Kids as young as 14 were found working at a Tennessee factory that makes lawn mower parts
Source: Yahoo! News/NBC News
Updated Tue, March 26, 2024 at 9:10 PM EDT
Immigrant children as young as 14 were found working illegally amid dangerous heavy equipment at a Tennessee firm that makes parts for lawn mowers sold by John Deere and other companies, according to Labor Department officials.
The company, Tuff Torq, was fined nearly $300,000 for hiring 10 children. As part of a consent agreement with the federal government, the company is also required to set aside $1.5 million to help the children who were illegally employed. Ryan Pott, general counsel for Tuff Torq’s majority owner, the Japanese firm Yanmar, acknowledged the violations to NBC News.
“The department will not tolerate companies profiting on the backs of children employed unlawfully in dangerous occupations,” said Seema Nanda, the department’s chief legal officer, whose office obtained the consent judgment against Tuff Torq. “Tuff Torq has agreed to disgorge profits, which will go to the benefit of the children. This sends a clear message: putting children in harm’s way in the workplace is not only illegal, but also comes with significant financial consequences.”
The Labor Department did not specify what work the children were doing. But Labor official Juan Coria said what his investigative team found in Tuff Torq’s “very busy” Morristown manufacturing plant was “astonishing.”
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/kids-young-14-were-found-172027153.html
Link to Department of Labor NEWS RELEASE - US Department of Labor requires Tennessee parts manufacturer to turn over profits from oppressive child labor use, compensate victims
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I'm going out on a limb here, but I doubt many American adults are applying for these jobs.
Also, you get to initiate the sense of hopelessness, that low income dead end jobs engender, at a younger age. Plus you interrupt the education process, which helps insure the dead end nature of these kids long term employment experience.
It's almost like planned economic slavery.
It's a win-win for the Republicans.
They're too cowardly to admit it. They always couch this policy in phrases like: "You should get a better education" or "You're doing work a teenager should be doing".........Guilt shaming people trying to muddle through these horrid jobs. If any factory in a redneck, 3rd world state needs extra help, $7.25/hr is not going to produce any adult workers. No takers there. These redneck states used to just hire illegal immigrants to fill those positions. Now, that pool's dried up. Children are the next logical step for these republicans. Their cruelty has no limits. 
