Tyson Foods workers, activists protest child labor in US meat sector By Reuters

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<span>© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tyson Foods is seen in Davos, Switzerland, May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo</span><br />
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<p>By Tom Polansek</p>
<p>(Reuters) &#8211; <span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name"> Tyson Foods </span></span> (NYSE:) workers and activists rallied outside the U.S. meat company&#8217;s headquarters in Arkansas on Monday to protest the industry&#8217;s use of child labor and push for improved working conditions in processing plants.</p>
<p>Activists and the Biden Administration have pressured the U.S. meat industry to adopt safer labor policies after children hired by contractors were found doing dangerous jobs cleaning slaughterhouses. </p>
<p>Dozens of protesters marched near Tyson&#8217;s offices in Springdale, Arkansas, with signs saying &#8220;Stop child labor&#8221; and &#8220;Let children be children.&#8221; They chanted &#8220;Hey hey, ho ho, exploitation&#8217;s gotta go,&#8221; according to a livestream of the event on Facebook (NASDAQ:).</p>
<p>Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat company by sales, had no immediate comment on the protest. The company&#8217;s code of conduct says suppliers are expected to ensure they do not use child labor.</p>
<p>Magaly Licolli, an organizer of the rally, said Tyson needs to do more to keep kids out of its supply chain.</p>
<p>&#8220;Tyson keeps avoiding the subject by saying that they are not hiring directly the workers,&#8221; said Licolli, the director of Venceremos, an organization that advocates for poultry workers in Arkansas. </p>
<p>Licolli said she helped two teenage boys from Guatemala recover wages after they were hired by a contractor to gather chickens on a farm that supplied Tyson and were not initially paid. Tyson did not comment on the incident.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Labor said in February that a major food safety sanitation company paid $1.5 million in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers at meatpacking plants, including two Tyson facilities in Arkansas and Tennessee.</p>
<p>Asked about child labor in meat plants on Monday, the Labor Department said its Wage and Hour Division has investigations open at Tyson and Perdue Farms.</p>
<p>Demonstrators at the rally also called on Tyson to slow speeds on processing lines in chicken plants, carrying a banner that read &#8220;Slow down the line, keep workers in mind.&#8221; </p>
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