U.S. Reps. Kildee, Scholten form task force to fight child labor violations

Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press
·2 min read
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, shown at the GM Flint Assembly plant on Monday, June 5, 2023, announced last month he will not seek reelection.
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U.S. Reps. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, and Hillary Scholten, D-Grand Rapids, on Tuesday announced the creation of child labor protection task force in Congress to encourage stronger penalties for companies violating child labor practices and push Cabinet agencies to do more to enforce the laws on the books.

"Child labor is not a thing of the past, but very much of the present," said Kildee, who along with Scholten took to forming the task force in the wake of reporting earlier this year by the New York Times indicating that migrant children were working long shifts under potentially dangerous conditions in plants in Michigan and elsewhere.

Shortly after that report — which in part documented the hardships of a 15-year-old girl from Guatemala employed by a plant in Grand Rapids, but also discussed children working for auto suppliers and other companies — Scholten demanded officials investigate the claims and introduced legislation to increase fines against companies violating child labor laws.

More: US Rep. Hillary Scholten introduces bill to bolster penalties for exploiting child labor

Kildee and Scholten, who were joined by other Democratic legislators at the announcement of the task force on Tuesday, said part of its mission will be to lobby Republicans in the majority in the U.S. House to pass that law and others cracking down on child labor. Scholten also said that immigration reform could help solve workforce shortages that result in children being brought in to work.

"We can do so much better for our children and we will," she said, adding that an interagency task force between the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services is already looking into enforcement issues on the child labor front. "It's about keeping 6-year-olds out of slaughterhouses," she said.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kildee, Scholten form task force to fight child labor violations