When Politicians do the Hiring

By DON ROLLINS

“No Iowa teenager should be working in America’s deadliest jobs. Iowa Republican politicians want to solve the … workforce crisis on the literal backs of children.” — Zach Wahls (D), Iowa State Senate Minority Leader

Safety first. Its a simple concept if ever: Safe bodies, safe minds, safe emotions.

With a nod to 20th century psychologist Abraham Maslow, nothing is more fundamental to human well being than safety. Especially when those humans are our kids.

Fifty-three years after Maslow’s death, millions of the nation’s children are not safe. Not from the ravages of poverty, the politics of guns, the reach of corporations or the grip of conservatism.

These forces are always at work in today’s America, thus they guarantee our youth will feel and be less safe. Some are as patently obvious as the most recent deadly school shooting, or the latest legislative body to deny trans students the right to pee where they will. And some are only a little less.

It was 1906 when a few members of the U.S. Congress began conversations about limits on child labor. The conversations eventually resulted in the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938), which gave clear boundaries for workers under 18, including maximum length of shifts, and types of jobs deemed unsafe.

It was early morning April 2023 when the Republican majority Iowa Senate passed a bill lowering safety protections for minors in the workplace. If passed, workers ages 14-17 can be hired in jobs previously designated unsafe, such as demolition, roofing and assembly lines. Another provision allows 16- and 17-year-olds to serve alcohol.

The bill includes an increase in the number of hours minors may work per day (4 to 6), and end time (9 p.m. during school year, 11 p.m. other periods).

Senate members supporting the bill cite the need for additional workers in those fields. Nothing was said about the impact on Brown, Black and immigrant youths who, because of disproportionate poverty, have historically taken on the least safe fields, and are expected to follow suit by taking on even more dangerous tasks.

Also missing from the floor discussions were the 600 investigations already begun by the US Labor Department against companies in and outside Iowa. In once instance, the department found that approximately 100 minors were employed by a single company, all of them operating hazardous equipment on the late shift.

Even more ominous, Iowa is not the only red state about to put its kids in harm’s way in the service of some business bottom line. Arkansas and Ohio are on a similar path, with supportive Republican governors signaling quick signatures.

In a very real sense, the 5 a.m. fiasco on the floor of the Iowa plant is just one more instance of management casting about for minimum-wage, money-strapped workers. Problem is, a legislative body isn’t supposed to do the actual hiring.

Don Rollins is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2023

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