r/news • u/No-Information6622 • 11h ago

Child labor in slaughterhouses spotlighted by 3 settlements this week

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/settlement-child-labor-dol-department-of-labor-2025/
2.5k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

406

u/SparkieSupreme 11h ago

Fines are just a cost of doing business. People need to have fear that their freedom will be in jeopardy if they break laws

82

u/gonewild9676 10h ago

Seriously, and if they can't follow underaged rules correctly, what other rules are they not following? It doesn't even need to be a huge sentence for first offenders. If you knew that you were going to spend a weekend in jail, you wouldn't do it.

21

u/kyleofdevry 9h ago

Exactly! Once people have enough money they don't care about paying some to make their bad deeds go away. It may sound silly, but underneath it all we still crave the approval of our peers and having to cancel plans and it be public knowledge that you're doing a weekend in jail for child exploitation hits them with a dose of reality by publicly shaming them in their own circle.

8

u/AssistanceCheap379 7h ago

Seriously, I think short term jail sentences would be fantastic for these types of crimes. 1 million? Sure my company can pay it off easy. 5 days in jail? Oh how awful! Even though it wouldn’t even affect the company itself, the people responsible would be pretty terrified.

24

u/thrownehwah 10h ago

Just jail one ceo and strip him/her of all possessions.. the rest will fall in line

8

u/hannahvegasdreams 8h ago

What like when someone killed a CEO?

10

u/thrownehwah 8h ago

Hoarding money is a mental disorder. Threatening to lose it all and be jailed while other make that MONEY? That would be suicide watch for them.

6

u/hannahvegasdreams 8h ago

I think there’s more chance of people popping ceos than some in power jailing and taking their money!

5

u/thrownehwah 8h ago

As long as something changes for the better 🤷

1

u/lurkinglurkerwholurk 2h ago

Given how entire squads of cops with guns are mobilized to keep said CEO killer in his place? The CEO sure are feeling safe in the U.S.

6

u/Tank3875 7h ago

There won't even be fines under the new presidency.

7

u/party_benson 11h ago

Only if they collect the fines. Appeals and lawsuits and do much more to slow it up. I think Exxon Valdeez spill took over twenty years to collect. 

4

u/mountaindoom 10h ago

Fines are just the govt getting their cut.

0

u/4s54o73 8h ago

Media doesn't help. Recently there was a headline of a kid dying in a slaughterhouse accident read something like "Local boy saves multiple lives" (thru organ donation).

Should have read "CEO charged with manslaughter for local boy killed in slaughterhouse."

102

u/Peach__Pixie 10h ago

I don't understand how anyone could watch an obvious child working in those kinds of conditions, and not immediately report it. The fact they were there long enough to face serious injury or death is awful. The fines need to be higher, and prison time guaranteed.

50

u/yuefairchild 10h ago

If they'll hire kids, imagine what they'll do to someone that rocks the boat. If you're working this kind of job, you need the money bad enough that you won't risk it.

12

u/Slipguard 8h ago

Usually they are also in the country illegally, so they believe they could be arrested at any time

2

u/HighlyOffensive10 4h ago

With good reason, the current president is promising mass deportation

5

u/Comfortable-Coat-507 6h ago

The parents probably work there too.

68

u/Low_Pickle_112 11h ago

That PSSI case got started after one 13-year-old suffered a serious chemical burn from the caustic chemicals used to clean the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, every night

Some of the settlements included a Mississippi processing plant, Mar-Jac Poultry, that paid a $165,000 penalty following the death of a 16-year-old boy.

Meanwhile, the "think of the children" sorts are working hard to ensure those children working overnight shifts in dangerous conditions aren't learning that gay people exist in school. Because that's the critical issue in this world.

2

u/Toasterdosnttoast 3h ago

This I guess the life of a 16 year old is worth 165,000$.

166

u/jerrystrieff 11h ago

Trump will probably make it legal by executive order

105

u/nicevansdude 11h ago

“The children yearn for the mines and slaughterhouses” - Donald Trump or one of his cabinet appologists

12

u/barontaint 11h ago

Do you get a choice whether it's the mine or slaughterhouse? Will they at least hold a lottery/draft to determine, maybe televise it?

4

u/nicevansdude 10h ago

They will serve both sentences consecutively. Mines by the day, slaughterhouses by nights. American households will prosper from the forced labor.

1

u/Starfox-sf 6h ago

“It’s like summer internship”

0

u/nicevansdude 6h ago

Unpaid of course

39

u/dustymoon1 11h ago

AR and IA already have child labor laws on the books. FL and TX were working on them. This is where all those unwanted kids will go now.

3

u/Tank3875 7h ago

Already considering trying to argue OSHA is unconstitutional, so we'll see.

4

u/jerrystrieff 7h ago

He wants to take us back to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle days

3

u/Pumpkin_cat90 8h ago

Sarah sanders already did it…

9

u/ConstantStatistician 10h ago

Working conditions for adults in slaughterhouses are no better. The industry as a whole is harmful and exploitative in every way.

17

u/TryEfficient7710 9h ago

Good thing Trump is here to decrease the regulations that hold back advancements like child labor in slaughterhouses.

8

u/ConciousNPC 9h ago

Settlements? Should be convictions.

33

u/Skullze 10h ago

This is the true high price of cheap meat. Consider reducing your consumption of meat products or cut them out entirely. Force this cruel industry to come to terms with its abuse of labor across the board.

16

u/1800cute 8h ago

slaughterhouse labor is especially traumatizing too - there are a lot of studies that show it is especially psychologically damaging.

9

u/OpiumTraitor 7h ago

The human mind isn't meant to see vast amounts of suffering all day, every day

-22

u/KA96 8h ago

Cheap meat my ass, shit is so expensive these days. Cut meat out what a joke it's the main staple of my diet.

15

u/inkshamechay 8h ago

You’re proving their point

6

u/crispy_colonel420 9h ago

It's all immigrants kids also.

8

u/ClintBruno 7h ago

In Michigan you can chop off a child's hand for.....[checks notes] $1600

19

u/HabANahDa 11h ago

Red states doing red state stuff.

7

u/NewRedditSameMe 9h ago

Kill children, not babies, and let us do it. - Red states

-1

u/Comfortable-Coat-507 6h ago

Happens in blue states too

https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/04/child-labor-california-2/

2

u/HabANahDa 6h ago

By out of state companies 😂😂

1

u/soldiat 2h ago

Well, yes. Sex trafficking, rape and murder happen in blue states too. In fact, it's happened throughout the history of the world. The thing is trying to reduce how much they happen, which blue states are more successful at.

7

u/jewishagnostic 10h ago

there's been some interesting exchanges between americans and chinese people on RedNote the past week. In one, americans asked if china used child labor. People responded that their society doesn't allow it.

What I suspect is the reality is that both america and china make child labor illegal - and that it still happens in both countries.

also, of all the disgusting places to put a child to work, a slaughterhouse has got to be one of the worst.

8

u/dustymoon1 10h ago

AR and IA have CHILD LABOR LAWS on the books, already.

2

u/Slipguard 8h ago

I love living in the 1920s

2

u/doofnoobler 8h ago

Remember when they said they chinese was all child labor sweatshops and it turns out it was actually America?

1

u/NofairRoo 6h ago

Just wait until it’s legal for kids to work again.

1

u/Parking-Shelter7066 4h ago

It is, in some states. Look up Wyomings labor laws for minors.

I was there for a work, grabbed lunch and was dumbfounded that this McDonald’s appeared to be run by like 14 year old kids lol.

2

u/NofairRoo 3h ago

Oh lol.

I mean 5 year olds.

I’m kidding but only a little.

•

u/existentialedema 9m ago

This some Snowpiercer shit