Mississippi teen’s death in poultry plant shows child labor remains a problem, feds say

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG AND HARM VENHUIZEN
Associated Press/Report for America

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The 16-year-old worker killed in a Mississippi poultry plant earlier this month is the third teenager to die in a workplace accident so far this summer. Police and coroner’s reports show that Duvan Perez was entangled in a machine he was cleaning at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg on July 14. He is the third worker to die at the plant in the last three years, and his death comes even as federal labor officials are boasting new efforts to crack down on child labor violations. Two sixteen-year-old workers, in Wisconsin and Missouri, have been killed in industrial accidents since June.