Editorial: Renew activism against child labor

When news began surfacing this year about the exploitation of migrant child laborers in U.S. factories and businesses, it made clear the urgent need for union and community leaders to renew their activism in combating child labor. Such activism helped curtail profound abuses in the past, and it must do so again.

This past February, New York Times journalist Hannah Dreier brought to readers’ attention the voices and stories of migrant children working in slaughterhouses, factories, and dangerous construction sites throughout the U.S. These are children who left their homes as “unaccompanied minors,” arriving in the U.S. to stay with relatives or acquaintances they never met — or, worse, with predatory “sponsors” who keep them in punishing debt. The children usually come here with the intention of sending remittances home to their poverty-stricken families.