Opposed to Labrador's bill on employment in family logging companies

April 1,2015

March 30, 2015 To the Editor: Regarding Congressman Labrador's bill permitting minor children to work in a family logging business (you can read the original article by clicking here): I am adamantly opposed to Congressman Labrador's attempt to pass such a measure. We have Child Labor laws for a reason. First, logging is rated in the top-five "most dangerous" occupations in the country. Second, hiring your own child vs. someone else's child should make no difference. I am the first to promote raising up children with a strong work ethic and teaching skills that can be valuable over a lifetime, but this is a very bad idea. I've witnessed children being brought to job sites here in our county in situations which are less dangerous than logging and observed them in situations where they were unsupervised. How far will some go to duck reasonable labor regulation, workman's comp., and wages? Gerald Higgs Bonners Ferry