This year, ProPublica reporter Michael Grabell has been working on an investigative series called “Temp Land: Working in the New Economy.” His feature piece, co-published with Time, showed how temporary positions have become a mainstay of the US economy, often replacing good blue-collar jobs and benefits with permanent temp work. Another story, done in conjunction with Marketplace, revealed the underworld of labor brokers, known has “raiteros,” who recruit temps and effectively act as agents for the workers.
In a new report, Bill Moyers & Company producer Karla Murthy spoke with Grabell and visited members of the Chicago Workers Collaborative to show how some workers have suffered injuries on their jobs, but are reluctant to file a worker’s comp claim for fear of being rejected for future assignments.
Watch Murthy’s report below and read all of the pieces in Grabell’s award-winning series here.
