The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "union workers" ...
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3F Members Die Prematurely
The story investigated the death records of all members of the union 3F (unskilled workers) and compared this mortality rate to standard mortality rates for the population as a whole. The aim was to see which union members had higher (or lower) mortality rates, and which causes of death were higher and lower compared to the population on the whole.
Tags: mortality; death rates; union workers; unskilled workers; 3F; mortality rates; lung cancer; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; COPD; accidents; heart disease
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Postville Series
Postville, Iowa lost a third of its population on May 12, 2008 when the Dept. of Homeland Security raided a kosher meat-packing plant that resulted in nearly 400 undocumented workers were detained.
Tags: false identity; illegal immigrant; green card; Agriprocessors; St. Bridget's Catholic Church; union;
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Agriprocessors and Beyond: Inside the Kosher Meat Industry
This series of articles looked inside the kosher meat industry, a quietly guarded world worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The reporting began two years ago when the Forward's Nathaniel Popper wrote about the working conditions at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors, in Postville, Iowa, setting off a wide-ranging debate in Jewish community. The paper has continued to follow the problems at Agriprocessors and reported early in 2008 on the debate withing the kosher industry about a widely used but apparently cruel method of kosher slaughter known as shackled and hoist. Then, in the middle of the year, federal agents, citing the Forward's reporting raided the Agriprocessors' plant in Iowa. Since the raid, the Forward has followed each legal development, but has also reported on elements of the story that were being overlooked. The first such article detailed the way in which Agriprocessors had handled immigrants and unions at its Brooklyn warehouse-sparking a case that went to the Supreme Court. The next set of articles investigated the working conditions in the rest of the kosher eat industry, with particular attention paid to the labor battles at Agriprocessors' biggest competitor, Alle Processing, which had been completely ignored. The article and chart on industry-wide conditions were the first effort to systematically set down the relative size and production of the major players in the kosher meat industry. The Forward also wrote a lengthy report on the immigrant workers from Agriprocessors who had been released from prison and ordered to testify in federal court against their supervisors, but were given no means to support themselves before the hearing date. After Agriprocessors declared bankruptcy, the Forward reported on the unnoticed consequences for the town and its inhabitants, from the lowly turkeys to the local bankers.
Tags: meat processing; kosher meat; agriculture; Agriprocessors; meatpacking; immigrant workers
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Boston Firefighters Disability Pensions
"Boston firefighters became increasingly injury prone in recent years and reported career-ending, on-the-job injuries at more than three times the rate of comparably sized cities. They often remained on the city payroll, on injured leave while taxpayers paid their full salaries, for months - and in some cases, several years - while retirement officials with strong union ties processed their disability retirement claims"
Tags: firefighters; workers compensation; disability fraud; padding pensions; disability retirement fraud; disability claims
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Without Warning
The Blade looks at how workers are fired or laid-off without warning, despite the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
Tags: worker; union; WARN act; layoff; plant closing; legislation; Congress;
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Death in the Energy Fields
This story investigates the underreported fatalies and accidents in the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry is "it's own subculture, out of the mainstream; it operates in high rural areas; it's a hugely profitable industry that directly or indirectly controls communities and states, so questions are not raised and concerns are buried. And the victims - the workers and their next of kin - are not well equipped to stand up for worker safety."
Tags: worker safety; oil and gas industry; fatalities; unions; drilling; work accidents; worker-safety agencies
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In Iowa Meat Plant, Kosher 'Jungle' Breeds Fear; Injury, Short Pay
Nathaniel Popper, reporting for the Forward (NY) investigated a Kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, where he uncovered dangerous working conditions, low pay, and anti-unionization pressures that raised questions about the ethics of the Jewish owners of the plant towards their largely immigrant workers.
Tags: Agriprocessors; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; slaughterhouse workers; Latin American immigrants; accidental amputations; Postville, Iowa; union "devils"; animal rights group; health and safety violations; Conservative Jewish synagogue movement; Kosher certification; Orthodox Judaism; immigration authorities; ethics; United Food and Commercial Workers; Father Floyd Paul Ouderkirk; Sholom Rubashkin; Caitlin Didier; Lubavitch Hasidim; Stephen Bloom; "Postville"; PETA; undocumented immigrants; Human Rights Watch; Rabbi Morris Allen; Rabbinical Council of America; Orthodox Union
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Human Smuggling
The Arizona Republic tackles the issue and the "big business" of human smuggling. This investigation "shows how coyote rings operate not just by guiding illegal immigrants across the U.S. border, but by engaging in money-laundering, bribery, forgery and other crimes." Wire transfer companies including Western Union were funneling money to these Arizona-based criminals.
Tags: Human trafficking; human smuggling; illegal immigration; undocumented workers
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Inside the UFW
This series takes a look at what the United Farm Workers have become since it was founded over 40 years ago by Cesar Chavez and others. They found that the UFW is not a union in the typical sense; it has not really been able to raise wages for workers or improve working conditions. It has become, instead, a collection of social-service organizations, some of them for profit, some non-profit, for farm workers. Family members of the UFW founders have often inherited leadership roles and sometimes the money which is donated to various social service organizations is not well accounted for.
Tags: Organized labor; farm workers; immigrant labor; Hispanics; Latinos; not for profit organizations; NGO's; Dolores Huerta; union pension plans
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Asbestos Testing Wars
Asbestos testing companies screen likely candidates to determine whether or not their lungs have been affected. This series of articles finds that these companies hire workers who are underqualified to perform tests and that they are driven by profits to diagnose as many people as possible with lung damage because they work for or are paid by lawyers who benefit from the cases. One concern is that those who file with little to no illness are depleting the sources of money for those with serious asbestos damage.
Tags: asbestos; Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act; union; cancer; plaintiff; testing company; screening company; lung disease