A teenager has died while conducting sanitation operations at a Hattiesburg poultry processing plant. A Forrest County Deputy Coroner reported the employee, identified as a 16-year-old Hispanic male from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was pronounced dead at the scene.
‘Sanitizing operations’ in a poultry plant is highly dangerous work, entailing the cleaning of blood and remains from machinery that is all too often not turned off or locked out. Shockingly, this is at least the third incident where a 16-year-old has been killed while on the job in recent weeks.
High school student Will Hampton was fatally crushed when he became pinned between a tractor and its trailer at Lees Summit Resource and Recovery Park in Missouri.
And just two weeks ago, 16-year-old Michael Schuls lost his life in a sawmill in Florence, Wisconsin, attempting to unjam a wood-stacking machine when he became ensnared.
In February, the New York Times published a lengthy exposé on child labour entitled ‘Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.’
The shocking report uncovered widespread exploitation of immigrant children, who are in the country without their parents, forced to work for some of the United States’ largest companies. The report highlighted the abject failure of government to provide adequate oversight and enforcement and protect these vulnerable young people.
Source: Confined Space