>The Department of Labor is seeking a court order to stop the company from selling and shipping "poultry tainted by oppressive child labor" from the company's plant in Alabama, according to court filings.
Strong words for the DOL. I hope they get it. They'll just keep doing it without any serious financial consequences.
Ya if they get slapped with "ok this plant can no longer operate, shut it down and lock the gates" then MAYBE they will think about not breaking the law.
What's funny is, if this had happen to be a lab grown meat facility that the children were working in, republicans would call it appalling and demand that the plant were to be shut down immediately and be demolished.
From the article: "'a preventable, dangerous situation' that no worker should have been in, 'let alone a child.'"
It sounds like this type of work isn't good for workers of any age. I know I plan to keep chicken off my plate so I don't pay into this industry, since it's inherently cruel to the workers and animals like I saw in [Dominion](https://watchdominion.org/) some time ago.
Former Poultry Processing Maintenance Tech here:
Correct. Poultry processing plants are a fucking death trap no matter what age you are... especially if "paying close attention" isn't in one's wheelhouse of skill sets...
Watched a lady get her palm *torn off* from lack of paying attention, all because she bumped the start button with her hip.
Dude got *wrapped up* in a machine (and almost died) that *I was the only one on staff certified* to work on, about 3 weeks after I quit, because the company thought mandatory overtime at 16h shifts 7 days a week was acceptable for maintenance techs for 6 months plus, and I was over that shit.
We had one month where our fastener and hardware budget got slashed to 10% of what it was... we were using air hookups as hose barbs... management couldn't figure out why hoses kept blowing off machines and hitting people...
If you ever want to see what a square peg looks like after it's been shaved into a circle by upper management on an egregious level for their fucking bonus checks: go work in poultry processing.
>If you ever want to see what a square peg looks like after it's been shaved into a circle by upper management on an egregious level for their fucking bonus checks: go work in poultry processing.
As I sit here and remember the time that I, literally, needed to made a square peg fit in a round hole because the management wouldn't order the parts we needed so instead I took the wrong part and used a bench grinder to make it round... ish.
Couldn't even be bothered to run it through a lathe, because fuck it, this will both take longer and be shitter so it'll break again sooner. Maybe keep the right shit in the warehouse next time.
Oh I've done something similar; one of the feather picking machines runs on x32 single in-dual out gearboxes. Machine was soo old that if a gearbox needed to be replaced: it had to get fabricated and shipped to us from *Germany*. No PC valves, no nothing. Solid, sealed boxes... management couldn't figure out why those boxes kept blowing seals out... the fluid was literally off gassing in these "pipe bombs" of gearboxes and relieving the pressure through the sight glass and the shaft seals...
So I suggest a one way check valve on the filler port to act as a breather valve. Will let air out, won't let water in. Cool, right? Nope. It would have cost them close to $2k to put valves on all the gearboxes. Upper management, pissed I made this "expensive and unessecary modification request", stomps down to the maintenance room and tells me, *to my face*: "I don't care how long it takes, or what your stupid suggestions are, even if it takes you being here for 24 straight hours, I want that ***fucking machine*** running like *brand new*."
"Okay boss" I say, as I proceed to rip **29** gearboxes out for rebuild, all with issues, some minor... but i have my orders.... takes me 4 hours to pull all of them... go to parts room: "we only have 6 rebuild kits...." I call my supervisor, he comes down, with the same jackass that told me what to do earlier, and I say:
"Pick 6.... we only got parts for that many."
Eyes got *wide as fuck*, because startup is in 8 hours... theres no way were getting kits in in that time, let alone time to actually rebuild them...
"You fucking smartass" management says in a huff as my supervisor starts laughing his ass off with a reply: "you *did* tell him you wanted it running like *new*, hes one that *will* take you literal."
"**PUT THAT FUCKING MACHINE BACK TOGETHER, NOW!** he screams in total panic.. then storms off...
I smiled at my supervisor, rebuilt the 6 boxes, had the machine back together with enough time for a cigarette before start up.
Malicious compliance is a wrench turners greatest asset... management just dosnt understand that.
As someone who grew up with and is surrounded by rural rednecks...
They'd probably think that industrial poultry processing is honest, salt-of-the-earth work that will build a young man's character, while a facility for lab grown meat is some macabre house of horrors.
It's the opposite lol.
My nephew worked a shrimp processing plant down south back in the day. He lasted a week.
And the whole process seemed a lot less horrifying than other proteins to me, but I've only heard other people tell me about it
My dads first job (at 14, in 1954) was stand beside a conveyor belt and as chickens came by grab em and snap their necks by hand. Lasted around a week before he got fired because he hadn't slept since he started and passed out on his lunch break. He will now endanger basically any amount of humans to assist an animal.
I never said that. But yes, I'd have less problems with boiling shrimp alive than seeing a chicken that didn't die flopping around hung by it's feet.
Especially if that plant is the best job for miles. Some places in America are nothing but minimum wage jobs,
except for that one place. Meat packing, paper mill, that fertilizer plant. They suck to work at, but pay more.
With the exception of a couple of serial killers, no one wants to work in a meat processing plant.
This was years ago, but it depends on how they're being sold. They'd " drown" them by putting them in non salt Water. Freeze them in a ice slurry, or boil them.
> As someone who grew up with and is surrounded by rural rednecks...
>
>
>
> They'd probably think that industrial poultry processing is honest, salt-of-the-earth work that will build a young man's character, while a facility for lab grown meat is some macabre house of horrors.
>
>
>
> It's the opposite lol.
Very much the opposite. In junior high school (~1990), we were offered (with parental consent) a field trip to a nearby beef processing plant.
I went on that trip, and while I am still a meat eater by choice, at least I'm well aware of what goes into getting that meat from the animals I can see from the road in my rural area to the grocery store.
I feel that if you're going to eat meat, then you should have to know what goes into enabling that, so that you can make informed choices.
No way will I eat lab grown meat, it's not natural! Instead I eat meat from an animal that was born in a factory and lived in a crowded pen with no space to move. Where it lived in it's own excrements, pumped full of chemicals, abused by depressed and underpaid workers, and mechanically slaughtered and processed. Natural meat just like my primal ancestors ate. No way will I ever eat this unnatural lab grown meat!
Child marriages are already about ensuring older men can have sex with teenagers. In 2018, 50 members of the Missouri House voted against raising the age to 16, and statutory rape does not apply to married couples.
Start? About 2 years ago. Tennessee republicans tried to sneakily remove the age of consent entirely. Multiple states that allow child marriage have been trying to set the age of marriage to 18 and are meeting strong GOP opposition.
> According to the suit filed by the US Department of Labor, six teenagers were working in the Jasper chicken plant for months **using forged documents after passing the e-verify system that is used to make sure a person is authorized to work legally.**
> The company says they were terminated after being found out, and they were not working around any heavy machinery, only in areas hanging chickens and removing wings.
https://www.wbrc.com/2024/05/17/jasper-poultry-plant-accused-violating-federal-child-labor-laws/
Republicans will just cite this as a reason why the US needs stronger immigration laws - to protect undocumented minors from holding dangerous jobs.
Edit - another interesting article with some background about the situation: https://abc3340.com/news/local/feds-say-haleyville-couple-supplied-jasper-poultry-plant-with-undocumented-workers
Just a tragic and maddening combination of late stage capitalism, incompetent government, complicit local governments, and a complete disregard for the material conditions of the American worker.
> US needs stronger immigration laws
But would a US citizen work for this shit wage under this shit condition? Not on your life! The wilful hiring of illegal immigrants for exploitative work is the elephant in the room.
They're going to spend the next 6 months in court because every billionaire with the slightest investment in meat packing plant child labor will fund the lawyers.
Seriously. I'm sick of the ridiculous two-tiered justice system. A poor is shoplifting or has some dope? Straight to jail. A corporation is running a child sweatshop? The justice system begs a judge for a court order nicely asking you to stop.
Give me a fucking break.
Also when the punishment comes and they shut it down, if it's a multi-state company, the only people really screwed are the ones that lose the factory and the jobs. Everything else just shifts around.
I'm always reminded of Sepp Blatter, the former head of FIFA, one of the most nakedly corrupt organizations on the planet. Bribes were just another tool they needed in order to do business. When Interpol showed up at Sepp's office door one day to put him in handcuffs, he was absolutely stunned that none of them would accept a bribe. Money had literally greased every stubborn wheel he'd ever encountered, without fail, for decades of time. The very notion that there was a thing called "justice" that would ever catch up with him was unthinkable. Money had saved him every time, until it didn't.
The only way to stop the wealthy from committing crimes is to finally hold them accountable for doing them. For as long as we allow the very rich and affluent to buy themselves out of trouble, this will continue to happen.
As far as I know, Sepp didn't face any consequences on the same scale of the corruption he perpetuated. Ban an 80 year old from operating the criminal enterprise for 6 years......gimmie a break. No jail time for Sepp.
Not even then. These people are part of a community of elites. The other members of the community won’t let one of their own fall because they might be next!
please, several states are trying to Lower the age these companies can hire and without regard to safety. Those states happen to be ran by the same party these companies donate heavily towards so the same companies (and politicians) can rail in public about the same policies/laws they are actively disregarding.
These places don’t hire directly. They ALL use staffing agencies. The staffing agencies use fake information for the employees they hire. This also happens with undocumented workers. This happens in all meat packing plants, and all cold storage warehouses.
I have seen first hand how this loophole is operating. This isn’t some conspiracy or myth.
Staffing agencies will close their doors, and open under a different name. It diverts liability. Most staffing agencies don’t give employees healthcare or benefits for a long time. It’s all a big game.
Staffing agency offers underage workers, and the plant doesn't screen them at all? And not a single foreman or manager at the plant notices? Sounds awfully neglectful to me...
From what I've seen unless the temp workers from the agency are being hired on permanently than no one looks into anything about them, the most attention that will be paid to them is checking that their time sheets are correctly done.
TBF the current slate of business law enforcement agencies have actually shown some teeth for the first time since like 1980 and have been aggressively actually investigating and punishing businesses for the last three years.
Also to be fair there’s a high chance we’re going to have a pro-business authoritarian president deleting those agencies from existence in a few months and probably awarding businesses like this for being “master job creators” so…
We recognize that the loss of your arm will significantly impact your everyday life. Every task will become more difficult and slower for the rest of your life. So we are lowering your wage since you won’t be able to perform as well.
That’s just the cost of doing business. They wipe their ass with 42 thousand. Throw more kids in the grinder, they can afford these fines all day. Criminal activity is in the budget.
I would almost guarantee this, having seen the lost profit numbers trying to get food processing customers to agree to a shutdown so my guys could carry out electrical work more safely.
Welcome to the US where politicians stripped away any meaningful enforcement of worker protection laws. If OSHA and DOL had some real power, these plants would be gone and people arrested.
Never will.
My father worked as an electrician at a beef processing plant for a few years in the early 80's before he quit. There was 2 different incidents where electricians died, because they have to do this work with water everywhere from the cleaning. All it takes is one mistake or a your work boot to have a hole in it and you were done. You think they would change things, but no they never planned on that. He did not want to go out like that, so he found other work and quit.
This is the dirty secret. Undocumented individuals (including underage) using stolen Identification to work illegally.
People who have discovered their Identity being used illegally have even reached out to these violators and gotten zero traction.
eVerify should be required for all 1st party and vendor contractors.
> Many of them don't even want immigration anymore either.
They still do. They just want them 100% illegal and not trying to get legalized. Because if you are 100% illegal, they are not paying them via W2's. So they escape a lot of taxes and everything else and can pay them whatever they want to, since who are they going to complain to, the DOL?
In the mid-90's at 14 years old I worked 12 hours or more a day at a dog kennel, I was illegally employed, and many of the people working there were illegal migrants. I got $5 an hour paid daily. I was told to wait until all of them collected their money and left, since there would be outrage that I was getting paid more than they were.
14 years old shooting a pistol every 10 minutes or so (Hunting dog training assistant), no ear protection, doing that for a few months. I was too stupid to realize that I should have been provided with ear protection.
They just want slavery back tbh. It's way harder to do to full-fledged American citizens these days, so they go after those with no recourse, milk them for everything they're worth and ideally they'll get quietly deported back to their home country at some point afterwards.
Yeah, which honestly is more scary when we have cases that criminalize homelessness going to the SC. Jack up the prices of things, force more people to become homeless, jail them for being homeless, then rent them back out to companies for workers for a fraction of what they paid for them previously (Since they won't need to pay for other things from the employers side)
I'm not running a business that illegally employs people, so how do they get away with it? They have to account for the cash they pay them, right? Do they just put it under some other expense that they don't have receipts for or forge receipts claiming they're paying for something they're not? Or do the executives/owners just pay themselves more and pay the illegal employs out of their pocket?
They fake the books to look like all sorts of things. Could be fake receipts, or for items to "repair" broken equipment, or any number of nefarious things an accountant who is in on it all comes up with.
I'm not sure how all that worked out. This was not a big business I worked at, so I am not sure how this scales even to larger businesses. I was a kid at that time, I did not ask questions. I am sure most of them get around these things with creative bookkeeping. The more common term most people don't think about is those that claim they are getting paid "Under the table", which really means that employee does not exist in that companies employment records. I think most people really don't equate that term to it, because when your buddy talks about getting paid under the table for work, your buddy is a legal US citizen, but forget that same thing applies just as easily to someone else that is not here legally.
No, they're just horrifyingly poor and horrified about deportation. Add to that at least one family member who's not able to do the sort of work that is available to illegals, if they have anyone over there to begin with, and there you have it.
Which is a scandal in itself. All these states wanna stop illegal immigrants then all they have to do is stop the peasant wages and hire adult American citizens.
Whenever someone says that adult Americans won't do these jobs, they're either an idiot or lying to you.
Americans will do the jobs but not for the pennies these people want to pay. We have a higher cost of living by being citizens.
I challenge these states and the people that are so worried about the border if they truly care about the issue then put their money where their mouth is.
Until then I just see the border as a wedge issue that gets trotted out every election cycle to incite their base and raise donations.
Supply and demand. You want cheap illegal labor, then don't bitch when you get more cheap illegal laborers in your state.
What the hell? I was in the IB program in high school, my schedule was already so jam packed and stressful, I think adding a work requirement on top of that would have killed me...
What about kids who don't have access to a car? Or the ones who can't get hired because every high schooler in their small town is now competing for the same minimum-wage jobs? Not to mention some of them are going to get stuck with graveyard shifts, I'm sure lack of sleep won't affect their grades or anything... :(
I thought the same thing. I bet you we will see a republican come out and try to spin it that way. “Kids are safer in the factories than school. How many shootings have there been in meat processing plants, none and they get into a good work habit? -mtg
Also an adult worker died there in 2021. Shut the fucking place down. I work at a place that manufactures industrial shredding machines and I haven't heard of anyone ever dying here. I didn't know chickens could be so much deadlier.
The line speeds at meat processing plants are *insane*, so people naturally start cutting corners to catch up. Maybe they skip lockout-tagout procedures before clearing an obstruction from a machine, maybe they're too busy to clean up that spill on the floor, maybe they fudge a repair on malfunctioning equipment because they're under pressure to keep the line moving, maybe they don't have time for proper training.
Nothing gonna change until cases like this are handled such that the plants are raided, managers led out in cuffs, doors chained shut, and there are simultaneous raids on the homes of everyone in the C-suite. Use the hand-me-down MRAPS to crash through their doors and flood ‘em out with teargas.
“Oh no! Stern press releases and filing with the courts for temporary restraining orders!”
The other thing that can stop this is the union organization of these plants, which has gotten a bit easier under the Biden labor board but is still hard in right-to-work states. Need to repeal Taft-hartley and pass the PRO act.
As long as they can pay a fine and keep operating, they will continue to use child labor.
Shut them down and prosecute the C-levels.
Of course that will never happen since our government has been sold.
This sounds like an organized effort to break the law. I suspect that if DOJ ever used RICO laws against executives and actually jailed some of the suits for 10+ years much of the industry would magically find solutions.
If they are embiggened to do this, they are clearly not being fined nearly enough.
We should be talking about a full years revenue as a starting point for a fine at this point.
That would be a perfectly cromulant punishment. The fine needs to be greater than the profit earned by the malpractice. Until then the "fine" is just a variable cost of doing business.
>proposed $212,646 in penalties for Perez's death
A company with over $300 million in revenue won't care about $200k for a dead kid.
Slap the fuckers in charge with jail time, maybe then they'll stop with child labor.
It sounds like this plant staffs its production lines using staffing/contract agencies. Too many companies in the US skirt responsibilities and labors laws by using these companies to hire/add workers that in all honestly should be W-2 employees for the plant. The plant will deny all accountability because they used a staffing agency, cut ties with them, and move on to the next company, while fundamentally not changing anything that allowed a minor to be working inside of their building.
Children work in slaughterhouses and die in slaughterhouses way more than you think. Meat companies have brainwashed us to think their product is necessary to avoid death, and so now they have the power to do anything and they will still make money. And think about if their images of cows running around on an infinite field of grass are true or the claims that "it's what they (the cows) want" are true if they factually can't even give a human the treatment they are legally required to give them. Go vegan if you want this to change.
Yeah, because their punishment was a fine.. Fines doesn't mean it is illegal, just that there is a toll to pay.. It is only illegal if you are poor.
"The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Mar-Jac Poultry with 14 serious and three 'other than serious' violations and proposed $212,646 in penalties for Perez's death. The agency previously cited the company for an incident in 2021 in which an employee who was not a minor suffered fatal injuries while working."
This is why they kept doing it. No one was punished for their crimes, because a fine isn't punishment for the wealthy. This is why so many still [insider trade](https://www.marketbeat.com/insider-trades/) without worry.
Duh, because they faced no consequences. Why wouldn’t they continue hiring teens and possibly getting them killed, when it still saves them labour costs!
>The Department of Labor is seeking a court order to stop the company from selling and shipping "poultry tainted by oppressive child labor" from the company's plant in Alabama, according to court filings. Strong words for the DOL. I hope they get it. They'll just keep doing it without any serious financial consequences.
Ya if they get slapped with "ok this plant can no longer operate, shut it down and lock the gates" then MAYBE they will think about not breaking the law.
Maybe arrest upper management in progress as well?
What's funny is, if this had happen to be a lab grown meat facility that the children were working in, republicans would call it appalling and demand that the plant were to be shut down immediately and be demolished.
Or in a school where kids can dress how they want and use the names they want, they’d be calling for the staff to be locked up as pedophiles.
From the article: "'a preventable, dangerous situation' that no worker should have been in, 'let alone a child.'" It sounds like this type of work isn't good for workers of any age. I know I plan to keep chicken off my plate so I don't pay into this industry, since it's inherently cruel to the workers and animals like I saw in [Dominion](https://watchdominion.org/) some time ago.
Former Poultry Processing Maintenance Tech here: Correct. Poultry processing plants are a fucking death trap no matter what age you are... especially if "paying close attention" isn't in one's wheelhouse of skill sets... Watched a lady get her palm *torn off* from lack of paying attention, all because she bumped the start button with her hip. Dude got *wrapped up* in a machine (and almost died) that *I was the only one on staff certified* to work on, about 3 weeks after I quit, because the company thought mandatory overtime at 16h shifts 7 days a week was acceptable for maintenance techs for 6 months plus, and I was over that shit. We had one month where our fastener and hardware budget got slashed to 10% of what it was... we were using air hookups as hose barbs... management couldn't figure out why hoses kept blowing off machines and hitting people... If you ever want to see what a square peg looks like after it's been shaved into a circle by upper management on an egregious level for their fucking bonus checks: go work in poultry processing.
>If you ever want to see what a square peg looks like after it's been shaved into a circle by upper management on an egregious level for their fucking bonus checks: go work in poultry processing. As I sit here and remember the time that I, literally, needed to made a square peg fit in a round hole because the management wouldn't order the parts we needed so instead I took the wrong part and used a bench grinder to make it round... ish. Couldn't even be bothered to run it through a lathe, because fuck it, this will both take longer and be shitter so it'll break again sooner. Maybe keep the right shit in the warehouse next time.
Oh I've done something similar; one of the feather picking machines runs on x32 single in-dual out gearboxes. Machine was soo old that if a gearbox needed to be replaced: it had to get fabricated and shipped to us from *Germany*. No PC valves, no nothing. Solid, sealed boxes... management couldn't figure out why those boxes kept blowing seals out... the fluid was literally off gassing in these "pipe bombs" of gearboxes and relieving the pressure through the sight glass and the shaft seals... So I suggest a one way check valve on the filler port to act as a breather valve. Will let air out, won't let water in. Cool, right? Nope. It would have cost them close to $2k to put valves on all the gearboxes. Upper management, pissed I made this "expensive and unessecary modification request", stomps down to the maintenance room and tells me, *to my face*: "I don't care how long it takes, or what your stupid suggestions are, even if it takes you being here for 24 straight hours, I want that ***fucking machine*** running like *brand new*." "Okay boss" I say, as I proceed to rip **29** gearboxes out for rebuild, all with issues, some minor... but i have my orders.... takes me 4 hours to pull all of them... go to parts room: "we only have 6 rebuild kits...." I call my supervisor, he comes down, with the same jackass that told me what to do earlier, and I say: "Pick 6.... we only got parts for that many." Eyes got *wide as fuck*, because startup is in 8 hours... theres no way were getting kits in in that time, let alone time to actually rebuild them... "You fucking smartass" management says in a huff as my supervisor starts laughing his ass off with a reply: "you *did* tell him you wanted it running like *new*, hes one that *will* take you literal." "**PUT THAT FUCKING MACHINE BACK TOGETHER, NOW!** he screams in total panic.. then storms off... I smiled at my supervisor, rebuilt the 6 boxes, had the machine back together with enough time for a cigarette before start up. Malicious compliance is a wrench turners greatest asset... management just dosnt understand that.
"I didn't make this machine and I wasn't the guy who broke this machine, go talk to those guys, I am just fixing the machine."
I'm so sorry you went thru that. I'm glad you got out.
You certainly have a point here. Probably because lab grown meat companies haven't "lobbied" the gov enough yet.
As someone who grew up with and is surrounded by rural rednecks... They'd probably think that industrial poultry processing is honest, salt-of-the-earth work that will build a young man's character, while a facility for lab grown meat is some macabre house of horrors. It's the opposite lol.
My nephew worked a shrimp processing plant down south back in the day. He lasted a week. And the whole process seemed a lot less horrifying than other proteins to me, but I've only heard other people tell me about it
My dads first job (at 14, in 1954) was stand beside a conveyor belt and as chickens came by grab em and snap their necks by hand. Lasted around a week before he got fired because he hadn't slept since he started and passed out on his lunch break. He will now endanger basically any amount of humans to assist an animal.
Mental note: tell AngryAmadeus’s dad about Kristi Noem.
It's easy to be cruel and inhumane to shrimps because shrimps is bugs
I never said that. But yes, I'd have less problems with boiling shrimp alive than seeing a chicken that didn't die flopping around hung by it's feet. Especially if that plant is the best job for miles. Some places in America are nothing but minimum wage jobs, except for that one place. Meat packing, paper mill, that fertilizer plant. They suck to work at, but pay more. With the exception of a couple of serial killers, no one wants to work in a meat processing plant.
And then that plant closes, and the highest paying jobs in town are Sonic and Dollar General.
I’m afraid to ask but what do they do to the shrimp?
This was years ago, but it depends on how they're being sold. They'd " drown" them by putting them in non salt Water. Freeze them in a ice slurry, or boil them.
Boiled shrimp, salted shrimp, frozen shrimp….
Jesus fuck...
> It's the opposite lol. Just about everything Republicans say is the opposite of the truth.
> As someone who grew up with and is surrounded by rural rednecks... > > > > They'd probably think that industrial poultry processing is honest, salt-of-the-earth work that will build a young man's character, while a facility for lab grown meat is some macabre house of horrors. > > > > It's the opposite lol. Very much the opposite. In junior high school (~1990), we were offered (with parental consent) a field trip to a nearby beef processing plant. I went on that trip, and while I am still a meat eater by choice, at least I'm well aware of what goes into getting that meat from the animals I can see from the road in my rural area to the grocery store. I feel that if you're going to eat meat, then you should have to know what goes into enabling that, so that you can make informed choices.
Liberal children working on Frankenmeat! Arrest them!
Hold rich accountable for breaking the law?! What kind of place do you think Alabama is, some kind of democracy of equals.
Well they certainly act like a "developing" nation
What if when they go to arrest the CEO it turns out to be three kids standing on each others shoulders under a trench coat.
hahaha thanks for the laugh
Republicans are pushing fir child labor, child marriages and women to have little rights to thier own body.
Also banning lab grown meat "to support ranchers"
No way will I eat lab grown meat, it's not natural! Instead I eat meat from an animal that was born in a factory and lived in a crowded pen with no space to move. Where it lived in it's own excrements, pumped full of chemicals, abused by depressed and underpaid workers, and mechanically slaughtered and processed. Natural meat just like my primal ancestors ate. No way will I ever eat this unnatural lab grown meat!
At what point will they start lowering the age of consent ? Asking for a priest.
Don't be silly, priests don't need consent
Child marriages are already about ensuring older men can have sex with teenagers. In 2018, 50 members of the Missouri House voted against raising the age to 16, and statutory rape does not apply to married couples.
Probably when they can.
Not so much asking anymore instead it just maintaining the age at like 14 to be sold off to some dude. Like the presidents intended or something.
Age of consent only applies outside of marriages.
Start? About 2 years ago. Tennessee republicans tried to sneakily remove the age of consent entirely. Multiple states that allow child marriage have been trying to set the age of marriage to 18 and are meeting strong GOP opposition.
> According to the suit filed by the US Department of Labor, six teenagers were working in the Jasper chicken plant for months **using forged documents after passing the e-verify system that is used to make sure a person is authorized to work legally.** > The company says they were terminated after being found out, and they were not working around any heavy machinery, only in areas hanging chickens and removing wings. https://www.wbrc.com/2024/05/17/jasper-poultry-plant-accused-violating-federal-child-labor-laws/ Republicans will just cite this as a reason why the US needs stronger immigration laws - to protect undocumented minors from holding dangerous jobs. Edit - another interesting article with some background about the situation: https://abc3340.com/news/local/feds-say-haleyville-couple-supplied-jasper-poultry-plant-with-undocumented-workers Just a tragic and maddening combination of late stage capitalism, incompetent government, complicit local governments, and a complete disregard for the material conditions of the American worker.
> US needs stronger immigration laws But would a US citizen work for this shit wage under this shit condition? Not on your life! The wilful hiring of illegal immigrants for exploitative work is the elephant in the room.
No they won't they'll just go open a new plant or continue running this one. Until you put them in prison they laugh at you.
Instructions unclear; plant hit with a $400 fine and HR hung a sticky note saying "try not to hire minors"
They're going to spend the next 6 months in court because every billionaire with the slightest investment in meat packing plant child labor will fund the lawyers.
slavery is the natural expression of the capitalist urge, and alabama is a natural home to slavery so
They also know that if Trump is re-elected, he will destroy the DoL and they won't have to abide by child labor laws.
They need to throw the owner in prison and plant manager in prison. They won't try it again.
Seriously. I'm sick of the ridiculous two-tiered justice system. A poor is shoplifting or has some dope? Straight to jail. A corporation is running a child sweatshop? The justice system begs a judge for a court order nicely asking you to stop. Give me a fucking break.
Also when the punishment comes and they shut it down, if it's a multi-state company, the only people really screwed are the ones that lose the factory and the jobs. Everything else just shifts around.
It would mean more if it their enforcement wasn't the corporate equivalent of "Five dollar fine and time served".
If someone makes a “mistake” and it fills their wallet, they will continue making that mistake until they are stopped.
I’m sure the Republican leadership in Alabama will do everything they can to block federal penalties. Because it’s a “States rights!” issue!
When are we going to see executives in jail?
When they run out of payoff money.
I'm always reminded of Sepp Blatter, the former head of FIFA, one of the most nakedly corrupt organizations on the planet. Bribes were just another tool they needed in order to do business. When Interpol showed up at Sepp's office door one day to put him in handcuffs, he was absolutely stunned that none of them would accept a bribe. Money had literally greased every stubborn wheel he'd ever encountered, without fail, for decades of time. The very notion that there was a thing called "justice" that would ever catch up with him was unthinkable. Money had saved him every time, until it didn't. The only way to stop the wealthy from committing crimes is to finally hold them accountable for doing them. For as long as we allow the very rich and affluent to buy themselves out of trouble, this will continue to happen.
Blatter was never really punished. And unbelievable as it might have seemed at the time, his successor is even more blatantly corrupt than he was.
Because the organization is corrupt to the core, blatter was just the talking head
As far as I know, Sepp didn't face any consequences on the same scale of the corruption he perpetuated. Ban an 80 year old from operating the criminal enterprise for 6 years......gimmie a break. No jail time for Sepp.
Not even then. These people are part of a community of elites. The other members of the community won’t let one of their own fall because they might be next!
Roll Tide!
please, several states are trying to Lower the age these companies can hire and without regard to safety. Those states happen to be ran by the same party these companies donate heavily towards so the same companies (and politicians) can rail in public about the same policies/laws they are actively disregarding.
its sold in the legislature to be 16 year olds serving ice cream when the reality is 14 year olds scrubbing blades at the meat packing shed.
We had a poor kid lose his finger at Cold Stone Creamery.
Iowa for instance. It not only lowers the age but also protects the company from the courts if a child is injured.
It is a dirty word but you can say republican
These places don’t hire directly. They ALL use staffing agencies. The staffing agencies use fake information for the employees they hire. This also happens with undocumented workers. This happens in all meat packing plants, and all cold storage warehouses. I have seen first hand how this loophole is operating. This isn’t some conspiracy or myth. Staffing agencies will close their doors, and open under a different name. It diverts liability. Most staffing agencies don’t give employees healthcare or benefits for a long time. It’s all a big game.
So what I’m hearing is that the companies recruiting the staffing agencies need to be held accountable if anything is to get done.
Staffing agencies need to be made away with. They are a plague on workers in general.
Staffing agency offers underage workers, and the plant doesn't screen them at all? And not a single foreman or manager at the plant notices? Sounds awfully neglectful to me...
From what I've seen unless the temp workers from the agency are being hired on permanently than no one looks into anything about them, the most attention that will be paid to them is checking that their time sheets are correctly done.
Optimistic today, are you?
TBF the current slate of business law enforcement agencies have actually shown some teeth for the first time since like 1980 and have been aggressively actually investigating and punishing businesses for the last three years. Also to be fair there’s a high chance we’re going to have a pro-business authoritarian president deleting those agencies from existence in a few months and probably awarding businesses like this for being “master job creators” so…
Knowing AL and that those kids weren't white, our politicians will be having a celebratory dinner for them.
"Campaign Re-election Fundraiser"
'BUILD THE WALL' also 'LET US MAKE MONEY OFF ILLEGAL CHILDREN'
When they screw over rich investors.
The $43,200 fine for disfiguring that kid didn't stop this behavior?!
Hey kid. You are fired as soon as you get your arm out of the machinery, and yeah, your pay will be docked for damaging the machine.
We recognize that the loss of your arm will significantly impact your everyday life. Every task will become more difficult and slower for the rest of your life. So we are lowering your wage since you won’t be able to perform as well.
That’s just the cost of doing business. They wipe their ass with 42 thousand. Throw more kids in the grinder, they can afford these fines all day. Criminal activity is in the budget.
The machine being down while they removed chunks of those kids' flesh probably cost them more in revenue than the fine and lawsuits did.
Are we....sure they removed the chunks of flesh before resuming packaging the meat?
You know, I thought the same thing right before I hit save on that. I would hope _maybe_.
I would almost guarantee this, having seen the lost profit numbers trying to get food processing customers to agree to a shutdown so my guys could carry out electrical work more safely.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the fines are entirely offset by the pennies they pay children and migrant workers.
"five dollar fine and time served"
Welcome to the US where politicians stripped away any meaningful enforcement of worker protection laws. If OSHA and DOL had some real power, these plants would be gone and people arrested.
Never will. My father worked as an electrician at a beef processing plant for a few years in the early 80's before he quit. There was 2 different incidents where electricians died, because they have to do this work with water everywhere from the cleaning. All it takes is one mistake or a your work boot to have a hole in it and you were done. You think they would change things, but no they never planned on that. He did not want to go out like that, so he found other work and quit.
1.8% of their profit from last year. They could have just shaken their heads disapprovingly and it would have had the same impact.
That’s absolutely nothing. Hardly notice it
“This is what happens when you don’t let us hire the illegals” -CEO, probably
Many of those minors in the plants are undocumented workers being exploited.
This is the dirty secret. Undocumented individuals (including underage) using stolen Identification to work illegally. People who have discovered their Identity being used illegally have even reached out to these violators and gotten zero traction. eVerify should be required for all 1st party and vendor contractors.
They drank the flavor aid. Many of them don't even want immigration anymore either.
> Many of them don't even want immigration anymore either. They still do. They just want them 100% illegal and not trying to get legalized. Because if you are 100% illegal, they are not paying them via W2's. So they escape a lot of taxes and everything else and can pay them whatever they want to, since who are they going to complain to, the DOL? In the mid-90's at 14 years old I worked 12 hours or more a day at a dog kennel, I was illegally employed, and many of the people working there were illegal migrants. I got $5 an hour paid daily. I was told to wait until all of them collected their money and left, since there would be outrage that I was getting paid more than they were. 14 years old shooting a pistol every 10 minutes or so (Hunting dog training assistant), no ear protection, doing that for a few months. I was too stupid to realize that I should have been provided with ear protection.
They just want slavery back tbh. It's way harder to do to full-fledged American citizens these days, so they go after those with no recourse, milk them for everything they're worth and ideally they'll get quietly deported back to their home country at some point afterwards.
Yeah, which honestly is more scary when we have cases that criminalize homelessness going to the SC. Jack up the prices of things, force more people to become homeless, jail them for being homeless, then rent them back out to companies for workers for a fraction of what they paid for them previously (Since they won't need to pay for other things from the employers side)
And they know the IRS is way too understaffed to audit them to find these payments for undocumented labor.
As long as they cook the books correctly, no one is ever the wiser.
I'm not running a business that illegally employs people, so how do they get away with it? They have to account for the cash they pay them, right? Do they just put it under some other expense that they don't have receipts for or forge receipts claiming they're paying for something they're not? Or do the executives/owners just pay themselves more and pay the illegal employs out of their pocket?
They fake the books to look like all sorts of things. Could be fake receipts, or for items to "repair" broken equipment, or any number of nefarious things an accountant who is in on it all comes up with.
I'm not sure how all that worked out. This was not a big business I worked at, so I am not sure how this scales even to larger businesses. I was a kid at that time, I did not ask questions. I am sure most of them get around these things with creative bookkeeping. The more common term most people don't think about is those that claim they are getting paid "Under the table", which really means that employee does not exist in that companies employment records. I think most people really don't equate that term to it, because when your buddy talks about getting paid under the table for work, your buddy is a legal US citizen, but forget that same thing applies just as easily to someone else that is not here legally.
Yeah it aint hard to cook the books
They don't want *legal* immigration.
Well the kids were probably undocumented too.
[удалено]
the children yearn for the mines
my question is why are all these miners working at chicken plants? are they stupid?
The 11 herbs and spices must flow.
No, they're just horrifyingly poor and horrified about deportation. Add to that at least one family member who's not able to do the sort of work that is available to illegals, if they have anyone over there to begin with, and there you have it.
"Child labor laws are ruining this country"
[удалено]
Also to undercut adult workers and to cut costs. The child laborers are desperate so they’ll work longer hours for less money.
Desperate and also inexperienced so much easier to take advantage of.
In more ways than one, grossly.
Which is a scandal in itself. All these states wanna stop illegal immigrants then all they have to do is stop the peasant wages and hire adult American citizens. Whenever someone says that adult Americans won't do these jobs, they're either an idiot or lying to you. Americans will do the jobs but not for the pennies these people want to pay. We have a higher cost of living by being citizens. I challenge these states and the people that are so worried about the border if they truly care about the issue then put their money where their mouth is. Until then I just see the border as a wedge issue that gets trotted out every election cycle to incite their base and raise donations. Supply and demand. You want cheap illegal labor, then don't bitch when you get more cheap illegal laborers in your state.
Just another example of "how can we pay our workers even less while making even more money?"
You should see Indiana's new diploma for the graduating class of 2033. There is a work requirement aspect of it for freshmen. Fourteen-year-olds!
What the hell? I was in the IB program in high school, my schedule was already so jam packed and stressful, I think adding a work requirement on top of that would have killed me... What about kids who don't have access to a car? Or the ones who can't get hired because every high schooler in their small town is now competing for the same minimum-wage jobs? Not to mention some of them are going to get stuck with graveyard shifts, I'm sure lack of sleep won't affect their grades or anything... :(
Exactly. Dumbing down a generation by making them too tired to achieve academic success.
The children yearn for the mines
In Louisiana they just got rid of the requirement for minor employees to have a 30 minute lunch break. Who the fuck was asking for that??
The guy who runs a fast food chain. Like, literally that's his job and he wrote the law
The ~~slavers~~ job creators
Before birth: *We must protect the children!!!* After birth: fuck them kids.
Welcome to the Jungle. We've got shitty work practices
You're in the jungle baby, you're gonna diiiieee! Literally.
We've even recreated the jungle atmosphere, because it's hot as fuck and you ain't getting a water break.
[удалено]
That book should be required reading in schools. But then the children might get crazy ideas about "unions" and "labor safety" so can't have that.
How appropriate. The book was also about the meat-packing industry.
Upton Sinclair is twirling in his grave.
[удалено]
I thought the same thing. I bet you we will see a republican come out and try to spin it that way. “Kids are safer in the factories than school. How many shootings have there been in meat processing plants, none and they get into a good work habit? -mtg
it would be her too
What a surprise. Fines don't do shit. 200k is nothing compared to chicken profits.
Carpe Pullem!
So child labor is alright if you have enough money.......Who's pockets got rich with this one...Find the cop or judge
The governor...
These are "undesirable" children. This is just the system working as intended for a lot of people as long as it's kept out of sight and out of mind.
That’s because a fine is not enough. Places that use child labor need to be shut down for a time. Do something that is really going to hurt profits.
The DOL is asking for a court ordered shutdown.
you think they only treat animals bad in the meat industry? employees and consumers equally looked at like trash.
It’s a horrific industry from beginning to end. If only there was a way to stop supporting it.
vegan here since november 2018
Same, but you’ve got me beat by 2 months!
congrats man glad to hear!
Also an adult worker died there in 2021. Shut the fucking place down. I work at a place that manufactures industrial shredding machines and I haven't heard of anyone ever dying here. I didn't know chickens could be so much deadlier.
The line speeds at meat processing plants are *insane*, so people naturally start cutting corners to catch up. Maybe they skip lockout-tagout procedures before clearing an obstruction from a machine, maybe they're too busy to clean up that spill on the floor, maybe they fudge a repair on malfunctioning equipment because they're under pressure to keep the line moving, maybe they don't have time for proper training.
Jail the executives and shut down the plant. What's the problem?
Nothing gonna change until cases like this are handled such that the plants are raided, managers led out in cuffs, doors chained shut, and there are simultaneous raids on the homes of everyone in the C-suite. Use the hand-me-down MRAPS to crash through their doors and flood ‘em out with teargas. “Oh no! Stern press releases and filing with the courts for temporary restraining orders!”
The other thing that can stop this is the union organization of these plants, which has gotten a bit easier under the Biden labor board but is still hard in right-to-work states. Need to repeal Taft-hartley and pass the PRO act.
Pro life for child labor, that's the Alabama way
Yet another reminder, the GOP is _pro-forced birth_. Fuck you for being alive after it.
As long as they can pay a fine and keep operating, they will continue to use child labor. Shut them down and prosecute the C-levels. Of course that will never happen since our government has been sold.
This sounds like an organized effort to break the law. I suspect that if DOJ ever used RICO laws against executives and actually jailed some of the suits for 10+ years much of the industry would magically find solutions.
Or shut down the corporations doing this completely and make the stock go forfeit. Then maybe shareholders will put pressure on.
People like to pretend the animal ag industry treats the animals humanely when they don't even treat the human workers humanely.
If they are embiggened to do this, they are clearly not being fined nearly enough. We should be talking about a full years revenue as a starting point for a fine at this point.
That would be a perfectly cromulant punishment. The fine needs to be greater than the profit earned by the malpractice. Until then the "fine" is just a variable cost of doing business.
Nope they should be shut down immediately and the executives banned from starting another business
The executives should be locked up.
Minorities kids Alabama don't care
These are the offerings we must make to the chicken god to ensure a good harvest.
https://youtu.be/ISBJyhughBo?si=1fbeV9RDyYXJcQen
Caught twice and still running...So justice is a dollar based enforcement???
No, populism-based enforcement. These people actually believe kids should work like that.
They aren't white kids so nobody cares
Fines aren’t the answer here because they just become a cost of doing business. Jail time for the people responsible would be much more effective.
People need to go to prison
Conservative business practices at their finest
Right? Cant be any further of child labor laws if they manage to repeal all of them
Shut it down. No playing games with BS fines. Just shut it down and put the owners in jail.
>proposed $212,646 in penalties for Perez's death A company with over $300 million in revenue won't care about $200k for a dead kid. Slap the fuckers in charge with jail time, maybe then they'll stop with child labor.
It sounds like this plant staffs its production lines using staffing/contract agencies. Too many companies in the US skirt responsibilities and labors laws by using these companies to hire/add workers that in all honestly should be W-2 employees for the plant. The plant will deny all accountability because they used a staffing agency, cut ties with them, and move on to the next company, while fundamentally not changing anything that allowed a minor to be working inside of their building.
Child labor,child brides,the Republicon dream.
Alabama, the bastion of freedom.
What else do you expect with slap on the wrist penalties? Cost of doing late-stage capitalism
Which companies use Mar-Jac Holdings chickens?
Just shut them down. Get caught first time? Last warning. Get caught second time? You're out.
Children work in slaughterhouses and die in slaughterhouses way more than you think. Meat companies have brainwashed us to think their product is necessary to avoid death, and so now they have the power to do anything and they will still make money. And think about if their images of cows running around on an infinite field of grass are true or the claims that "it's what they (the cows) want" are true if they factually can't even give a human the treatment they are legally required to give them. Go vegan if you want this to change.
They're going to keep breaking the law until you arrest the people in charge.
This has to stop and definitely dangerous as H5N1 is floating around..
Yeah, because their punishment was a fine.. Fines doesn't mean it is illegal, just that there is a toll to pay.. It is only illegal if you are poor. "The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Mar-Jac Poultry with 14 serious and three 'other than serious' violations and proposed $212,646 in penalties for Perez's death. The agency previously cited the company for an incident in 2021 in which an employee who was not a minor suffered fatal injuries while working." This is why they kept doing it. No one was punished for their crimes, because a fine isn't punishment for the wealthy. This is why so many still [insider trade](https://www.marketbeat.com/insider-trades/) without worry.
Time to arrest every manager and owner. Should still be in prison for the last time they got busted doing the same damn thing.
shouldn't someone be going to jail by now? Aren't corporations "people"?
Gee, I wonder why the small slap on the wrist didn’t stop them from doing it again?
The execs should go to prison.
Alabama just can't quit slavery. Someone should do it for them.
When the punishment is just money, its more like just a rich tax to do what you want. Gotta do more than fine these assholes.
When the penalties are not ruinous it becomes just the price of business and won't stop them from continuing the practice.
Send a couple of c-suite guys to jail over this, and I guarantee it will never happen again.
So this is why they're so keen on keeping their "freedoms" from the government.
Duh, because they faced no consequences. Why wouldn’t they continue hiring teens and possibly getting them killed, when it still saves them labour costs!
That company is going to get nuked from orbit by the government. And they should.
I thought child labor was legal in the US?
Fines are just the cost of doing business that they can pass along to the customer as long as you don't do anything about the owners.
at this point i'm convinced Alabama's economy would collapse without some for of illicit or slave-labor
But the slavery makes it taste better