Rural Laws: April, 1998 - Number #10

President Clinton proposed an additional $4 million for DOL to hire 36 new investigators to enforce child labor laws, calling child labor "the most intolerable labor practice of all."

On March 23, a report by the General Accounting Office on child labor in agriculture was released at a child labor forum in San Francisco. The GAO estimated that 155,000 children aged 15 to 17 years old may be working in US agriculture. The report noted that "Children working in agriculture are legally permitted to work at younger ages, in more hazardous occupations and for longer periods of time than their peers in other industries."

On January 17, a Global March Against Child Labor began on five continents. After crossing 92 countries, the marchers are expected to converge in Geneva, Switzerland at the annual meeting of the International Labor Organization in June 1998; the International Labor Organization is considering a new convention on child labor. Activists estimate that 250 million underage children (under 14 or 16) may be employed worldwide, making them about 10 percent of the world's labor force. Forty-one percent of the underage children work in Africa, followed by 21 percent in Asia, and 17 percent in Latin America. For more information: children@globalmarch-us.org

President Clinton proposed an increase of $50 million to the $305 million budget for the Migrant Education program for FY99.

The Migrant Head Start program served 24,000 children in 41 states aged infant to five in 1997. Most MHS classes have a ratio of one teacher for 16 children; teachers earn an average $11,000 for usually seasonal jobs and there is high turnover.

Many states appropriated federal, state, and local funds to 402 programs to provide jobs for farm workers displaced by El Nino storms, and to clean up. La Cooperativa distributed $2.5 million in federal funds to 402 programs in California in 1998, creating jobs for 200 to 400 displaced farm workers that pay $9.60 an hour, up to a maximum 1,040 hours. In 1997, La Cooperativa estimates that $17 million was spent to hire 2,100 farm workers for clean up projects.

The Environmental Working Group claims that one million US children aged five and younger are exposed to unsafe levels of pesticide residues in fruits, vegetables and commercial baby food. The residues come from organophosphates, used to control insects. By August 1999, the EPA must decide whether to set new standards for organophosphate use.

Tracy Correa, "Valley farm industry awaits child-labor news," Fresno Bee, March 21, 1998. Cecilia Balli, "1 Million Children at Risk to Pesticides, Study Finds," Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1998.