Does the US have zero employee protection laws??

Mississippi teen death at poultry plant, July 26th 2023, AP and New state laws are rolling back regulations on child labor, April 27, 2023, NPR

It sucks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_laws_in_the_United_States

By 2023, states such as New Jersey and Arkansas had loosened child labor restrictions following the lessening of the COVID-19 pandemic severity, with violations increasing nationwide as a tight labor market increased worker demand. Modifications included lowering the age in which children could work certain jobs, expanding the number of and timing of hours they could be required to work, often to include school time, and shielding businesses from civil liability for work-related injuries, illnesses, or deaths sustained by such workers.

Why there are no revolt? Brainwashing. Child labor is part of glorious capitalism, worker's rights is hideous communism.

You likely won't see this on the coasts, where riots would definitely occur, but throughout the middle of the country all kinds of wild shit can happen and we're so disconnected from each other at this point that it basically feels like it's happening in another country.

The union is weak is how it's being got away with is my take on it.

Yeah... Others really beat me to it. It's pretty fucked up.

Copied from the last link: "As of June, legislators have proposed at least 19 child labor rollbacks over the past two years. Of those, seven have been signed into law in five states (Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, and New Jersey). Most of the legislation has been authored and advanced by Republican lawmakers. However, Democrats in New Jersey played an integral role in passing a 2022 law that increases the number of hours children can work, and Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to veto a pair of laws enacted in 2022—one to lower the minimum age for working at a liquor store and another the age to serve alcohol."

https://abc7chicago.com/child-labor-laws-work-permit-wisconsin/13673003/

https://katv.com/news/local/new-arkansas-law-removes-work-permit-requirement-for-children-under-16-department-of-labor-and-licensing-employment-certificate-fredrick-love-clint-penzo-child-labor-trafficking-youth-hiring-act-of-2023-act-195-act-687-protections-parental-consent

https://www.commondreams.org/news/mississippi-poultry-plant-teen-dies

It was still a constant fight but, union membership was at 23.3%, annual strikes and work stoppages were measured in hundreds, wages increased proportionally to productivity gained through technology, and executive salaries were 5-10x average workers'.

Reagan, who had benefitted from membership in the Screen Actors Guild, launched a political war against unions and labor rights, starting with the firing of 11k striking air traffic controllers who he banned from working for the Federal government (a ban only lifted in 1993) and dissolved their union (a fun sidenote to this being that PATCO were the only union that endorsed Reagan and a final "fuck you" cherry on top was the renaming of the DC airport to Reagan National). This showed business that, at least under a GOP government, strikebreaking was again allowed.

All that precipitated rapid decline in union membership for workers in the US, leading to a cycle of increased share of wealth to the top, which was used to buy more legislation to erode labor's power and roll back protections, which increased the share of wealth to the top...ad infinitum. Now, union membership is 11.3%, exec pay is 400x that of workers, and compensation has completely decoupled from productivity and stagnated.