Michael Grabell
Michael Grabell is a senior editor with ProPublica. Grabell has previously written about economic issues, labor, immigration and trade. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.
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Michael Grabell is a senior editor with ProPublica. Grabell has previously written about economic issues, labor, immigration and trade. He has reported on the ground from more than 35 states, as well as some of the remotest villages in Alaska and Guatemala. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The New York Times and on Vice and NPR.
Grabell has won two George Polk awards and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize — in 2021, as part of a team covering COVID-19, and in 2019, with Ginger Thompson and Topher Sanders, for stories that helped expose the impact of family separation at the border and abuse in immigrant children’s shelters. The latter work also won a Peabody award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.
He previously won the Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism for his investigation into the dismantling of workers’ compensation and an ASNE award for reporting on diversity for his series on the growth of temp work in the economy.
How We Calculated Injury Rates for Temp and Non-Temp Workers
Worker’s comp data collected from five states shows temps are far more likely to be injured on the job.
The $13 Test That Saved My Baby’s Life. Why Isn’t it Required For Every Newborn?
Dozens of babies die every year because hospitals do not perform a simple test that detects congenital heart defects. Seventeen states have yet to require the exam for newborns.
The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed
America is now dotted with “temp towns” – places where it’s difficult to find blue-collar work except through a temp agency and where workers often suffer lost wages, no benefits and high injury rates.
Graphic: How to Fit 17 People in a Minivan
Workers in several cities told ProPublica that they feel pressure to take the vans or buses contracted by temp agencies to their jobs.
Los Sacrificables: Como Los Temps Que Dan Fuerza A Grandes Empresas Están Siendo Aplastados
Hoy Estados Unidos está salpicado de “temp towns” – lugares donde es difícil encontrar trabajo manual si no es a través de una agencia de empleo temporal y donde los obreros frecuentemente sufren la pérdida de sueldos, ausencia de beneficios y altas proporciones de lesiones laborales.
Walmart Accepted Clothing from Banned Bangladesh Factories
After the deadly building collapse in Bangladesh, Walmart released a list of factories it had banned. But it has continued receiving shipments from two of them.
Llevados al Engaño: Agencias de Trabajo Temporal y ‘Raiteros’ en Chicago
Algunas de las empresas más conocidas y de las agencias de trabajo temporal más grandes de Estados Unidos se benefician de – y colaboran de forma tácita con – un submundo de intermediaros del empleo, conocidos como "raiteros," quienes cobran tarifas a los trabajadores que empujan sus ingresos por debajo del sueldo mínimo. Así es como funciona el sistema en el barrio Little Village de Chicago, la comunidad mexicana más grande del medio-oeste.
Taken for a Ride: Temp Agencies and 'Raiteros' in Immigrant Chicago
Some of America's best-known companies and largest temp agencies benefit from — and tacitly collaborate with — an underworld of labor brokers, known as raiteros, who charge workers fees, pushing their pay below minimum wage. We explore the system in Chicago's Little Village, the largest Mexican community in the Midwest.
The Inactivation of the Body Scanners
Everything you always wanted to know about the TSA's body scanners — and why many of them have been warehoused.