Kildee, Scholten launch task force to combat child labor

Washington — Democratic U.S. Reps. Dan Kildee of Flint Township and Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids are launching a task force to advance legislation combating child labor Tuesday.

The initiative comes four months after the New York Times published an investigation showing widespread employment of child migrant workers in factory jobs around the country, including in Michigan.

In addition to working on legislation, the task force will review actions within the Department of Labor and other federal agencies to press for stronger enforcement actions, push congressional leadership to prioritize policy combatting illegal child labor, and host educational events for policymakers about child labor violations.

Democratic Michigan Reps. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor, Elissa Slotkin of Lansing, Haley Stevens of Waterford Township and Shri Thanedar of Detroit will also be a part of the task force, which was first reported by The Detroit News. Nine other members of Congress, all Democrats, will also join the group. (Kildee said the group offered "plenty of opportunities" for Republicans to join, and he's hopeful they will "once they see that we are taking this seriously.")

“Our country is facing a child labor crisis," Kildee said during a press conference unveiling the task force on Capitol Hill. "They're being exploited in factories, auto plants, suppliers, meatpacking facilities, slaughterhouses. Because of the current system's failures, kids are sustaining life-threatening injuries and are at risk."

Scholten said the group is "committed to rooting out this scourge on our country. We can do so much better for our children."

The Times found that automotive suppliers and a food contractor in the Grand Rapids area were illegally employing migrant children in jobs that can include dangerous conditions and long hours, producing goods used by Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and General Mills Inc. All three companies said the findings violated their policies and they planned to investigate.

The west Michigan cases were part of a national pattern of children who migrate to the United States and find themselves working exhausting jobs, often trapped in debt for smuggling fees and living expenses to people serving as their sponsors.

The system is enabled by "a chain of willful ignorance," the Times reported, including companies that fail to properly screen employees, schools that don't report labor violations, and little follow-up from federal agencies responsible for ensuring their safety.

There has been a 69% increase in children illegally working at U.S. companies since 2018, the Labor Department said in February. The agency said it had 600 child labor investigations underway at the time and that it had found 835 companies in the last fiscal year that violated labor laws employing more than 3,800 kids.

The Department of Labor opened an investigation into Hearthside Food Solutions, a food processing company with locations in Grand Rapids that produce Chewy and Nature Valley Granola bars and package Lucky Charms and Cheetos, and which was found to employ migrant children. Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity also opened an investigation into Hearthside and ABC Technologies, one of the auto suppliers that was unnamed in the initial Times report.

The report prompted outcry from dozens of Democratic members of Congress, who said the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services' initial actions — including creating a task force to investigate violations — didn't go far enough.

Scholten introduced a bipartisan bill in March to set minimum penalties for violations of child labor standards and increase maximum penalties for companies who break the law from just over $15,000 to over $132,000. Violation of child labor laws that result in serious injury or death would have a $25,000 minimum and a more than $601,000 maximum.

Kildee also introduced a bill in April that would similarly increase maximum penalties for child labor law violations to $150,000 or $700,000 for violations that result in death or serious injuries to children. Neither Scholten or Kildee's bill has advanced in the House.

The Labor Department said the existing maximum penalty is "not high enough to be a deterrent for major profitable companies." The agency also called upon Congress to increase funding for the agency's enforcement activities, which it said has lost 12% of its staff between 2010 and 2019 due to underfunding. 

Members of the new task force also mentioned the importance of increasing funding for the agencies that provide support for migrant children, who have been the focus of most reporting on the issue this year.

When the revelations about child labor unfolded earlier this year, Republicans pointed to problems with the immigration system and advocated for changes through a GOP immigration bill that would, among other things, change the current law to allow migrant children to be detained with their parents throughout the legal process to vet their immigration eligibility. (Currently, minors can only be detained for 20 days.)

Scholten, a former immigration attorney, said "comprehensive immigration reform" is "one of the biggest things that we could do to make sure this type of problem doesn't keep happening" and pointed to a bipartisan bill she proposed earlier this year.

Kildee agreed immigration changes are necessary, but in the meantime increasing penalties would help: "Almost always employers know what they're doing and they're doing it because they think they can get away with it. And that can't be allowed."

rbeggin@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @rbeggin