DES MOINES — Union workers from across Iowa gathered Monday at the State Capitol to protest proposals making their way through the Legislature loosening state child labor laws.
Ryan Drew with Operating Engineers Local 150 and Jesse Case, secretary-treasurer and business agent with Teamsters Local 238 in Cedar Rapids, called on legislators to get to work on solving problems facing working families and their children, including low wages, wage theft, unsafe work, lack of access to affordable child care and underfunded public schools.
“Don’t relieve employers from liability when kids get hurt, strengthen work comp laws that you’ve weakened, because our kids are not for sale,” Case said. “Don’t cut school funding and send our kids to work in the factory — that’s the exact opposite of the direction our state should be moving in.”
