Union members to protest child labor bill Saturday
Parents and union workers from across Iowa will gather across Iowa to protest Iowa lawmakers’ recent shocking proposals to roll back state child labor laws.
Des Moines
What: Our Kids Are Not for Sale: Rally and Press Conference
When: 10 AM, Saturday, March 25
Where: Des Moines. West Steps of State Capital
Contact: Al Womble, 515-346-0453
Keokuk
What: Iowa Kids Are Not For Sale” Rally
When: 3:30 PM, Saturday, March 25
Where: Keokuk. Labor Temple, 301 Blondeau St.
Contact: Penny Logsdon, 319-520-8742.
Peosta
Round Table Discussion on Worker Shortages in Iowa
When: 1 PM, Saturday, March 25
Where: N.I.C.C. Peosta. Conf. Rooms 203/204
Contact: Tom Townsend, 563-543-4708
Sioux City
Town Hall/ Rally
When: 10 AM (Town Hall),11 AM (Rally) Saturday, March 25
Where: Sioux City Public Museum, 607 4th St.
Contact: UFCW Local 222 712-276-8510
Council Bluffs
Rally
When: 10:30 AM, Saturday, March 25
Where: Council Bluffs: Wilson Middle School. 715 N 21st St.
Contact: Jen Pellant, 712-308-1565
Iowa City
What: “Our Kids Are Not for Sale”: Press conference & community speak out
When: 12 Noon, Saturday, March 25
Where: Iowa City Ped Mall (Fountain Stage/playground area)
Contact: Jen Sherer, 319-321-8320
Davenport
Rally
When: Noon, Saturday, March 25
Where: Davenport, UFCW 431: 2411 W Central Park Ave.
Contact: Dan Gosa, 563-570-4821
State Senator Jason Schultz and fellow Republicans have proposed gutting Iowa’s child labor laws in a bill (SF 542 & HF 647) that includes over 20 sweeping changes. Just a few of the proposals include:
- Allowing youth as young as 14 to work six-hour nightly shifts, and even longer hours during summer months
- Allowing 15-year-olds to work on assembly production lines or loading/unloading shipments of items up to 50 pounds
- Allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol
- Allowing employers to recruit teens for “work-based learning” programs in jobs formerly off-limits as hazardous but now open to 14-17 year olds under waivers provided by Iowa Workforce Development
Charlie Wishman, President of the Iowa Federation of Labor, says legislators need to keep their hands off Iowa kids. “These proposals fly in the face of common sense as well as decades of research showing that hazardous jobs and excessive work hours can damage teens’ health, development, and education. Many of these changes would also directly contradict federal laws covering most workplaces that are designed to prevent exploitation of minors,” Wishman said in a statement released Monday.
Many of the extreme measures proposed in the Iowa bill appear intended to allow corporations already profiting from widespread use of illegal child labor to legalize their exploitation of minors. Right now in the Midwest, multiple meatpacking facilities are under investigation for employing children on sanitation crews, exposing them to hazardous cleaning chemicals and equipment during overnight shifts well beyond the work hours allowed by law for children and causing them to miss school. Multiple factories throughout Hyundai-Kia’s supply chain in the state of Alabama are also under investigation for employing children as young as 14 as full-time production employees.
The Iowa bill is being backed by Iowa chapters of employer lobby groups like the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), National Restaurant Association, and Home Builders Association. These groups have supported bills to weaken child labor protections in several states, in what appears to be a coordinated campaign to rewrite child labor laws and other worker protections for the whole country.
Iowa Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Pete Hird called on legislators to “get to work on solving the real problems facing working families and their children, including growing inequality, low wages, wage theft, unsafe work, and increasingly underfunded schools and public services.” Hird says, “We refuse to put any Iowa child’s health and education in danger in order to further boost corporate profits, and we call on Senate and House leaders to show they stand with Iowans by killing this outrageous bill.”
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