The dangers of rolling back child labor protection laws underlined by 16-year-old’s death at sawmill
Kids operating dangerous machines, not stacking lumber
16-year-old Micheal worked at the local sawmill with his father over summers to bring in needed extra income. But Micheal’s father assumed Micheal and the other children employed by the sawmill were inside stacking lumber, not manning a conveyer as Micheal was when he was killed. Just this year, legislation was introduced in Wisconsin to eliminate the need for work permits for 14- and 15-year-olds.
Reid Maki, a director of child labor advocacy for the National Consumers League and coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition said:
“At a time when we’re seeing such egregious (child labor) violations, you need to be strengthening protections, not weakening them.”