Write to Your Newspaper
Did you know that the Opinion section of newspapers is still widely read and very influential with policymakers? It's a great way to make your voice heard.
Here is a sample Op-Ed letter - please feel free to adapt it and submit it to your local paper. When you do, please let us know at harvestofdignity@gmail.com. Thanks.
Supporting Workers Who Provide Our Food
Did you know that there are still some workers in North Carolina who earn less than the minimum wage? Did you know that some workers have died on the job from heat stroke?
And that child labor still exists? It’s happening here, in North Carolina’s fields. Think about all the crops that we produce: from sweet potatoes to cucumbers, from strawberries to grapes, from peppers to tobacco. Someone has to pick these fruits and vegetables.
Farmworkers remain one of the most vulnerable and exploited group of workers in the United States today.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “The time is always right to do what is right.” Across the state, the Farmworker Advocacy Network (FAN) is working to help farmworkers achieve safe places to live and safe places to work. I just signed on to their Harvest of Dignity Campaign because I believe that North Carolina should be a great place to live and work for everyone, regardless of their industry.
This year, FAN is working in particular to end child labor. The legal age to perform most farm work starts at age 12 if a parent accompanies the working child. Children who are 12 or older can work unlimited hours in the fields before or after school hours. U.S. law also allows children working in agriculture to perform hazardous work at 16 – other workers must wait until they are 18.
Children account for about 20 percent of all farm fatalities. More than 10,000 youth between the ages of 10 and 15 years were injured on farms in 2006. From 1992-2000, 42% of work-related deaths of minors occurred in agriculture. Half of the victims were 14 years old and under. Finally, farmworker children are more vulnerable to pesticide exposure.
What’s the solution? To end child labor once and for all, we need to close the loopholes that allow kids to work on large corporate farms. FAN recognizes that some very small farms still rely on help from children, and so there should be a very narrow exception that applies to only the children of the farm owner. But in general, we should treat the age guidelines in agriculture the same as other industries. It just doesn’t make sense that a 13-year-old can’t work at the mall but he or she can work in the fields.
Finally, we need to take a good look at wages in this industry. Families who earn only poverty wages, who are at risk of going hungry, often need all available wage earners to work – including children. We have to ask ourselves: do we want to be a state where children have to work to support their families? Do we want our cheap and plentiful food to come to us through the hands of children? If we can agree that children belong in school, laughing and playing with their peers, let’s join the Harvest of Dignity Campaign to end child labor this year.