VINELAND, NJ – Not all children love chicken nuggets, especially those who are forced to make them for below American wage standards.
Two poultry-producing food companies are under scrutiny for allegedly using child labor in the process of making their products. Tyson Foods, who has a facility in Vineland, New Jersey is the focus of a New York Times feature on child labor.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has opened investigations into Tyson Foods after a New York Times Magazine article alleged that the companies used contractors which employed migrant child workers for dangerous jobs, the NYT reported.
The companies employed children for the overnight shift to clean the slaughterhouse and used acid which reportedly hurt employees’ lungs and caused them to cough, the news outlet reported on Sept. 18. The DOL opened investigations into Tyson and several companies who work with the corporations to determine if the corporations’ plants are illegally employing children to work in dangerous positions, the NYT reported.
“We are long past the day when brands can say that they don’t know that they have child labor in their supply chain,” Seema Nanda, the DOL’s chief legal officer, told the NYT. “The intention is to make sure that those higher up in the supply chain are holding their subcontractors and staffing agencies accountable.
Tyson disseminated information about the journalist investigating the alleged child labor at the various plants and fired those who had spoken to her, according to the outlet’s report. The children who come to the U.S. alone are more likely to be granted entry than adults and to work to send money to support their families in their home countries, the NYT reported.
This is the second time in less than a year that the DOL has investigated the two corporations for child labor law violations, according to the DOL’s website. Tyson had to pay hefty fines after the DOL discovered in February that the Packers Sanitation Services, a cleaning company hired by both companies at some of their plants, had employed at least 102 children to work overnight shifts at 13 meat processing plants across the nation.