Current Events Articles Instructions and Grading Rubric


Issue: State labor investigators found 57 under-aged workers that were employed at the meatpacking plant in Iowa. The investigators had found different child violations for each under-aged worker and stated that they were exposed to various prohibited occupations.


Significances:


1)A spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development department stated that the number of under-aged workers is so far the largest in the Iowa case.
2) The previous year, agriprocessors fired four workers who were under-aged. However their documents stated they were old enough to work
3) At least twenty four under-aged workers, starting about the age of thirteen were arrested in a raid. Immigration authorities dismissed those criminal charges against the under-aged workers. However, many were placed in civil deportation proceedings.
4) When the workers were interviewed they admitted that they were forced to work for long hours on night shifts, at times up to seventeen hours and were not paid at all for the overtime.


Analysis:
1) The article is aimed at the description and the causes of a natural problem of under-aged child labor. Iowa is the case for the following article. The article is useful as it informs the reader of the problem on multiple scales, such as the law, human rights and industrial. It also gives formal details on the problem and measures taken to deal with it.


Quote: Write one exact quote from your article here, try to choose a quote that you find interesting or that embodies the article and its purpose or argument as a whole.


“The number of minors makes the Iowa investigation “a huge case” by national standards as well, said Reid Maki, coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, a group of teachers and consumer organizations that seek to stop employment of under-age workers. “It is especially troubling since this industry is as dangerous as it gets,” Mr. Maki said.”


Citation: In MLA format, cite the article and any other references you find useful in researching this topic (if necessary).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/06meat.html