Missouri Legislature wants to overturn Child Labor laws now.

[dixiegrrrrl]

"Jane Cunningham, a Rethuglican (of course), has sponsored a bill in the Missouri congress that will disillusion you a little further today. Behold, SB 222!
This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment."

That is about it, except for some good comments below the blog article.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/somebody_tell_themdickens_lond.php

[Brickbat]

1. Yes, yes! Repeal the regulations! If people don't like child labor, they'll stay at a different

resort! Why can't you just leave the market alone?

[roguevalley]

9. I wish her only torment all the days of her life.

[virgogal]

2. Okay,now I KNOW I'm losing my mind. Please tell me that

this bill is a joke.

[Cirque du So-What]

3. This horseshit will never stand up to a federal challenge

Every state has laws specifically dealing with child labor issues. When federal and state standards are different, the rules that provide the most protection to youth workers will apply. Employers must comply with both federal law and applicable state laws.

Federal child labor rules are established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) FLSA rules affect full- and part-time workers in the private sector and in the federal, state, and local governments. The rules vary depending on the age of the youth worker and his or her occupation.

The FLSA "covers" or applies to all employees of certain enterprises. All employees of an enterprise, as defined by the FLSA, are covered regardless of the duties they perform. An important factor in determining coverage is interstate commerce, the generation of income over state lines by various means. If an employer engages in interstate commerce of any kind, its employees are covered by the FLSA and child labor laws in its state. If an employee is not an employee of one of these enterprises, he or she may still be covered if the employee’s own duties meet certain interstate commerce requirements. In addition, if a business generates income of $500,000 per year, it is subject to federal labor laws.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/youthlabor/Statelaborlaws.htm

In these fiscally trying times, do the citizens of Missouri really want their tax dollars going toward defending illegal acts on the part of the state? If they had good sense, they'd be looking into the special interests that have Rep. Cunningham securely in their vest pocket.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. The way DC is going, I wonder how long the Feds will continue protective laws.

[Initech]

4. Do these fuckers want us to become a third world country???

I'm seriously losing my mind right now. :argh:

[fishwax]

11. yes, I think they do

after all, importing goods made from cheap labor isn't as efficient as having that kind of cheap labor available here at home ...

[JCMach1]

27. Even most third world countries outlaw child labor...

This is back to the 19th century...

[Ken Burch]

5. Proud to be the fifth rec...disgusted that this thread NEEDED to be written

And that bitter old hag probably goes to church every Sunday.

[eleny]

6. When they won't be able to afford charter schools - then they can go to work

It's like they're preparing for the dismal future when we return to the horrible old days.

Here's how I feel about them --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWzyjVUGtC0

[somone]

7. Evil hag thinks child labor made this country great

[demigoddess]

17. aha! so that is why the right is against abortion!

they need to keep the companies supplied with workers!

[mitchtv]

8. coming soon "The Branson Renaissance"

No one will go anyway

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. My father got in a public screaming match with a teabagger over this

The teabaggers argument was that in these difficult economic times it would be advantageous for parents to pull their kids out of school so they can work to help support the family and perhaps be home schooled instead or not at all since it was nobodies business but the parents!

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Shades of Dickens, indeed.

[Drahthaardogs]

18. WOW!

Just wow. What can you say to stuff like that.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. Given my father grew up amongst the Bugsy Siegel entourage

I'm sure he communicated his point quite forcefully,

The point he tried to argue before he fucking lost it was that wouldn't that policy just breed a generation of guaranteed career welfare recipients? Given the long-term employment prospects of ignorant illiterates are quite limited.

The "(slur) ballsucker" as my father refers to teabaggers didn't find that very persuasive unfortunately,

[YellowRubberDuckie]

31. My grandmothers quit school in fifth and eighth grades...

This was in the 20s. This is what they want to go back to. Also, an uneducated populace is easier to control. They have a hard on for third world countries where most of the populace can't even read.
Duckie

[madrchsod]

14. well, that`s one way to lower the standard of living.

have family men and women compete with their children for a job.

[Sherman A1]

15. They also have 4 versions of RTW legislation moving thru

the State Senate & House.

[highplainsdem]

16. Cunningham in influential in the American Legislative Exchange Council, the organization I've been

posting about.

This is her Missouri Senate page:

http://www.senate.mo.gov/11info/Members/D07/bio.htm

Senator Cunningham was Chairwoman of the Education Task Force and served on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the largest voluntary organization of legislators and business leaders in the country.

And this is my general topic about ALEC, so you know what's going on. They're pushing horrific bills all over the country. They've been around for decades, but this is their worst legislative blitz yet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230

With ALEC, you're dealing with a very sophisticated lobbying group pretending to be a charity, for tax purposes. The legislation is mostly written by corporations for their legislative shills who take it back to their own states, and their individual members include thousands of conservative state legislators.

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. They are very organized.

We need to practice that skill a whole lot more.

[txwhitedove]

19. Hard to wrap my thoughts around this, other than WTF! Thought it was a

joke at first. Best comment on that blog was by hillaryrettig:
"The MO (Republican) Senate also just eviscerated Prop B, which voters approved resoundingly. It would have forced puppy millers to meet minimal standards of providing food and water (!), medical care and shelter. We used to joke about the Repubs hating kids and puppies but I guess it wasn't a joke. Whenever you think they've hit bottom they manage to find another floor."

still, WTF!!!

[Maru Kitteh]

20. It's good that they're not even pretending anymore.

[Telly Savalas]

22. Cunningham isn't the only member of the Missouri Legislature

Granted most of them are clueless morons and perhaps some of them do support this, but until there's evidence of this shouldn't the OP title read "Missouri legislator" and not "Missouri Legislature"?

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. Good point.

[stlsaxman]

23. From Thom Hartmanns blog-

http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/greg-kramer/blog/2011/02/jane-cunningham-missouri-labor-law-sb-222

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. The person commenting on that blog is minimizing an d distorting the proposed law.

Hatmann's blog contains a comment from someone saying that
"Senator Cunningham is not repealing the child labor laws.
What Senator Cunningham is dealing with is an archaic law that
currently does not allow children to even have a lemonade stand, cut grass,
babysit, walk the neighbors dog, participate in a stage production such as
at the Muny, etc."

Oh yeah????

Look what Cunningham's bill covers:
"Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished.
It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ."

To compare that to "allowing children to have lemonade stands" is ridiculous.

[steve2470]

29. Absolutely horrible.

These Tea-publicans are truly fascists and neanderthals.

[stlsaxman]

30. well of course- it's from Cunninghams office!

[ChromeFoundry]

24. Wow... just speechless. n/t

[KillCapitalism]

32. Why don't these fuckers just move to Bangladesh...

instead of trying to turn us into a country like that. Their utopia of wealth inequality awaits them there.