Hiltzik: The atrocity of child labor is back

Among the most heartfelt goals and proudest achievements of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was the eradication of child labor.

In 1933, in signing a textile industry code that outlawed the employment of children under 16 in sweatshops, FDR crowed that “after years of fruitless effort and discussion, this ancient atrocity went out in a day.”

Conservatives and Republicans, who have tried for decades to undo such cornerstones of the New Deal as Social Security, have lately turned their efforts to resurrecting this “ancient atrocity.”

In the last two years, 10 states, mostly Republican-controlled, have enacted or introduced laws rolling back child labor restrictions. Bills to do so have been introduced in six Midwestern states — Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota.

The charge has been led by Arkansas, where in March Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law repealing a rule that required children under the age of 16 to verify their age and obtain the written consent of a parent or guardian before obtaining a work certificate. Employers had to provide state officials with a job description and schedule.

A Sanders spokeswoman defended the law by stating that “this permit was an arbitrary burden on parents to get permission from the government for their child to get a job.” The spokeswoman said that all other laws “that actually protect children still apply.”

Children’s advocates observe, however, that the new law eliminates an important enforcement tool, leaving the door open for “the exploitation of children and youth under the age of 16 to perform dangerous jobs, often in hazardous work conditions,” in the words of Dennis Lee, a spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock.

Make no mistake: The rollback of child labor protections isn’t a matter of streamlining unnecessary regulations. It’s a moral test for America.

Children are the most easily exploited group in the U.S. economy, especially when they’re members of low-income or migrant households. They can be paid less than adults doing the same work, oppressed and manipulated by unscrupulous employers, and are less inclined to fight back against employers over workplace safety issues.

The promoters of these rollback laws love to depict them as blows for parental rights, as Sanders’ flack put it — keeping an oppressive government from getting in the way of sensible kitchen-table discussions between parent and child. The impression they put forth is that silly, outdated regulations are keeping teenagers from acquiring a work ethic while helping out the family budget by scooping ice cream during their summer breaks.

That’s a smokescreen. If it were so, then we wouldn’t see the rollback being pushed by lobbyists for home builders, supermarkets, restaurants and bars, or by Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-affiliated group. All those outfits have been behind the campaign for more child labor, the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute has shown.

As the Washington Post reported, a key backer is the right-wing Foundation for Government Accountability, which provided the sponsors of the Arkansas legislation with the draft law.

The foundation, which is backed by right-wing funding sources including the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, has lobbied against Medicaid expansion and for work requirements for food stamps, among other goals.

Sanders could not be unaware of the reality undergirding the rollback of child labor protections. Only weeks before she signed the Arkansas law, the U.S. Department of Labor fined Wisconsin-based Packer’s Sanitation Services, which provides workers to clean slaughterhouses, with $1.5 million for employing more than 102 children aged 13 to 17 on overnight shifts under dangerous conditions in eight states, including two sites in Arkansas.

The agency said the “systemic” child labor violations “clearly indicate a corporate-wide failure by Packers Sanitation Services at all levels.” It assessed the firm only $1.5 million, the maximum permitted by law.

Packer’s Sanitation was acquired by the giant private equity firm Blackstone in 2018. In February, when the Dept. of Labor levied the $1.5-million fine, a Blackstone spokesman said Packer’s “has…