On Monday, President Obama dedicated a memorial to labor and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. President Obama said, “No one seemed to care about the invisible farm workers who picked the nation’s food—bent down in the beating sun, living in poverty, cheated by growers, abandoned in old age, unable to demand even the most basic rights...Our world is a better place because Cesar Chavez decided to change it. Let us honor his memory. But most importantly, let’s live up to his example.”
However, farm workers' advocates were quick to point out that President Obama has not lived up to Chavez’s example, citing in particular the Obama administration's decision last April to abandon a proposed regulation that would have prohibited children employed as farmworkers on non-family owned farms from using certain types of hazardous farm equipment. (See previous SOYMB blog-post ) Child farmworkers are killed at a rate six times higher than children employed in any other industry.
Big Agriculture stirred up concern among family farmers by claiming that the law would prohibit their children from working on the farms. In reality, the proposed regulation would have applied only to those farms big enough that they employ children who are not related to them. When Obama and his Administration had the chance to actually take action to make agricultural work for young people safer, it caved to political pressure. Actions speak louder than words.
However, farm workers' advocates were quick to point out that President Obama has not lived up to Chavez’s example, citing in particular the Obama administration's decision last April to abandon a proposed regulation that would have prohibited children employed as farmworkers on non-family owned farms from using certain types of hazardous farm equipment. (See previous SOYMB blog-post ) Child farmworkers are killed at a rate six times higher than children employed in any other industry.
Big Agriculture stirred up concern among family farmers by claiming that the law would prohibit their children from working on the farms. In reality, the proposed regulation would have applied only to those farms big enough that they employ children who are not related to them. When Obama and his Administration had the chance to actually take action to make agricultural work for young people safer, it caved to political pressure. Actions speak louder than words.
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