Madison County Legislative Forum Comments - SB 22 Child Labor Laws

Testimony from Whitney Washington, a delegate of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 3908, in support of SB 22:

Last year, the Alabama legislature passed SB 231, a piece of legislation weaponizing public funds to attack unions. Specifically, the legislation would revoke any tax incentives from a company that choose to voluntarily recognize their workers’ union.

Now that this precedent has been set, that we can use incentives to push towards broader social goals, I hope that our legislative delegation will support also support legislation aimed at curbing something much worse than the dread labor union – child labor.

Specifically, Senator Merika Coleman has introduced SB 22, which would revoke tax incentives from companies that violate our child labor laws. I don’t think that it should be difficult to say “no public money for child labor exploiters.” I hope you all will support this bill.

In Alabama alone, we’ve seen a significant amount of this sort of exploitation. At Hyundai suppliers, minimally dozens of people under the age of 16 are believed to have been working in manufacturing environments – a violation of state and national laws. What was the punishment from the state for this? A measly $6,000. Barely a fraction of a single new vehicle. Just down the road in Cullman, Alabama, a 15 year old was killed on his first day on the job – roofing. Also prohibited by state and national laws, and as far as I can tell, the company was never fined by the state of Alabama. Poultry plants are also rife with such situations, and in Mississippi a 16 year old high school freshman was pulled into a machine and killed.

The proliferation of this exploitation is aided by Alabama’s lax laws and even laxer enforcement. Do you know how many people work in the Alabama Department of Labor’s Child Labor Department? The department meant to oversee all employers in the state and ensure they do not break our child labor laws? One.

A $6,000 fine will not stop multi billion dollar international corporations like Hyundai from exploiting Alabama’s children. A single individual will not be able to even uncover when this is happening. Revoking hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives may not even be enough. But at the very least, it won’t be our public dollars that fund these grotesque practices.  I hope that this delegation will support the cessation of public funding for child labor exploitation.