Mississippi candidate for attorney general says the state isn't doing enough to protect workers

abcnews.go.com:

A candidate for Mississippi attorney general says that elected officials must play a more aggressive role in protecting labor rights

JACKSON, Miss. — In Mississippi — one of the poorest states in the U.S. and where a 16-year-old worker recently died after becoming entangled in a factory conveyor belt — a candidate for attorney general said Thursday that elected officials must play a more aggressive role in protecting labor rights.

At a news conference ahead of Labor Day weekend, Greta Kemp Martin, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, rolled out a plan to create a fair labor division within her office if elected. The division would investigate and litigate cases involving child labor, wage violations and unsafe working conditions, Kemp Martin said.

“Labor has been a dirty word in Mississippi for generations. Some might ask why, because to some people, making money is more important than taking care of the people who make that possible,” Kemp Martin said. “Not every employer fits this mold, but it certainly seems to be the case for our governor, attorney general and the majority of our lawmakers.”

The push to strengthen the enforcement of labor laws comes on the heels of a push by lawmakers in some states to loosen child labor regulations amid high demand for workers. In the past two years, at least 10 states have introduced or passed laws that ease workplace protections for minors, according to a March report published by the Economic Policy Institute. Mississippi was not among those states.

But in July, Duvan Perez, a 16-year-old from Guatemala, became the third teenager nationwide to die in an industrial accident this summer. Perez was working on a sanitation crew at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg,