instead. Of course commercial turkeys never had the eggs.

Now you know why giblet gravy often has hard boiled eggs in it.

[Delmette2.0]

39. I think giblet gravy is a nationwide rural thing.

My Mom always used the giblets, but not the unshelled eggs. I still cook them up for turkey gravy. No one wants the diced up meat in the gravy, so I munch on the giblets. I add the broth and potato water to the pan drippings.

[perdita9]

10. Corporate greed at its worst!!!

A pox on every politician who voted for weakening these labor laws. They were put in place for a reason.

[sybylla]

12. It's an unfortunate fact that children can work for their parents business

as many hours as parents want and no matter how dangerous. No rules apply because they're your kids.

I know this because my kids cleaned my business office back when I had a business.

My Amish neighbors are pretty competitive in home construction because they employ their own children to climb ladders to roof and side houses. In their world, if a tragedy happens, it is what their god intended.

I would bet this 16 yo was working with dad in dad's business and got caught in the wrong piece of machinery.

So tragic and unnecessary.

[LakeArenal]

28. Amish families are no different than any families.

Some of them use child labor and some don’t.

When my roof was done, all Amish workers were adults.

[sybylla]

33. Cool story.

I didn't say otherwise.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. I grew up in farmland and farm accidents were a regular occurrence.

Some more horrid than others and always involving heavy farm equipment. Farming is one of the main exceptions to child labor rules if the child worker is your own child or grandchild. Most of the guys I knew were driving pickups around the field by the time they could reach the pedals.

Tractors, combines, plows, hay bailers, falling off the tobacco racks which were high up in the top of the barn, and on and on. One friend was kicked by a cow he was milking - right in the cheekbone.

Of course these accidents happened to every age group; not exclusive to kids. Farming is hard and dangerous work.

[SpamWyzer]

14. I farmed.

Was always hearing about how dangerous law enforcement was and how heroic they were for having such a job. Farming is rated nationally in the USA as the 8th most dangerous profession. Law enforcement? 12th in danger.

[Warpy]

22. I believe it, I've heard the stories from friends and acquaintances

about getting kicked in various places by large and ticked off animals and how dangerous it was to knock out a rock that is jamming up some very large piece of machinery.

Plus, there are no days off, sick leave, or vacation time.

So if you farmed and made a go of it, thank you. I like to eat. And I know how tough it is to do.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. In Terms Of Occupational Deaths...

...ISHN shows cops at 22nd. Farmers, as you said, are 8th.
Loggers have topped the list for a long time.
https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-united-states

[Hermit-The-Prog]

36. Thanks for the link

At various times, and for varying durations, I've worked at 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 21, 24. Strangely enough, my co-workers in each of those jobs hated OSHA. I never did.

[pazzyanne]

15. Stupid! Stupid!!! Stupid!!! nt

[moniss]

16. I've been at

some of the smaller mills and the situation is not great.

[multigraincracker]

17. I have a cure for this

Federal law for minimum wage for anyone 16 and under, $30 per hour.

[mpcamb]

35. I like it!

Money-grubbing greedy rats will balk at paying that. Oh, and drop the age to 12.
Paste a direct OSHA penalty if they get injured and are underage, too.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

18. They claim they want to protect the children.

But they're okay with school shootings and child labor.

[GopherGal]

20. As long as he wasn't working with any drag queens... (n/t)

[Mister Ed]

19. I thought I'd read "On this date in 1934" when I clicked on the OP.

Instead, I find it's today's headline.

We really are making America great again, aren't we?

[Warpy]

21. I went to a high school where only 40% graduated

The balance quit school at 16 to go to work at the local textile mills. Some of the girls got married at that age and had 5 kids by the time they could vote. I knew those kids, they just wanted to get on with it, school wasn't teaching them anything particularly useful any more and they wanted to start getting a paycheck instead of a report card. Even the few vocational programs we still had didn't tempt them, one size didn't fit all.

Some of them were friends. They weren't stupid, they could do the work, they just had no interest in it. I saw their point.

It would be better if public school would issue a general diploma at 16 and an academic diploma at 18 so they wouldn't be stigmatized as dropouts and disqualified for other work they could clearly do.

16 year olds quitting school to go to work aren't the problem, that's gone on forever. The greedheads who want to drive labor costs down are trying to go after kids as young as 12. That's a hell of an age difference, too much happens between 12 and 16 to allow those predators to get their way.

It's really sad about this young guy. I do find it odd that no one saw it happen, although it seems they were aware of enough to go looking for him. His poor family, this is devastating.

[republianmushroom]

23. Expect more if these roll backs on child labor laws are successful.

[AZLD4Candidate]

25. Vote for and elect Republicans, you get Republican policies, ethics, morals, and priorities.

[The Jungle 1]

26. The irony

The right hates undocumented workers so now they need workers.

[Initech]

27. MAGAs *NEVER* get to say they care about children ever again.

This would have never happened before this Q bullshit started polluting the airwaves. Ugh, we have to get these fuckheads out of office now.

[Kaleva]

29. Farms are exempt from child labor laws

"Child farmworkers often work 10 or 12 hours a day in grueling conditions, exposed to pesticides, extreme heat, heavy machinery, and other dangers. Many start working at age 12 or 13 to help their families make ends meet.

Agriculture is the deadliest sector for child workers in the US; thousands are injured on farms every year.

But under US labor law, children as young as 12 can work unlimited hours on farms of any size with parental permission, as long as they do not miss school. Once 16, child farmworkers can do work considered hazardous, compared to 18 for other sectors."

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/01/unprotected-labor-law-child-farmworkers-risk-health-and-lives#:~:text=But%20under%20US%20labor%20law,they%20do%20not%20miss%20school.

People aren't going to want to pay higher prices for food so it's unlikely the laws will be changed.

[The Jungle 1]

30. I do not understand why they outlawed breaker boys.

They were getting paid 45
cents a day.
They did have to provide their own PPE.
I am pretty sure Don Blankenship wants breaker boys for his Massey mine company.
Wonder why schools do not teach the history of coal mines in Pa???

[Novara]

37. the republican playbook:

Forced pregnancy to keep churning out bodies for cheap labor.

"Protect life" my ass.