Fayette Janitorial LLC employed 15 children to clean dangerous equipment at a Perdue Farms plant in Virginia and nine to clean a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork plant in Iowa.
This is a contemporary battle for conservatives in the states, so the landscape is changing as we speak.
However, yes, in both Iowa and Arkansas, it is now legal for children as young as 14 to work in these meat packing plants. Children as young as 16 are serving alcohol in restaurants in those states now too. And, legislators in those and other red states are now pushing to lower that age threshold to as little as 10 or 12 y/o.
That is seriously fucked up! I can´t believe this is happening in a developed country that considers itself a lighthouse of freedom and democracy in the world.
Yeah well, it’s a race to the bottom for conservatives, and neoliberals are following them the whole way down. This isn’t unique to America however, fascists are making a push across the globe now.
But yeah, considering the promise of America, it is especially tragic how brutal this country treats its own citizens.