Workplace law changes would make for lost, dangerous Iowa childhoods, Council Bluffs labor leaders, parents, say – Iowa Capital Dispatch

Council Bluffs — Labor leaders, dad and mom and Council Bluffs neighborhood members say proposed radical adjustments to Iowa’s child-labor legal guidelines would redefine what it means to be a child within the state, inserting younger folks in jeopardy whereas driving down wages for adults amid the tumult of a employee scarcity.

“The parents which can be for this invoice need you to suppose it’s about giving extra alternatives to 14-year-olds, that it’s about them bagging groceries or working on the Dairy Queen,” mentioned Jen Pellant, president of the Western Iowa Labor Federation. “That isn’t what this invoice is about. The invoice is about billion-dollar firms pressuring our Legislature to permit them to take advantage of our youngsters.”

The Western Iowa Labor Federation organized the Council Bluffs rally.

“Over 100 years in the past, we determined that children belonged in school rooms and never factories,” Pellant mentioned.

In the meantime, key Republican advocates like state Sen. Jason Schultz of Schleswig, an architect of the extra permissive child-labor legal guidelines, say they are going to enhance the economic system and create a brand new technology of expert staff within the state as Iowans take up early coaching.

About 30 folks — with indicators studying, for instance, “Our youngsters usually are not on the market” and “Childhood means studying, not incomes!” — protested the plans for child-labor adjustments in entrance of  Wilson Center College in Council Bluffs late Saturday morning.

Former state Senate Majority Chief Mike Gronstal, a Council Bluffs Democrat, mentioned the laws rolls again protections for teenagers, pure and easy.

“As initially drafted, it might even have mentioned that if a child is injured or killed on the job, the employer has no legal responsibility, they’re exempt from legal responsibility — so they might kill your child and also you’d need to provide you with the cash to bury them,” Gronstal mentioned.

At this level within the legislative course of, Republicans have eliminated that employer-liability provision.

Gronstal mentioned the laws is designed to skirt federal office guidelines. He sees the payments, with GOP backers within the Home and Senate, as aimed toward miserable wages for adults who ought to be incomes extra amid a labor scarcity. However there usually are not sufficient folks 18 and older to fill 1000’s of job openings, he mentioned.

“In scores of various methods, Republicans have run folks out of the state of Iowa,” Gronstal mentioned.

Mary Anne Kuhr, president of the Loess Hills chapter of the Affiliation of College Ladies, made the case that stress-free child-labor legal guidelines will harm women, and make it more difficult to attain pay fairness for girls.

“This invoice will permit younger women to work longer hours in work situations that might not be conducive to good well being, rising our bodies, mind growth and social and emotional growth,” Kuhr mentioned. “Permitting this invoice to cross might transfer us again in historical past.”

Dr. Vergarie Sanford, pastor at Mount Zion Refuge Middle in Council Bluffs, mentioned historical past will choose Iowa harshly if the laws passes.

“Why would we wish to return to a time when the labor legal guidelines don’t shield our youngsters,” she mentioned.

State Rep. Josh Turek, D-Council Bluffs, mentioned the Legislature, led by Republicans, is now engaged within the destruction of the requirements and customs which have made Iowa a robust state.

“We’d like our youngsters to be in class and never in hazardous work situations,” Turek mentioned. “I can let you know we’re going to struggle this invoice.”