GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Hannah Dreier wrote a New York Times article that claims Forge Industrial Staffing hired children to work at the Hearthside Foods factory in Grand Rapids.
Dreier follows just a few of the many underage workers who work the night shift manufacturing things like Cheerios and Flaming Hot Cheetos.
“I think we need to spend a little money to make sure that we’re doing proactive enforcement of our child labor laws. That’s having state employees go around to various places to do spot inspections. That will do, I think, a little bit towards making sure that employers are understanding,” 80th House District Representative Phil Skaggs explained to FOX 17 Tuesday.
We also talked with Tracey Brame, a lawyer, who said this breaks down to one thing: “Holding corporations’ feet to the fire.”
She says this is the outcome of a broken migration system in the United States, and, before it’s repaired, the least agencies can do is crack down on bad actors.
“If the staffing agencies that are providing workers and the companies hiring workers do what they’re supposed to do, that will go a long way in curbing this,” Brame added. “There are very specific requirements if you’re going to hire someone.”
We reached out to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, which gave FOX 17 the following statement:
“The department takes the allegations raised in the report seriously. We are working closely with appropriate state and federal partners and have launched an investigation to ensure these4 Michigan organizations are in compliance with state laws and that children are protected. If Michigan residents believe there are violations to the state’s wage and hour laws, they are encouraged to file a complaint by contacting our Wage and Hour Division at 855-464-9243 (4MI-WAGE) or whinfo@michigan.gov.”
