Mother left heartbroken after complaint filed against 8-year-old's lemonade stand to Alabama Department of Labor



An Alabama 8-year-old is the owner of a popular lemonade stand that he started to earn money for a trip to Disney World. However, the young boy encountered a bump in the road after a complaint was made to the Alabama Department of Labor.

Cam Johnson wanted to visit Disney World, but his mother said that he would have to earn it.

“As a typical 8-year-old, he was seven at the time, he stayed in my pocket, asking, 'Hey, can we do this, can we do that?' And so when he asked about Disney World, I told him, 'Let’s let you earn a dollar,'" Cristal Johnson, the boy's mother, told WIAT.

The third-grader started a lemonade stand last year in the family's front yard.

"It started out last year as just a lemonade stand at the end of the driveway, and thankfully, it just blew up," the mother said.

Since Johnson launched Cam's Lemonade, the stand has operated at community events. Cam has 10 different flavors, and his lemonade is sold at local Piggly Wiggly grocery stores.

The mother made a flyer encouraging children from ages six to 10 to sign up for a "one-day apprenticeship." Children could apply for positions of "smiler" and "greeter." Children interested could apply by submitting a resume with what "they want to be when they grow up and why."

Cristal Johnson told Alabama.com, "I came up with this idea to get a couple of kids in and do the same thing I did with my son. He's a little shy, and sometimes he stumbles with giving change, so I thought it would be a good idea to help some kids with confidence, self-esteem, math skills."

The mother claimed that someone reported her to the Alabama Department of Labor.

"Someone found wrong in that, and I was unfortunately reported to the Department of Labor. … It was heartbreaking," Cristal said.

"Needless to say, I was very shocked and saddened by the fact that anyone found wrong in what I was trying to do. I was trying to do a good thing, give back to my community, and to find out that someone insinuated that I was trying to labor minors, that was … it was pretty sad," Cristal said on "Fox & Friends First" on Thursday.

Cristal said her son "got sad" after the complaint.

The mother received a phone call from the Alabama Labor Department after a complaint was filed against the lemonade stand with accusations of child labor law violations.

A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Labor confirmed the complaint, but declared the department does not "stop lemonade stands, and we never have."

The Alabama Department of Labor was cracking down on the apprentice program. The department said the lemonade stand could absolutely stay open, but there could be no transactions being made if children were given business lessons.

"This is an LLC with professional transportation and distribution," the spokesperson told Alabama.com. "Kids that age can volunteer for their church or other non-profit, but a 6-year-old cannot work for a for-profit business. She is free to employ her child at her lemonade business, but no other children under the age of 14. The business has faced no penalties and was not threatened with any penalties."

The mother told the anonymous complainer, "Thank you. Because of that person, it had the opposite effect of what they were trying to do. It propelled us even quicker in our endeavor. So I don’t harbor any ill will. I thank them and I hope they have some remorse themselves for doing what they did."

The mother said Cam has raised enough money and they are planning a trip to Disney World.

Cam said of his business endeavor, "It's taught me how to save money."

Cam said his dream would be to have his lemonade sold at Walmart and Target.

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Report: Hyundai supplier employed children as young as 12 at Alabama plant



The Hyundai supplier SMART Alabama LLC is facing scrutiny and backlash following a report from Reuters that several children, perhaps as young as 12, had been employed at the plant as recently as earlier this year.

Many first became suspicious of the hiring practices at SMART back in February when a young migrant girl from Guatemala, not yet 14 years old, went missing from her home in Enterprise, Alabama. During investigations into her disappearance, police discovered that she and her brothers, ages 12 and 15, had been working at the plant rather than attending school. Their father Pedro Tzi also confirmed to Reuters that his kids once worked at SMART.

After this information became public, Reuters contacted other SMART employees and members of the community to corroborate the stories regarding the Tzi children and to find out whether SMART had employed other underage children to work at the facility. Several of the employees confirmed that minors had been in the SMART workforce, though none could say for certain how many. Their estimates range anywhere from 12 to 50.

Though most employees interviewed by Reuters insisted on remaining anonymous, one employee, Tabatha Moultry, 39, spoke on the record and claimed that one girl who used to work at the plant "looked 11 or 12 years old."

Both SMART and Hyundai have vehemently denied the allegations.

Hyundai "does not tolerate illegal employment practices at any Hyundai entity," the company said in a statement. "We have policies and procedures in place that require compliance with all local, state and federal laws."

In a separate statement, SMART said it "denies any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment."

Though the Alabama attorney general has not commented on the reports, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration David Michaels is furious at the possibility of child labor violations, especially at a plant which poses considerable safety risks to adults, let alone children.

"Consumers should be outraged," he said. "They should know that these cars are being built, at least in part, by workers who are children and need to be in school rather than risking life and limb because their families are desperate for income."

The young Tzi girl, whom Reuters did not name because of her age, was eventually found safe and returned to her family. All three Tzi children have now been enrolled at school for the fall.