Hidden Workers Fighting for Change

Our economy rests on the backs of workers who are practically invisible, toiling in fields, mines, warehouses, and factories under unspeakable abuses. They’re fighting to change the system—and everyone can help. 

In this Issue

The Immigrants Who Feed the Country

Produce sold in US stores are picked with care by a largely immigrant farmworker force. The work is hot and exhausting, and too many farms cut corners on worker health, safety, and wages. But workers are showing farms exactly how they can improve.

Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

The True Cost of Two-Day Shipping

Amazon continues to grow in popularity for its low prices and fast delivery. But warehouse workers behind the scenes are paying for it all with bottom-level salaries and back-breaking work.

Eleanor Greene

On Sale Now: Prison Labor

Walmart, Victoria’s Secret, and even Whole Foods have used US prison labor to keep their production costs down. Are those workers being exploited?

Sytonia Reid

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Green Tech’s Underground Workers

Most of the cobalt in today’s electronics is extracted by “artisanal miners” in the DRC. They dig their own dangerous mines without protection, and some employ child workers. Big Tech could make a difference.

Eleanor Greene

A Life in California's Strawberry Fields

Lucrecia Camacho tells of making a life but not a living in California’s strawberry, tomato, and pepper fields.

Lucrecia Camacho, Excerpted with permission from In the Fields of the North/En Los Campos del Norte by David Bacon

student protesters at March for Our Lives

Investing in Common-Sense Gun Safety

Congress remains gridlocked on gun safety despite the unending news of yet more school shootings. Investors, however, are taking action. 

Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

man pulls kayak out of Menominee offshoot

Mining on Sacred Ground

Like the Standing Rock Sioux before them, the Menominee Nation has taken up the mantle of “water protectors” in the Midwest. They’re also trying to safeguard their Tribal history. 

Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

Life in an Electronics Factory

Your cell phone and other favorite electronics may have been made in an abusive sweatshop—and poisoned the workers who made them. China Labor Watch goes undercover to investigate factories.

Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

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Hidden Workers Fighting for Change

In this Issue

Economic Activism is what makes our work powerful. You make our work possible!

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