When the Labor Department discovered over 100 migrant children cleaning Midwest slaughterhouses in February, their employer, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., paid a $1.5 million fine, agreed to stop employing children, and, according to PSSI and employees who spoke to NBC News, quickly fired all workers found to be underage.
But a 16-year-old whom NBC News is calling Pedro said he’s still cleaning blood and animal parts off the kill floor of a Kansas slaughterhouse up to seven nights a week, a job illegal for anyone younger than 18 under U.S. labor law. Pedro spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity. Although the job is hard, dangerous and tiring, he fears losing his paycheck would put him and his family in Guatemala in an impossible situation. Pedro said he used a false identity to get the job.
From 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., Pedro is responsible for hauling away animal parts in a cart, scrubbing blood off the floor and cleaning machines with harsh chemicals. He is proud of the job he does and said he works extremely fast to get the job done on time.
“Where they kill the cows. I have to clean all the blood of the cows until I finish. I have to leave my area clean,” Pedro said.
He said he is no longer bothered by the gore and has grown used to it after working in the slaughterhouse for over a year.
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If anyone falls behind, Pedro said, “they reprimand you. You cannot recover [the time]. Five minutes is worth an hour over there.”
In the middle of that rush, Pedro sustained a severe burn from the harsh cleaning chemicals he uses. But he continues to work.
PSSI is owned by the private-equity group Blackstone. PSSI has previously said it requires all new hires to present identification that it runs through the government’s E-Verify system and that some employees present false or stolen IDs.
PSSI asked NBC News to reveal Pedro’s identity so that he could be immediately fired, but…
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