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SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands of children, many too young to drive, are hard at work putting in long hours in brutal conditions to make sure the rest of us eat well - and cheaply.

During weeks of investigation into the close-knit and tight-lipped community of migrant workers, NBC Bay Area found dozens of children working the fields in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys - some who started work at 11 , 10 and even 8 years of age. Advocates say the number nationwide may be as high as half a million.

While 8-year-old children can't work in an office or a fast-food restaurant, a 1938 law allows them to legally work in agriculture.

"Children can work at any age on a small farm with their parents' permission. It's absolutely legal for a small farmer to hire a 6-year-old to pick blueberries," said Zama Coursen-Neff of Human Rights Watch, who produced a 2010 report that found child labor prevalent in fields across the U.S.

Critics of U.S. labor law say it's a relentless cycle: Young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work. They work a full day in the fields picking, trimming and cultivating fresh fruits and vegetables. They often work nine to 10 hours a day in 100 degree-plus heat.

Then they remain stuck in the fields because they never finish high school.
Read this story on NBCBayArea.com
A typical day in one Central Valley migrant labor camp starts at 4:30 a.m.

Among those workers is a 15-year-old boy, "Ralph," who joins dozens of other young people heading to work. Some of them were told by direct supervisors to lie about their ages to get past the bosses in order to work.

During Ralph's work day, it reaches 106 degrees.

"We get kind of tired, and our arms hurt," said Ralph, who said he's in his second year working full time in the fields. "It is too hard to be in the fields."

U.S. labor law, which dates to 1938, allows children 12 years old - and depending on the circumstances, even younger - to legally work in agriculture.

There are many other children like Ralph.

"Like seven years, since I was 8 years old until now," one 15-year-old said, describing when he started in the fields.

Another of the young workers said, "I was in sixth grade. I was 11."

Yet another young girl described working so hard when she was 11 that her fingers bled.

"I had to carry a box, and I had cuts on my fingers," she said. "I came out really tired. It was really hot, and I didn't really like it, but it was worth it to go help my mom."

Certain crops are harder to pick for the children than others.

"Well, right now it's tomatoes," a teenager said. "It's the hardest thing I've done. I have to (work hard), bending over, standing up, carrying the buckets and throwing them."

Because of the hard work and long hours, some parents are trying to keep their kids away from the fields, even though their families need the money.

The mother of one young girl forces her to stay in school away from the fields.

"She says because it's a lot of work," said the girl, whom NBC News is calling Carmen. "She doesn't want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it's really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning."

Carmen vowed to go to college and get a higher-paying job so she can support her mother and get her out of the fields.

"I told her that when I get older I'm going to buy her a house and stop her from working," Carmen said.

Carmen isn't alone in her dreams. All of the children interviewed for this report said they hoped the money they earned would help them break out of the cycle and live a better life.

"Right now, I want to be an artist, like drawing," one teenager said.

Coursen-Neff of Human Rights Watch stressed that as unfortunate as it may seem, those long hours in the fields are perfectly legal.

"You have to realize that many children who are working in hazardous conditions in the United States are working absolutely legally because U.S. child labor law - which is pretty good - has a big gaping hole in it when it comes to agriculture," Coursen-Neff said.

"Children are working in American fields at far younger ages for far longer hours and in far more hazardous conditions than all other working children in America," Coursen-Neff said.
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"A child can work again for hire at age 12 on any size farm. And at age 14, they can work for hire even without their parents' permission," she said.

In other words, "a child of any age can work unlimited hours outside of school in agriculture even though, in all other forms of work, the number of hours that they can work is limited to make sure that they can get an education and to make sure that they're not put at risk."

Coursen-Neff said her research shows that low wages for migrant workers throughout the industry means those families need more workers in the field to make ends meet. It becomes an economic necessity that continues for generations.

Another group that hopes to change the practice is the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, based in Washington.

"These kids know that there is a necessity in their family to be able to make ends meet, to be able to put food on the table, and are out there in those fields trying to make that happen," said Norma Flores Lopez, director of the AFOP's Children in the Fields Campaign.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 created two separate classes of rules, Flores Lopez said:" There is a set of rules that covers children working in every other industry, and then there is a separate set of rules for kids working in agriculture."

It's hard to pin down how many children are out there, because there isn't a lot of data, Flores Lopez said, "but from our best estimates that we have been able to get, we know that there is anywhere from 400,000 children to up to as many as 500,000 kids."

Those kids, picking everything from grapes to almonds, all said they are laboring so long and so hard out of pure economics. The reality is that their parents simply can't make enough money working the fields without their children's help.

One 15-year-old worker's mother put it plainly.

"With just my husband's salary, it's not enough," she said in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter. "The two of them need to work in order to have anything and to keep up,"

The U.S. Labor Department tried to change the law this year to further restrict and even prohibit some children from working in fields, but it met opposition from growers.

"What they were proposing was a little too strong, a little too restrictive," said Pete Aiello, a second-generation grower in Gilroy, Calif.

"The current regulations as they are, I think, are good. I think they are sound. I think it's OK for kids that young to be working. (It depends) now on how many hours that they work."

Aiello and his family have owned and run Uesugi Farms Inc. for decades, growing chilies, pumpkins, Napa cabbage and other vegetables.

Uesugi employs 180 people on its direct payroll and 500 to 600 seasonal contract workers, mostly during the harvest season.

After other critics lodged similar complaints in Washington, the Labor Department withdrew the proposed rules in April. Critics also said the rules as drawn up by the Labor Department would have hurt family farms, although department officials dispute that.

Aiello acknowledged that some fellow growers look the other way and employ children who are 12 and younger.

"I know it does happen," Aiello said. "And that's unfortunate."

On July 24, the House passed a bill to prevent the Labor Department from trying to change the labor law regarding children in agriculture in the near future. Backers said the proposed Labor rules would hurt have family farms and 4-H clubs.

Only one representative, Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat from Sonoma and Marin counties in California, spoke out against the legislation. Similar legislation has been proposed and awaits action in the Senate.

What most sides can agree on is that this issue is largely unknown.

"I think Americans are largely clueless about the labor in general that supplies their food," Aeillo said. "And whether it's their age or their ethnicity or their legal status or any of the above, I think Americans are in the dark about what's going on."

NBC Bay Area sought comment from a dozen other large grower organizations, like the California Farm Bureau Federation and California Citrus Producers, as well as large food processors and producers. All declined to comment or didn't return messages.

NBC Bay Area also asked U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for an interview. Her staff declined.

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Child labor: Small hands legally picking our food

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(Editor's note: Names have been changed and locations have been withheld to protect the minors in this story.) SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands of children, many too young to drive, are hard at work putting in long hours in brutal conditions to make s

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Thousands of children, many too young to drive, are hard at work putting in long hours in brutal conditions to make sure the rest of us eat well -- and cheaply.

NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit spent weeks penetrating the close-knit and tight-lipped community of migrant workers and found dozens of children working the fields in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys - some who started work at 11-, 10- and even 8-years of age.

While an 8-year-old could not work in an office or fast-food restaurant, a 1938 law allows them to legally work in agriculture.
[Click here for behind-the-scenes photos of the reporting and production of this investigative series.]
These children are working a full day in the fields picking, trimming and cultivating fresh fruits and vegetables. They often work 9 to10 hours a day in 100-degree-plus heat.

NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit found these children working all over -- not in China, not in Indonesia, not in Guatemala, not in Mexico - but in the United States, from North Carolina to California. Everyone interviewed worked on a large farm, not a small, family one.

And these, for the most part, are not illegal immigrants, but children born here in the United States.
[Click here to see when and and what age certain children can work.]
A typical day in one Central Valley migrant labor camp starts at 4:30 a.m.

Among those workers is a 15-year-old boy, whom we will call Ralph, who joins dozens of other young people heading to work. Some of them were told by direct supervisors to lie about their ages in order to get past the "bosses" in order to work.

During Ralph's work day, it reaches 106 degrees.

"We get tired and like we get kind of tired and our arms hurt," Ralph said, adding this is the second year he has worked in the fields full time. "It is too hard to be in the fields."

United States labor law, which dates back to 1938, allows children 12 years old, and depending on the circumstances, even younger, to legally work in agriculture.

Click here to read the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the US Department of Labor's summary of exceptions for agriculture.

NBC Bay Area found dozens of other children like Ralph.

"Like seven years, since I was 8 years old until now," one 15-year-old said, describing when he started in the fields.

Another of the young workers said, "I was in 6th grade. I was 11."

Yet another young girl described working so hard when she was 11 that her fingers bled.

"I had to carry a box and I had cuts on my fingers," she said. "I came out (of the fields) really tired, it was really hot and I didn't really like it but it was worth it to go help my mom."
[Click here to read the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.]
Certain crops are harder to pick for the children than others.

"Well, right now it's tomatoes," a teenager said. "It's the hardest thing I've done. I have to like (work hard), bending over, standing up, carrying the buckets and throwing them."

The hard work and long hours has some parents doing everything they can to keep their kids away from the fields, even though their families badly need the money.

"She (mom) doesn't want to see me work there (in the fields)," said a girl we'll call Carmen. That's why Carmen's mother forces her to stay in school away from the fields. "She says because it's a lot of work," Carmen explained. "She doesn't want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it's really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning."

Carmen vowed to go to college and get a higher paying job so she can support her mother and get her out of the fields.

"I told her that when I get older I'm going to buy her a house and stop her from working," Carmen said.

Carmen is not alone in her dreams. Everyone interviewed said they hope the money they earn will help them break out of this cycle and live a better life.

"Right now I want to be like an artist, like drawing," said one teenager.

Critics of current U.S. labor law say these childhood dreams are jeopardized by a relentless cycle where young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work and then remain stuck in the fields because the children never finish their high school education.

"Children can work at any age on a small farm with their parents' permission. It's absolutely legal for a small farmer to hire a 6-year-old to pick blueberries," said Zama Coursen-Neff of Human Rights Watch. Coursen-Neff authored a 2010 report that found child labor prevalent in fields across the United States.

Coursen-Neff added as unfortunate as it may seem, these long hours in the fields are perfectly legal.

"You have to realize that many children who are working in hazardous conditions in the United States are working absolutely legally because U.S. child labor law which is pretty good has a big gaping hole in it when it comes to agriculture," Coursen-Neff said.

"Children are working in American fields at far younger ages for far longer hours and in far more hazardous conditions than all other working children in America," Coursen-Neff said. "(Under current law) a child can work again for hire at age 12 on any size farm. And at age 14 they can work for hire even without their parents' permission. A child of any age can work unlimited hours outside of school in agriculture even though in all other forms of work the number of hours that they can work is limited to make sure that they can get an education and to make sure that they're not put at risk."

Coursen-Neff said her research shows that low wages for migrant workers throughout the industry means these families need more workers in the field to make ends meet. It becomes an economic necessity that continues for generations.

NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit found those exact circumstances during the team's weeks in the fields.

Another group that hopes to change this practice is the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) based in Washington, D.C.

"These kids know that there is a necessity in their family to be able to make ends meet, to be able to put food on the table and are out there in those fields trying to make that happen," said Norma Flores Lopez, director of the AFOP's Children in the Fields Campaign.

"The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 made two separate sets of rules," said Flores Lopez. "There is a set of rules that covers children working in every other industry and then there is a separate set of rules for kids working in agriculture."

As for the scope of the problem, Flores Lopez said there are many more children working in America at far younger ages than most of us might imagine.

"It is very difficult to be able to pin exactly how many children are out there because there is not a whole lot of data that is being collected by the government on this," Flores Lopez saud. "But from our best estimates that we have been able to get we know that there is anywhere from 400,000 children to up to as many as 500,000 kids."

Those kids, picking everything from grapes to almonds, all said they are laboring so long and so hard out of pure economics. The reality is that their parents simply can't make enough money working the fields without their children's help.

One 15-year-old worker's mother put it plainly: "With just my husband's salary it's not enough. The two of them need to work in order to have anything and to keep up," she said through an Spanish interpreter.

Just this year, the United States Department of Labor tried to change the law and further restrict and even prohibit some children from working in fields.

But they met opposition from growers.
[Click here to read the proposed rules changes from the Federal Register.]
"What they were proposing was a little too strong a little too restrictive," said second-generation grower Pete Aeillo of Gilroy, a critic of the proposed reform. "I think that the current (agriculture labor) regulations as they are I think are good I think they are sound. I think it's OK for kids that young to be working (in the fields.) (It depends) now on how many hours that they work."

Aiello and his family have owned and run Uesugi Farms, Inc. for decades, growing chilies, pumpkins, Napa cabbage and other vegetables on their property off Highway 25 south of Gilroy.

Uesugi employs 180 on its direct payroll and between 500 and 600 seasonal contract workers, mostly during the harvest season.

After other critics lodged similar complaints in Washington, the Labor Department withdrew the proposed new rules in April. Critics also said the proposed rules as drawn up by the Labor Department would have hurt family farms although department officials dispute that.

But even Aiello admitted there are some fellow growers who look the other way and employ children who are 12 and younger.

"I know it does happen," Aiello said. "And that's unfortunate." On July 24, the U.S. House of Representatives passed, by a voice vote, House Resolution 4157, a bill designed to prevent the Department of Labor from even attempting to change the labor law regarding children in agriculture in the near future.

Proponents of the bill say the proposed Department of Labor rules would hurt family farms and 4-H clubs.

Only one representative, U.S. Representative Lynn Woosley, a Democrat from Sonoma and Marin Counties, spoke out on the House floor against this legislation. Similar legislation has been proposed and awaits action in the U.S. Senate.
[Click here to read HR 4157, the bill that passed the US House of Representatives on July 24, 2012.]
What most sides can agree on is that this issue is largely unknown.

"I don't think they (Americans) do (realize children are picking their food)," Aeillo said. "I think Americans are largely clueless about the labor in general that supplies their food. And whether it's their age or their ethnicity or their legal status or any of the above I think Americans are in the dark about what's going on."

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reached out to a dozen other different large grower organizations as well as large food processors and producers to get their views on both the issue of child labor in America and the U.S. Department of Labor's proposed rules changes governing child labor in agriculture.

They either e-mailed us refusing comment or did not return phone calls or e-mails requesting comment.

In a statement California's Farm Bureau Federation said, "If there are children working on California farms in violation of the law, that is an illegal activity that should be reported to the state labor commissioner. The California Farm Bureau Federation and other farm organizations work with our members to help them comply with all labor laws."
[The full statement is available here.]
NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit also asked U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, who was in the San Jose-based NBC Bay Area studios in late July, to sit down and talk on camera about child labor and the proposed rule changes that her department withdrew in April.

Solis' staff declined our requests for us to talk about child labor in agriculture saying her schedule was too busy.
(Editor's note: To protect the minors and families in this story from retribution, we changed the names of the teenagers we talked with about this issue. We also are withholding their locations.)

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Child Labor: Young Hands Picking Our Food

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Thousands of children, many too young to drive, are hard at work putting in long hours in brutal conditions to make sure the rest of us eat well -- and cheaply.

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(Geneva) - Governments should better regulate businesses to prevent child labor in global supply chains, Human Rights Watch said in a video released today, in advance of the World Day against Child Labor, June 12, 2016. Child labor in global supply chains is the theme for the World Day in 2016.

Millions of children risk pain, sickness, injury, and even death to produce goods and services for the global economy. Human Rights Watch has documented hazardous child labor in agriculture, mining, the leather and apparel industry, and other sectors.

"Consumers usually have no way of knowing whether the food they eat, the clothing and jewelry they wear, or other products they buy were made with child labor," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Companies shouldn't profit from the exploitation of children." The video features children working in gold mines in the Philippines and Tanzania, weaving carpets in Afghanistan, and toiling in tobacco fields in the United States and agricultural settlements in the West Bank. Richard, a 13-year old working in a Tanzanian gold mine, says: "I don't like mining at all. I'd like to go to school full time."

In today's global economy, businesses often rely on complicated supply chains. Raw materials may be produced in multiple countries, processed or assembled into finished goods in another, and consumed in markets across the globe. Children may be exploited at any stage of the supply chain, but child labor is most common in the early stages of production.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 168 million children are involved in child labor globally, including 85 million who are engaged in hazardous work that jeopardizes their health or safety.

Human Rights Watch has documented hazardous conditions for children mining gold in Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, and the Philippines. An estimated one million children worldwide work in small-scale, labor-intensive mines and 15 percent of the world's gold is sourced from artisanal mines. Children risk death and injury climbing into unstable mine shafts and carrying heavy bags of ore. They also may suffer irreversible brain damage from handling mercury, a highly toxic substance used to process gold that is exported to refineries in Dubai and Switzerland.

Tanneries in Bangladesh, which export more than US$1 billion worth of leather each year to countries around the world, often employ children, some as young as 11. Some of these children become ill from exposure to hazardous chemicals and have been injured in horrific workplace accidents.

An estimated 70 percent of child laborers work in agriculture, which is often hazardous due to pesticide exposure, work with sharp tools or heavy machinery, and long hours spent laboring in extreme heat. Human Rights Watch found that Palestinian children often work in hazardous conditions on Israeli agricultural settlements in the West Bank, growing and harvesting crops that are exported to the US and Europe.

Human Rights Watch has also documented hazardous conditions for children working on tobacco farms in the United States and Indonesia that supply international cigarette manufacturers. In both countries, at least half of the child tobacco workers interviewed had experienced nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness, symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning.

Existing international standards related to businesses and child labor are voluntary. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, among others, spell out human rights responsibilities of businesses, but have no enforcement mechanism.

Human Rights Watch calls for binding international standards that would require businesses to carry out due diligence - measures to ensure their operations respect human rights and do not contribute to human rights abuses - throughout their supply chains to prevent child labor and other human rights abuses. On May 30, representatives of governments, trade unions, and employer organizations began discussions regarding the possibility of new ILO standards on decent work in global supply chains at the International Labor Conference in Geneva.

"When standards are voluntary, some companies take them seriously, but others simply ignore them even though the lives and safety of children and other workers are at stake," Becker said. "Governments should impose mandatory rules on businesses to make sure they address child labor and other human rights abuses throughout their supply chains."

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Global Profits, and Peril, from Child Labor

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(Geneva) - Governments should better regulate businesses to prevent child labor in global supply chains, Human Rights Watch said in a video released today, in advance of the World Day against Child Labor, June 12, 2016. Child labor in global supply chains is the theme for the World Day in 2016.

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It is not allowed to happen in Russia, or in Kazakhstan-but in the United States, children as young as 12 are allowed to toil on tobacco farms, whether it's driving Dad's tractor or picking leaves for R.J. Reynolds. Tobacco farming poses threats to their health thanks to heavy pesticide use and the possibility of acute nicotine poisoning, as Gabriel Thompson vividly describes in his special investigative report in this issue.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 banned child labor in factories and mines, but racist Southern politicians ensured the existence of enough loopholes to keep black children working on the farm. Now it's young migrants who often do those jobs. And as Mariya Strauss demonstrates in the second feature of our investigative report, it's not just nicotine poisoning and heat exhaustion, but the hazards involving farm vehicles, grain silos and manure pits, that endanger these children. Exactly how many have been injured or killed is hard to determine because the government's monitoring system is so weak.

The Labor Department seemed ready to address this problem during President Obama's first term, proposing a variety of safety measures for young agricultural laborers-and an outright ban on children working on tobacco farms. But in 2012, after a furious and deceptive lobbying campaign by farm conglomerates, the Labor Department rescinded all of its proposed rules-at the request of the White House-and even vowed not to revisit the issue for the rest of Obama's second term. Because of this reversal, which stunned public health advocates, at least four young workers have lost their lives, as Strauss documents here.

As Congress negotiates a five-year farm bill in the coming weeks, it should heed the calls for much tougher protections for child workers. The Children's Act for Responsible Employment, introduced by Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard this year but blocked by the GOP-controlled Education and Workforce Committee, would bring child labor standards in agriculture in line with protections in other industries. Such measures face stiff industry opposition, which the Obama administration, to its shame, has proved unwilling to defy-but the exploitation of children, in the final telling, should be impossible to defend.

Take Action: Demand an End to Child Labor

Elizabeth Cline recently examined labor laws in the fashion industry, which also depends on underage workers.

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It is not allowed to happen in Russia, or in Kazakhstan-but in the United States, children as young as 12 are allowed to toil on tobacco farms, whether it's driving Dad's tractor or picking leaves for R.J. Reynolds.

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The mission of The University of Iowa Labor Center is to provide educational programs and research support to Iowa's working people and their organizations. Since 1951, the Labor Center has acted as a bridge between the University and Iowa's labor community.

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Child labour | Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

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Anlässlich des 5. Jahrestags des Einsturzes der Rana Plaza Textilfabrik in Bangladesch bietet das Business & Human Rights Resource Centre mit diesem Briefing einen aktuellen Einblick in das Thema Menschenrechte und menschenrechtliche Sorgfaltspfli...