United States-Child Labor charges against worlds largest Kosher abattoir.

UNITED STATES.

CHILD LABOR CHARGES AGAINST MEAT PLANT.

The worlds largest Kosher meat plant, owned and operated by Agriprocessors in Postville Iowa, was no doubt guilty of employing illegal workers.

The 397 arrests in May for immigration violations, appears to have confirmed this fact.

However the state of Iowa law, calling youths of 16 to 18 children, is going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Young people under the age of 18 are not permitted to work in a beef or poultry plant in Iowa, which is one thing, to refer to 16 and 17 year olds as child labor, is a farce.How such a clever country, can get so many things wrong is beyond belief at times.

The minimum age in Europe, to work in a meat plant is 15, however you cannot hold a slaughterman’s license until you are 18.

The baby boomers of today, left school and went to work at 14 and 15 years of age.

There was a case reported in the Western Morning News in Devon and Meat Trades Journal London in 1958The headline read-

WHOLESALE BUTCHER FINED FOR CHILDREN WORKING IN

SLAUGHTERHOUSE aged 9,11 and 13.

The story went on to tell the tale of a Devon wholesale butcher, being fined 9 pounds ($18)for allowing his sons, aged 9,11 and 13 years of age to work in his slaughterhouse.

The three lads were dressing lambs solo, which meant catching, sticking, dressing and eviscerating then hanging the finished carcass in the cold-room one sheep at a time, like shearing today.

Each of the young boys could dress 70 lambs per day by himself.

The wholesaler said "I will pay the 9 pounds fine and if you come to my slaughterhouse tomorrow, my boys will be working " which the boys did until they left school, two at 15 and one at 18.Where are the victims of alleged child labor now.

The 13 year old, built a business from Newbury in Berkshire to Cornwall and died in 2005 leaving an estate of 90 million pounds

The 9 year old, is listed at around number 1700, in the Sunday Times rich list 2008.

The 11 year old, now an Elder Statesman of the meat industry, runs the largest beef plant in the Southern Hemisphere, Yaguana in Buenos Aires.

How do I know the story so well, the 11 year old boy in 1958, is my father.

No one wants child labor but children that grow up an farms and in the rural sector, are no strangers to hard work and seem to suffer no ill effects from their experiences