The Department of Labor investigates a large food company for alleged labor exploitation of minors

The Department of Labor has opened an investigation against the food company Hearthside Food Solutions, which produces products from well-known food brands, for alleged exploitation of minors, according to reports by the Reuters news agency and The New York Times, which reported this Saturday about the alleged irregular employment practices of this and other companies.

"We can confirm that we have opened an investigation," a federal government spokesman told Reuters.

The New York Times reported that the company employed minors in the manufacture of

cereal , and

snacks

, which are sold nationwide.

It indicated that the victims of these practices (the newspaper spoke with more than a hundred) were in many cases

who had arrived alone in the country and were exploited in at least 20 states, in tasks such as placing roofs in Florida and Tennessee;

in slaughterhouses in Delaware, Mississippi, and North Carolina;

or on night shifts at lumber plants in South Dakota.

Mexico deports 91 unaccompanied migrant minors to Guatemala

Feb 8, 202300:40

The Department of Labor announced on February 17 the result of another similar investigation, which determined that Packers Sanitation Services (PSSI), one of the largest food sanitation companies in the country, had employed more than a hundred children, some just 13 years old, on dangerous night-shift cleaning duties at slaughterhouses in eight states.

He fined her $1.5 million for "corporate failure."

An investigation by reporters Juan Cooper and Belisa Morillo from 

reported in November 2022 on the investigations by the Department of Labor for this case of alleged labor exploitation, also denouncing that some minors were injured in dangerous cleaning tasks in Nebraska.

The agency noted it was occurring at plants in Nebraska, Minnesota and Missouri.

Several minors told Telemundo News that they were cleaning "saws to cut bones."

One said that he stopped attending school because he "worked and was tired."

“There were about 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, they were very young.

I don't know if it's because of the parents or because of necessity, but they should be studying and not working.

Some were lying about their age,” said a worker at a meat plant located on Grand Island, Nebraska.

The company was charged with employing minors to clean sharp saws, head cutters and other high-risk equipment with dangerous chemicals at 13 meatpacking plants.

These plants are operated by some of the most powerful meat processing companies in the country, including JBS Foods, Tyson and Cargill.

Those companies were not charged or fined, according to a report by The Washington Post. 

Mexican authorities rescue 32 migrant victims of human trafficking

Feb 27, 202300:17

Last summer, Reuters published another investigation into a subsidiary of the Hyundai car company that exploited migrant children at its factory in Montgomery, Alabama.