Union Perspectives

Are unions paying attention to the eroding child labor laws? I think all union members should be watching and pushing back against this. We, union people, should not allow all the work of Mother Jones to be lost just because we don’t care or understand what will be lost and how it will effect the labor market, jobs, wages, health and safety for all workers. The child labor laws were hard to win because the big corporations were making a lot of money from children doing very hard and dangerous jobs when they should be in school, and maybe just having a fun summer like children should have during their break from school instead of making a rich corporation richer. If the GOP succeeds in destroying most of the child labor laws, then unions must get these young workers into unions where they will have some protections from being exploited by these corporations and take advantage of the children and their parents. But that should not be unions first priority—that should be protecting child