Investigation: Lax State Oversight Endangers California’s Child Farmworkers
Children as young as 12 can legally work on California’s farms, picking strawberries and pruning blueberry bushes along with a host of other physically demanding jobs. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Robert J. Lopez spoke with 61 children who work in the fields of the Salinas, Santa Maria, San Joaquin and Pajaro valleys. They described unsafe and unsanitary conditions, extreme heat — and a fear of speaking up, because they can’t afford to lose their jobs. Lopez reports that in California, “enforcement of child labor laws has been inconsistent, the number of workplace safety inspections and…
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