(OSV News) Not all children filling many vacant U.S. jobs are working the drive-thru window, pushing carts or helping on the family farm -- jobs typically associated with teenagers learning responsibility, along with useful business and personal skills.
According to recently published reports and investigations, minors are toiling in some of the most dangerous conditions in American industry, such as construction, slaughterhouses and assembly lines.
Catholics and labor leaders OSV News spoke with voiced concern that children are all too easily exploited in the U.S. economy, where some lawmakers are looking to loosen further restrictions on child labor in response to companies clamoring for workers to fill vacancies.
"Even responsible adults who have been trained periodically are at risk of injury in this kind of an environment," shared Clayton Sinyai, executive director of the Catholic Labor Network. "Certainly children do not belong there."
Sinyai referred to the U.S. Department of Labor's Feb. 17 announcement that an investigation found more than 100 children were working for a contractor cleaning equipment in meat-packing facilities in eight different states.
"It's shocking to see things like that in the 21st century," Sinyai said.
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