US deems migrant seafood workers ‘essential’ but limits their COVID-19 protections
Migrant seafood-processing workers, who are legally hired and transported to the U.S. each season through the federal H-2B visa program, face heightened risks of catching COVID-19.
Podcast: Airport workers faced COVID risks as airlines advertised passenger safety measures
Conversations about the safety of air travel have largely left airport workers out. The choice of whether or not to fly in a pandemic is a question of community safety and how the decision affects people with the least protection. Meet some of them in the Howard Center podcast In The Air.
At least 9,000 Arkansas workers caught COVID-19 as pandemic overwhelmed regulators, companies
In working conditions that stress a quick turnaround on products, have close contact between employees and brisk temperatures, poultry workers say they were put at risk for catching the virus.
Massachusetts health departments overwhelmed, unprepared to protect workers
With federal regulators missing from the field and state leaders scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, Massachusetts’ 351 overtaxed local boards of health were unwittingly thrust into a new role last year — overseers of workplace safety.
ABOUT THIS HOWARD CENTER PROJECT
These stories were produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, part of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, in collaboration with journalists from Boston University, the University of Arkansas and Stanford University. The mission of the multidisciplinary center is to teach the next generation of investigative journalists through hands-on investigative projects. The Howard Center is generously funded by $3 million from the Scripps Howard Foundation. It honors Roy W. Howard, one of the newspaper world’s pioneers. He became president of the United Press when he was 29 and 10 years later was named chairman of the board of Scripps Howard. More
