On a warm day last summer Josh Bassais, a union organizer, went down to a non-union construction project in Edina, a Minneapolis suburb where new elementary classrooms were being built, to check out safety on the site.
He saw something surprising: a boy, who appeared to be about 12 or 13, wearing jeans and a fluorescent work vest, smoothing mortar on a brick wall. It was a clear violation of child-labor laws, which prohibit 12 and 13-year-olds from working most jobs, except on farms, and also say that youths aged 14 and 15 may not work in hazardous jobs, including construction.
When others in the Laborers Union went to the site, they saw a boy too, this time driving a bobcat and cutting concrete with a saw.
“When our staff reported it to me, I wasn’t sure I believed it,” said Kevin Pranis, a spokesman for the union. “We sent him back to take a picture, since we didn’t want to make a report without knowing for sure the kid was underage. We observed him four or five times until we were really sure.”
To read the rest of this story by Alana Semuels, go to: http://www.theatlantic.com/bus...-in-the-us/383687/2/
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