by Tom Conway, Inequality.org
Brad Greve has been a Scout leader for more than 20 years. The Davenport, Iowa retiree leads 50-mile canoe trips on Minnesota’s Boundary Waters that test teens’ mettle while teaching them essential skills.
Greve told a story recently where two boys, despite being warned repeatedly, let their canoe drift perilously close to a section of stream that swept over rapids into a lake below. They just barely recovered and made it to streambank.
That near-accident a few years ago, Greve said, underscores the vulnerability of young teens. And it fuels Greve’s anger at Republicans across the country who want to gut child labor laws and fill dangerous jobs with still-maturing high schoolers.
A GOP bill in Iowa, for example, would allow 14-year-olds to work in industrial freezers, meatpacking plants, and industrial laundry operations. The legislation would also put 15-year-olds to work on certain kinds of assembly lines, allow them to hoist up to 50 pounds, and allow employers to force kids into significantly longer work days.
Recent Posts
Japan Prepares To Sway Agenda Towards Green Development at G7 Summit
Take Action Now Transparency and accountability (on these actions) is critical, she declared. “Hiroshima represents a very critical time to…
Selective Outrage In Palestine: The Problem Is Not Just Smotrich But Zionism
Take Action Now Smotrich’s call for the destruction of Huwwara is not an alien position in Israel’s history of ethnic cleansing and “incremental…
US Companies Complain Of Worker Shortages While US Deports Workers To Their Deaths
Take Action Now We militarize our borders and keep people seeking work from doing it. Then legislators insist we need child labor to fill a “worker…
Bernie Sanders Vs. Howard Schultz: Longtime Starbucks CEO Grilled On Company’s Union-Busting Tactics
Take Action Now Bernie Sanders grilled the former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz about the company’s illegal anti-union practices by Amy…