Tomatoes or Children? (9 year old worker killed by tractor)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/18/tomatoes-or-children/

Ben Davis, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in Mexico, relates a poignant narrative of what’s wrong with trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On Jan. 6, 2007, David Salgado, a 9-year-old worker from Guerrero, was run over and killed by a tractor while harvesting tomatoes on a farm in Sinaloa. In a May 9 story, Arizona Republic correspondent Chris Hawley reported the owner of the farm is a major supplier of open field and greenhouse products, including tomatoes, eggplant and sweet bell peppers, for the North American market.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080613-labor-video-ap.html

The Arizona Republic reports the company paid the family $3,300 for funeral expenses but refused any additional compensation, arguing that it was not liable because the death occurred on a public road—although this was contradicted by a report from the Mexican Senate.

David’s case is far from unique. A recent investigation by three reporters for the Mexican newspaper Excelsior found that 30 child laborers between the ages of 6 and 14 died in work-related accidents in the state of Sinaloa in 2006 and 2007. And in December, nine children were killed when a truck carrying coffee pickers overturned in the state of Puebla.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government continues a massive investigation into the source of the salmonella outbreak that has so far affected nearly 1,000 people in the United States. In response to the outbreak, which some in the media called “the attack of the killer tomatoes,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified potential sources of the outbreak in the United States and Mexico, and major U.S. retailers responded by removing tomatoes from their shelves. (Just this week, the FDA ruled out tomatoes as the culprit, though investigations of other vegetables continue.)

The FDA warnings sent up a howl of protest from growers in the not-yet-ruled-out areas, who claimed they would be put out of business. Mexican growers accused the FDA of using the salmonella threat as a pretext to keep Mexican tomatoes out of the U.S. market and threatened a lawsuit under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA’s Chapter 11, regulating investment, gives private businesses the right to sue governments to challenge public health, environmental and safety regulations that might impinge on corporate profits.

FULL story at link.

[Mist]

1. This points up the "disposable labor" issue. And kids that young doing

manual labor? The wonderful world of agri-biz.

Interesting that corporations can sue the gov't. I hadn't been aware of that. Mere individuals can't sue the gov't, last
I heard.