Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/category/labor/)
While complaints increased, overall inspections dramatically decreased, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.
A few states with large agricultural populations have, so far, left farmworkers out of their COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Advocates have said safety measures need to be enforceable in order to protect workers. Without the feds, some states have stepped in and done so.
Some states have enforced rules to prevent COVID-19's spread among farmworkers, but the federal government hasn't done so, leaving many workers unprotected, advocates said.
The pounds of chicken available to consumers on a per capita basis has increased more than 500 percent since 1909, according to USDA data.
Tens of thousands of agricultural workers have been denied wages by their employers — a violation of labor laws — over the past two decades, according to Department of Labor data.
The federal government struggles to evaluate forced labor allegations in the seafood industry, according to a Government Accountability Office report released this month.
The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting conducted an eight-month review of health studies, government data and interviews with researchers, undocumented residents and community leaders on the aftermath of the 2018 raid in Mt. Pleasant, finding that families and the community remain traumatized by the events, long after the attention by national media and local support waned.
The lax inspection process led to an incident in summer 2018 where workers lived in a former jail, a motel with bed bugs and a house with a leaking toilet.
During an incident in Kennett, Missouri, in summer 2018, H-2A workers labored through high temperatures while denied breakfast and with little access to water. Their legal status was supposed to protect them.