by Shine Global | Jul 3, 2019 | News, Shine News
The CARE Act Will Provide Equal Protection for Children Working in Agriculture
Zulema Lopez, featured in the Shine Global documentary The Harvest (La Cosecha), picking strawberries in Kaleva, MI in 2009. She started to help her mother pick strawberries when she was 7 years old. (Photo by U Roberto Romano).
Rep. Roybal-Allard, 24 Cosponsors Reintroduce CARE Act to Strengthen Protections for Child Farmworkers
Separate and unequal. That describes the estimated 500,000 American children who work in agriculture are under the current Fair Labor Standards Act. Children as young as 12 work in fields, picking the fruits and vegetables we all eat with almost no restrictions. In other industries, they are protected and only allowed to work a limited amount of time and only outside of school hours. And in other industries, hazardous work is reserved only for adults – but not in agriculture. Children as young as 16 can perform hazardous labor. And with the majority of work-related fatalities in the agriculture sector, it is imperative that we take action to protect these children.
And that is what Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) and 24 co-sponsors are doing with the reintroduction of the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE) Act. The legislation would raise standards and protections for children working in agriculture to be at the same level as that for children in all other jobs. The congresswoman announced the CARE Act’s reintroduction at a press event in the U.S. Capitol on June 20th alongside advocates including Mónica Ramírez, the president of Justice for Migrant Women; Norma López, the chair of the Domestic Issues Committee for the Child Labor Coalition; and Brenda Alvarez-Lagunas, a former child farmworker who recently made national news for her valedictorian speech at her high school graduation.
“America is morally obligated to protect the rights, safety, and future of every child in our nation,”said Congresswoman Roybal-Allard. “Sadly, our child agricultural workers do not enjoy these protections. They currently face a double standard that lets them work at younger ages, for longer hours, and in more hazardous conditions than child workers in any other industry. If we value our youth, if we support fair and decent treatment for all children, then we must pass the CARE Act and finally ensure fundamental protections for America’s child farmworkers.”
“Shine Global stood with Representative Roybal-Allard when she attempted to pass the CARE Act in 2010 by screening our film The Harvest (La Cosecha) for both members of Congress and the Department of Labor. The film’s executive producer, Eva Longoria, made an impassioned plea on behalf of these children to legislators. It is heartbreaking that our government has not yet seen fit to protect its own children,” says Shine Global executive director, Susan MacLaury. “We applaud Congresswoman Roybal-Allard and her colleagues who refuse to give up on American children and urge everyone to stand in support of our children.”
Key provisions of the CARE bill:
While retaining current exemptions for family farms and educational programs like 4-H and Future Farmers of America, the CARE Act:
- Brings age and work hour standards for children in agriculture up to the standards for children working in all other industries:
| |
Existing Law for Agricultural Employment |
Existing Law for Non-Agricultural Employment |
CARE Act provisions |
| Non-Hazardous Job, Age 12-13 |
Can work outside of school hours with parental consent. |
Prohibited. |
Prohibited. |
| Non-Hazardous Job, Age 14-15 |
Can work outside of school hours without any restrictions on number of hours per day or per week. |
Can work outside of school hours. Cannot work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. or for more than 3 hours on a school day or more than 18 in a school week. |
Imposes the same hour restrictions in place for non-agricultural workers on agricultural workers. |
| Hazardous, Age 16-17 |
Minimum age is 16 for hazardous jobs. |
Prohibited until age 18. |
Prohibited until age 18. |
- Establishes a minimum penalty for child labor violations;
- Increases the maximum civil monetary penalties and maximum criminal penalties for child labor violations;
- Provides children with greater protections against pesticide exposure in agriculture by raising the labor protections to EPA standards.
- Includes reporting requirements on work-related injuries and serious illness.
by Shine Global | Jun 24, 2011 | News, Shine a Light On
General Motors sponsored a screening of THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA with Executive Producer Eva Longoria in Washington DC June 16th
General Motors supported Shine Global and the child migrant farm working community by sponsoring a screening of The Harvest/La Cosecha in Washington, DC. The event was hosted at the Capitol Visitors last Thursday, June 16th, by Eva Longoria, Shine Global, and GM. GM’s support of the screening enabled Shine Global to show The Harvest/La Cosecha to members of Congress and their staff and aides as well as key activists and political organizers to illustrate the lives of the child farmworkers in the US who work to feed us all. Earlier in the day, Eva Longoria joined Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and other activists for children’s rights to introduce the CARE Act , which aims to raise the minimum age for children working in agriculture and offer them more protections than they have under the Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Roybal-Allard joined Eva Longoria at the screening and spoke again about the need to provide greater protection for farmworker children. “I simply do not believe that our child labor laws reflect how we as Americans value our children,” she said. Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of United Farm Workers of America and activist for farmworkers’ rights, also attended the screening. She has worked tirelessly to ensure that all farmworkers have rights and was brought to tears by the film.
General Motors is committed to building a healthy global community. The GM Foundation focuses on four key areas: education, health and human services, environment and energy, and community development. The foundation consistently serves as a leader in educational support within corporate giving programs. In health and human services, they provide support in research, prevention, and treatment of various conditions. In the area of environment and energy, the GM foundation is dedicated to providing support to organizations that aid in the protection of human health, natural resources, and the global environment. Within community development, the GMF supports programs that strengthen community awareness and improvement.
Their combined efforts within these four areas work towards the broader goal of building a healthy global community. The foundation works not just in the US but globally, funding programs in over 200 countries around the world. The diversity of their commitment allows the foundation to do make remarkable gains for humanity in a broad array of issues.
Shine Global would like to thank General Motors for their support of The Harvest/La Cosecha and the rights of child farmworkers.
Directed by the acclaimed director and human rights activist U. Roberto Romano, The Harvest/La Cosecha will be coming to theaters in New York and Los Angeles this summer and 30 other communities for special one-night screenings. Please contact us if you’d like your community to be on of them!
Visit: www.theharvestfilm.com for more info!
by Shine Global | Jun 23, 2011 | Hero of the Month, News
Eva Longoria, Executive Producer of the documentary THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA, at a press conference with Director U Roberto Romano and Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard to introduce the CARE Act to protect child farmworkers
Capitol Hill, Washington– At a press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday, June 16th, Actor and Activist Eva Longoria and Shine Global joined Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) and other child advocates in announcing the introduction of “The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment” (CARE), legislation which ensures adequate protections for children working in our nation’s agricultural fields.
“Agriculture is the only industry governed by labor laws that allow children as young as 12 to work with virtually no restrictions on the number of hours they spend in the fields outside of the school day,” Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard said. “Tragically, unable to keep up with the competing demands of long work hours in the fields and school, a recent report found that child farmworkers drop out of school at four times the national dropout rate – slamming the door shut on the very pathway that could one day help them escape a lifetime of unrelenting work harvesting our crops. I simply do not believe that our child labor laws reflect how we as Americans value our children.”
Exposing the hardships of child farmworkers, THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA, a new film by Shine Global, U. Roberto Romano and Executive Producer Eva Longoria, examines the day-to-day lives of child migrant laborers. The film tells the stories of three adolescents who travel with their families across thousands of miles to pick crops in southern Texas, northern Michigan and northern Florida during the harvest season. Along the way, they face back breaking labor in 100-degree heat, physical hazards from pesticides, the emotional burden of helping their families through economic crises when work opportunities dry up, separation from their families and peer groups and dwindling hope for their educational and economic advancement. The events surrounding the introduction of CARE also featured a special same-day screening of the documentary on Capitol Hill. The film will be released theatrically in Los Angeles and in New York in July, along with special screenings in 30 cities nationally, and it will premier on Epix TV October 5th.
“I applaud Eva Longoria, Robin Romano and Shine Global for using the power of film to expose the plight of child farmworkers in The Harvest/La Cosecha. As this film documents, children in agriculture too often work in dangerous and exploitive conditions, which are illegal in every other industry,” Congresswoman Roybal-Allard said. “I commend them for their work to shed light on the lives of these children and for their dedication to passing the CARE Act, which would end this unacceptable double standard in our nation’s child labor laws.”
Actor, activist, and philanthropist Eva Longoria said, “I want to commend Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard for her leadership in Congress on the CARE Act. Using my voice to help Shine Global and U. Roberto (Robin) Romano raise awareness about the plight of farmworker children in agriculture has been an incredible honor. This has been one of the most important issues I have had the opportunity to work on.”
“Very few of us understand the true cost of the produce that we buy in grocery stores every day,” said Susan MacLaury, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Shine Global. “While we only pay 80 cents a pound for tomatoes, the child who may have picked them has paid with his or her future.”
Albie Hecht, Co-Founder of Shine Global and Chairman of the Shine Global Board of Directors, said, “Kids who work all day in fields, and have to move every six months to follow the harvest, don’t focus on school. Their friendships suffer. Their physical health suffers. It is very hard for them to grow and develop, and many give up on life dreams or career ambitions. All they see is the harvest.”
While retaining current exemptions for family farms, the CARE Act would bring age and work hour standards for children in agriculture up to the standards for children working in all other industries. That would mean, under CARE, that teenagers would be required to be at least 14 years of age to work in agriculture and at least 18 years of age to perform particularly hazardous work.
In addition to addressing the age and hour requirements for child farmworkers, CARE addresses several other problem areas:
• To serve as a stronger deterrent for employers who violate child labor laws, the bill establishes a minimum penalty for child labor violations and increases the maximum civil monetary penalties from $11,000 to $15,000. The bill also imposes a criminal penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment for willful or repeat violations that lead to the death or serious injury of a child worker.
• To provide children with greater protections, CARE raises the labor standards for pesticide exposure to the levels currently enforced by the EPA.
In addition to Eva Longoria and Congresswoman Roybal-Allard, speakers at the press conference included: Thomas A. Saenz, President & General Counsel, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF); Antonia Cortese, Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers and co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition; Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition who released the National Consumers League’s results of a consumer survey on attitudes about child labor in agriculture; and Norma Flores López, Director of the Children in the Fields Campaign at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP), and a former child migrant farmworker.
Visit http://roybal-allard.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=247090 to learn more about the press conference
Visit: http://www.theharvestfilm.com to learn more about child labor in agriculture, about screenings in your area, or how to bring the film to your community
Follow us on twitter: @theharvestdoc
And Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-HarvestLa-Cosecha/113753142021299
