"Cheryl" > wrote in message
eb.com...
> This is appalling! I can't believe this goes on, even in third world
> countries, and that our supermarkets are, whether knowingly or
> unknowingly, supporting it. And we are by buying them, now that we know
> about it.
>
> <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2014/jun/10/slavery-supermarket-supply-trail-prawns-video>
>
> "A six-month Guardian multimedia investigation has, for the first time,
> tracked how some of the world's big-supermakets, Tesco, Aldi, Walmart and
> Morrisons, are using suppliers relying on slave labour to put cheap prawns
> on their shelves. Slavery is back and here's the proof."
>
> Not good.
>
I don't know how other states work, but here it is legal to pay kids who are
15 or less far less than minimum wage for farm work. I picked cucumbers for
one day back in the 1970's. We were treated like slaves. A man walked up
and down the rows with a wooden baton (like for relay races) and threatened
to hit us with it if we didn't pick fast enough. I never got hit. But we
were not allowed to have a break for water or to use the outhouse except for
at lunch time. We had to eat our lunch inside an old school bus. It was
very hot. They did give us each a candy bar at the end of the day which
nobody wanted because it was so hot. The candy was melted.

Minimum wage in those days was around $2 an hour. I got a check for $2.21
for a long day's work. I got an extreme sunburn (no sunscreen in those
days) and I could barely move. They required us to straddle the rows and
bend to pick. We had to fill two 5 gallon buckets at a time then walk them
to the sorting truck. We were required to pick cucumbers of a certain size.
If we picked too many that were the wrong size, we didn't get credit for the
bucket. Same if the bucket wasn't full. But no second chances! Do it
wrong and your bucket is dumped. Then you start over again.

I hope things have changed since those days but I really don't know, other
than that they can still pay less than minimum wage.