skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Audit: Children Working on NC Tobacco Farms

play audio
Play

Thursday, May 5, 2016   

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Children are working on North Carolina's tobacco farms – and some of them are working in hazardous conditions, according to an audit commissioned by Reynolds American of its contract farms in the Tar Heel State.

The audit company – Footprint BenchStrength – found that 40 percent of farms surveyed employing minors were not complying with federal law. In addition, a portion of those minors was performing hazardous work.

Justin Flores, vice president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), says this isn't just a matter of children working on family farms.

"Most of the folks talked about in the study worked with labor contractors and they're certainly not as caring and concerned for their well-being as their parents or grandparents or uncles would be," Flores stresses.

Footprint BenchStrength noted in the audit that worker housing and family labor were outside the scope of the commissioned report.

In a statement on its website, Reynolds American says the company doesn't employ farm workers or grow its own tobacco and therefore the company has "no direct control over their sourcing, their training, their pay rates or their housing."

The company regularly performs audits like this one to assess the safety and conditions on contracted farms.

Today FLOC organizers plan to protest outside of the Reynolds American shareholder meeting at the company headquarters in Winston-Salem.

Flores says it's important to recognize that questionable labor conditions on North Carolina farms go far beyond tobacco and extend to the state's food supply.

"We will see change as we continue to publicize and educate people about what's going on in the fields, reminding people it's not just tobacco, that these folks that are working in tobacco are also harvesting your sweet potatoes, strawberries, cucumbers," he states.

All minors interviewed reported having been trained in general farm safety, including recognition of heat stroke and green tobacco sickness.





get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021