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 "unsafe working conditions" ...
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Wage Theft In the Fields
American farmworkers have often experienced egregious abuses, but nothing is more pervasive, nor harder to ferret out, than the wage theft that results from a practice called farm-labor contracting. Found in the fields of every handpicked crop in the country, farm-labor contractors not only provide growers with crews, but also handle wages and manage everything from verifying immigration status to providing workers' compensation. The problem is, the contractors systematically underpay the workers. “Farm labor contractors,” says writer Tracie McMillan, “give American produce growers what companies like China's Foxconn offer to Apple: a way to outsource a costly and complicated part of the business, often saving money in the process and creating a firewall between the brand and the working conditions under which its products are made.” And yet McMillan — a fellow with both the Knight-Wallace program at University of Michigan, and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University — found that enforcement is rare: In 2008, inspectors visited only 1,499 of the more than 2 million farms nationwide; in 2011, California inspectors found just seven minimum wage violations on the state’s 86,000 farms. Fines are minimal: “It's cheaper to violate the law than to follow the law,” says one farmworker advocate. And wage theft is tedious to prove, requiring inspectors to interview workers, analyze time cards, and collect payroll records. That's why workers and their advocates in California are counting on a lawsuit brought earlier this year on behalf of two farmworkers against the contractors who hired them—as well as the growers who outsourced the work. The suit alleges that the contractors routinely undercounted the hours worked, failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, failed to provide safe or sanitary working conditions, and housed the workers in unsafe and unsanitary living quarters. The “collective action” suit—open to anyone who can prove he or she experienced the same treatment—may cover thousands of workers and deliver awards substantial enough to deter other employers from the same practices.
Tags: Labor; farms; working conditions; wage
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The Cost of Courage
From small community hospitals, to Ivy League medical centers, physicians are increasingly facing retaliation from hospitals for reporting poor care. America's physicians are sworn to protect their patients from harm, but increasingly face a surprising obstacle. Doctors who step forward to warn of unsafe conditions or a colleague's poor work say they have been targeted by hospital administrators or boards. This is done by labeling the physicians "disruptive," then terminating their admitting privileges and listing them in a national data bank, effectively crippling their careers.
Tags: Center Community Hospital; hospital administration; hospital boards; National Practitioner Data Ban; patient care; hospital attorneys; suspension; Cleveland's University Hospitals; physicians; whistleblower physicians; Pennsylvania Medical Society; Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; American Medical Association; Health Care Quality Improvement Act; Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; Cleveland Clinic; Case Western Reserve University; hospital inspections; VA's Office of Healthcare Inspections
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Dangers Ignored in Mine Tragedy
The Arizona Republic investigated an array of safety violations at a copper mine near Tucson, Arizona. The series started with a story about a fatal rock-fall that caused the death of a miner. This incident led the reporters "to a disturbing story of unsafe conditions, worker intimidation and regulatory laxity surrounding the mostly Hispanic workers..." The investigation found that "Mission Mine management refused to regularly install safety bolts, used to prevent failing rocks" and that Asarco, the owning company, "cordoned off unsafe areas to keep inspectors out even though miners regularly worked there." The reporters revealed a vicious circle that didn't allow the miners to prevent the dangers. The investigation found that "mine managers ordered a supervisor ... to fire employees who complained," while the local regulatory office refused to take seriously anonymous safety complaints.
Tags: Hispanic workers; Mexico; copper; U.S. Labor Department; hazardous conditions; claims
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On The Line at IBP.
A worker's hand gets cut off once every five years at IBP meat processing plant. Management says that's not a problem. The company's cost-control strategy...a system that relies on the plant's easily intimidated, largely immigrant, replenishable work force its complaisant union and business-friendly laws. Zimmerman showed up while she was still waiting to have surgery. He got her to sign the waiver, with her left hand (she is right-handed), while she was heavily drugged. She has no memory of signing it.
Tags: unsafe working conditions; meat processing plant; law suit
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IRE Feed 1 "New Adventures in Computer Assisted Reporting."
A compilation of 12 stories: 1.) "Stolen Dreams" News 12 Long Island, Employees and Salesmen stealing pensions and retirement money. 2.) "Felon Voters" WCCO, Minneapolis, Convicted felons voting illegally. 3,) "Where Crime Happens." WBNS, Columbus, High-crime neighborhoods. 4.) "Ride At Your Own Risk" WTVJ, Miami, Cab drivers driving without licenses because of violations. 5.) "What's in the Tank?" KNXV, Phoenix, Gas incorrectly labeled. 6.) "The Dirty Dozen" WDIV, Detroit, Unclean restaurants with health violations. 7.) "Occupational Hazards" WSMV, Nashville, Unsafe work conditions ignored. 8.) "Unlucky 13" WRAL, Raleigh, A dangerous stretch of Interstate 95. 9.) "Owning Up" WNEM, Saginaw, Unpaid property taxes. 10.) "Hot Cars" WBNS, Columbus, The most frequently stolen cars. 11.) Wheel of Government" News 12 Long Island, Government cars used for non-government business. 12.) "Nursing Home Abuses." WDIV, Detroit, Health department violations, neglect, whistle blowers, cover up, sexual assaults, inadequate care and more.
Tags: TAPE; News 12 Long Island; WCCO; WBNS; WTVJ; KNXV; WDIV; WSMV; WRAL; WNEM.
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New migrant work force struggles to survive
The Star Tribune found that squalid housing is just one burden for the state's new wave of migrant workers. Miserable living conditions have led to tragedy for some workers. Since 1991, 13 Hispanic food-processing workers and their children have died in residential fires, most linked to unsafe housing.
Tags: Meryhew Rigert Carlson In the meat factories working poor Heartland Food Co. 41 pgs.
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No title (id: 10703)
Wall Street Journal takes a broad look at dangerous and degrading working conditions in low-wage growth jobs nationwide. Centerpiece story "Nine to Nowhere" uncovers unsafe and inhumane conditions in two chicken plants in the Deep South, garbage plants in the Midwest and electronic sweatshops in Maryland. Reporter ventured into participatory journalism by working in the sweatshops. Story provoked overwhelming response, entered into Congressional Record, cited by director of OSHA and the U.S. Secretary of Labor, 1994.
Tags: NY Horwitz Worker Safety in low-wage growth jobs in U.S.; 10 pgs.
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Kids on the Job
The Hosuton (TX) Chronicle looks at the exploitation of young teenage workers in the state of Texas. The series finds that many of the young workers are often work in unsafe conditions with no adult supervision. Some have been injured or killed on the job. The articles analyze the efforts by parents and lawmakers to strengthen the child labor laws in the state and efforts to impose federal limits on late-hour emplyment. Profiles some students who are full-time students and near full-time workers. Mar. 1993.
Tags: TX CAJ Stancill Child Labor Students Jobs Workers Compensation
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No title (id: 6093)
KCOP-TV (Los Angeles) looks at health problems among workers at the Lockheed complex where the Stealth jet fighters are made; finds the illnesses are related to the manufacture of composite plastic material in unsafe working conditions, Sept. 19 - 20, 1988.
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No title (id: 3603)
ABC News 20/20 reports on unsafe working conditions in the nation's meatpacking industry, telling how workers are exploited and why safety measures are failing, Nov. 6, 1987.