Labor
Series
Trashed
Inside New York’s Deadly Private Garbage Industry
Half-life
Nuke Lab Workers Getting Sick
Temp Land
Lost Wages, High Injury Rates, Few Benefits
Insult to Injury
America’s Vanishing Worker Protections
Stories
New York Wants Health Workers to Join the Fight Against COVID-19. Will It Pick Up Their Medical Bills if They Get Sick?
States are recruiting retirees, recent graduates and other health professionals to help overwhelmed hospitals, but if they contract the virus while serving patients, they could be on the hook for any out-of-pocket medical costs.
¿Qué sucedería si se enferman los empleados que cortan las carnes del país?
Al mismo tiempo que las empacadoras de carne se agilizan para tratar de satisfacer la demanda, sus empleados comienzan a contraer COVID-19. Sin embargo algunos de ellos dicen que se están presentando al trabajo enfermos por no tener licencia con goce de sueldo por enfermedad y por la posibilidad de ser penalizados si se quedan en su casa.
What Happens If Workers Cutting Up the Nation’s Meat Get Sick?
As meatpackers rush to meet demand, their employees are starting to get COVID-19. But some workers say they’re going to work ill because they don’t have paid sick days and can be penalized for staying home.
The VA Will Now Let Some Administrative Staff Work From Home
After New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica reported that the VA was not allowing telework, the agency reversed course. Some workers remain skeptical that the policy will be implemented.
Obreros “esenciales” de fábricas temen ir al trabajo y no pueden permitirse quedarse en casa
Mientras fábricas y almacenes en Illinois se mantienen abiertos produciendo suministros en medio del brote de coronavirus, obreros dicen que trabajar codo a codo en las líneas de producción y fichar en los escáneres de huellas digitales podrían enfermarles.
“Essential” Factory Workers Are Afraid to Go to Work and Can’t Afford to Stay Home
As some Illinois factories and warehouses stay open making supplies amid the coronavirus outbreak, workers say standing elbow to elbow in production lines and clocking in with fingerprint scanners could make them sick.
Letter Carriers Say the Postal Service Pressured Them to Deliver Mail Despite Coronavirus Symptoms — and Often Without Hand Sanitizer
Experts say coronavirus could be transferred through mail delivery by sick employees. Postal workers say USPS isn’t doing much to keep them or their customers safe.
Spencer’s Pressured Employees to Come to Work, Selling Gag Gifts and Sex Toys, Until We Called
One store manager said the gag gift shop was “valuing us coming in and selling dildos and shot glasses over the health of our families.” Just before its deadline to comment, the store announced it was closing due to coronavirus.
The CDC Recommends Americans Stay at Home — Unless They Work for the CDC
The Trump administration has reduced remote work across federal agencies, leaving federal workers ill-prepared to cope with the current crisis. Even the CDC has yet to direct employees to work from home.
Millions of Federal Workers Still Waiting on Work-From-Home Order During Coronavirus Pandemic
Public health experts agree that Americans need to stay home as much as possible, but the Trump administration has not yet issued clear guidance to federal workers.
Coronavirus Panic Buying Puts Grocery Workers and Shoppers at Risk of Infection
Braving grocery store crowds when you’re already stocked up puts you at risk of getting sick or infecting others, including elderly workers and others who have no choice but to be there.
The Postal Service Fired Thousands of Workers for Getting Injured While Delivering and Processing Your Mail
USPS forced out 44,000 workers who got injured on the job. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the effort, part of a five year program, violated the law. But the Postal Service has fought its workers’ claims since 2007.
Have You Been Injured Working for the U.S. Postal Service?
Tell us why postal workers are getting hurt on the job. We also want to hear about how USPS treats injured employees.
Do You Work in Customer Service? We’d Like to Hear About Your Work-From-Home Jobs.
Have you worked with a contractor such as Arise, Sykes, LiveOps or Concentrix? We want to learn more about how customer service works at big companies like Apple, Intuit, Disney and Airbnb.
Chemical Companies Are Building Their Plants Overseas and Shipping Them Back In. They Still Get State Tax Breaks.
Louisiana attracts chemical companies with one of the country’s most generous tax exemptions. The idea is to bring jobs to the state. Instead, construction often happens offsite, and automation has cut down on the jobs that remain.
Black Farmers Say a Top Chicken Company Turned Them Away
New allegations surfaced in a lawsuit after ProPublica’s investigation of Koch Foods in Mississippi. The company denies discriminating against black farmers.
Trump’s USDA Is Letting Factories With Troubling Safety Records Slaughter Chickens Even Faster
Workers are getting injured, but the Department of Agriculture says their safety is not its responsibility.
Ex-IBM Executive Says She Was Told Not to Disclose Names of Employees Over Age 50 Who’d Been Laid Off
In an affidavit filed as part of a class-action lawsuit, a former IBM vice president says she was fired for warning superiors that the company was vulnerable to claims of age bias. IBM says it was because of “gross misconduct.”
Ill Nuclear Workers’ Benefits Petitions Have to Be Reviewed Within 6 Months. Some Have Languished About a Decade.
A petition filed by a Los Alamos worker has been in limbo for 10 years. At the Savannah River Site, a petition has lingered for 11 years. At Sandia National Laboratories, workers have been waiting seven years for a final decision.
In an 18-Year-Old Program to Help Ill Nuclear Workers, a Petition Has Lingered for 10 Years
A security guard at Los Alamos National Laboratory has been seeking compensation for fellow lab workers who’ve become ill, but the government has repeatedly denied the petition and he’s still waiting for a final answer.
The Los Alamos Lab Worker Who Started a Year Too Late for Benefits
If Gilberto Ulibarri had begun a year earlier, he would have been deemed eligible for compensation from the government because the lab had not kept adequate records of radiation exposure. But because he started in 1996, he was fending for himself.
Half-Life
Chad Walde believed in his work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Then he got a rare brain cancer linked to radiation, and the government denied it had any responsibility.
Amid Accusations of Age Bias, IBM Winds Down a Push for Millennial Workers
Several age-discrimination lawsuits and investigations have cited IBM’s Millennial Corps as evidence of the company’s bias toward younger workers. Now, it seems, the company is bringing this effort to an end.
Private Trash Haulers Resist New Safety Measures
As New York City’s oversight agency moves to have companies regularly report accidents, traffic violations and license suspensions involving their drivers, the haulers push back.
How Struggling Dayton, Ohio, Reveals the Chasm Among American Cities
As a ProPublica/Frontline documentary shows, the economic and social gaps among cities are growing as dramatic as the gaps between urban and rural areas.
At Hearing for Bronx Trash Hauler, More Questions About Safety and Oversight
Unregistered employees. Dangerously long driving schedules. Sanitation Salvage’s bid last week to have its suspension lifted produced more damning findings and fresh questions about why it took regulators so long to act.
Treated Like Trash
Inside New York’s private garbage industry there’s fatal accidents; brutal work conditions; suspicious unions and lax oversight.
Hell on Wheels
Fatal accidents, off-the-books workers, a union once run by a mobster. The rogue world of one of New York’s major trash haulers.
Federal Watchdog Launches Investigation of Age Bias at IBM
After a ProPublica story spotlighting IBM’s practices in shedding older workers, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission consolidated age discrimination complaints against the company from around the country.
Treated Like Trash
A death. A cover-up. An immigrant meets a terrible end in the Bronx.
Injured Nuclear Workers Finally Had Support. The Trump Administration Has Mothballed It.
An advisory board of scientists, doctors and worker advocates helped ensure that nuclear workers exposed to toxins received proper compensation. The terms of nearly all board members expired last month — and no new members have been appointed.
Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection
Waste removal is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. On the darkened streets of New York City, it’s a race for survival.
One Night on a Private Garbage Truck in New York City
New York’s residential trash is hauled away by the city, but private companies collect trash thrown away by businesses. Every night, an army of private trucks zig-zag across the city, making hundreds of stops each.
Florida Lawmakers to Review Law Targeting Injured Undocumented Workers
Citing an NPR and ProPublica investigation, a top Florida lawmaker and a national insurance fraud group criticized a law used by insurers to turn in injured undocumented workers and avoid paying workers’ comp benefits.
Se lesionaron en el trabajo. Y entonces fueron deportados.
Cómo las compañías de seguros usan las leyes de Florida para hacer que inmigrantes indocumentados sean arrestados y deportados cuando se lesionan en el trabajo — y lo que significa en la América de Trump.
They Got Hurt at Work. Then They Got Deported.
How insurance companies use a Florida law to get undocumented immigrants arrested and deported when they get injured on the job — and what it means in Trump’s America.
Senator Demands Answers From Case Farms
An investigation by ProPublica and The New Yorker documented how the chicken company turned to immigrants to work at its plants. Then, when they got hurt or fought back, it used America’s laws against them.
The Breakthrough: A Reporter Crosses Borders to Uncover Labor Abuse
ProPublica’s Michael Grabell travels from the heart of Ohio to the mountains of Guatemala to track down immigrant workers harmed in American poultry plants.
Supreme Court Won’t Take Up R.J. Reynolds Age Discrimination Case
The decision in a case involving the nation’s second-largest tobacco company gives employers new ways to shield themselves from charges of bias against older applicants.
Can Low-Wage Industries Survive Without Immigrants and Refugees
Case Farms’ history shows how many sectors like meatpacking depend on immigrants and refugees. Now business leaders fear President Trump’s policies will create a labor shortage.
Case Farms Responds to Our Story
After our story about the chicken processor’s reliance on immigrant workers, Case Farms issued a statement. Here’s some context that’s missing.
Sold for Parts
One of the most dangerous companies in the U.S. took advantage of immigrant workers. Then, when they got hurt or fought back, it used America’s laws against them.
Vendidos por Piezas
Una de las empresas más peligrosas en los Estados Unidos se aprovechó de trabajadores inmigrantes. Después, cuando se hicieron daño o se resistieron, la empresa utilizó las leyes americanas contra ellos.
Photos: Returning to the Roots of Case Farms’ Workforce
One of the most dangerous companies in the U.S. took advantage of immigrant workers. Then, when they got hurt or fought back, it used America’s laws against them.
Conociendo los orígenes de la mano de obra de Case Farms
Ensayo Fotográfico: Conociendo los orígenes de la mano de obra de Case Farms
Inside Corporate America’s Campaign To Ditch Workers’ Comp
One Texas lawyer is helping companies opt out of workers’ compensation and write their own rules. What does it mean for injured workers?
The Fallout of Workers’ Comp ‘Reforms’: 5 Tales of Harm
Injured workers share their stories, revealing the real-life impact of rollbacks that have been spreading across the country.
How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work
Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in adjoining states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries.
The Demolition of Workers’ Comp
Over the past decade, states have slashed workers’ compensation benefits, denying injured workers help when they need it most and shifting the costs of workplace accidents to taxpayers.
‘I Try to Forget’
Joel Ramirez was paralyzed from the waist down in 2009 when a 900-pound crate fell on him while on the job. A new #WorkersComp law in 2014 passed in California and the home health aide he relied on was taken away. This is his life now.
