Worker productivity and meatpacking
Two of the country’s biggest meat companies have invested in a smartwatch app designed to let workplaces more closely monitor their employees’ movements.
Other companies — most notably Amazon — have used software to track worker productivity. Experts say this increases stress among workers, especially when they can be punished for the app showing poor performance.
Meatpacking is one of the most dangerous industries in the country. The CEO of Mentore, the company that developed the app, told Investigate Midwest it hopes its technology will first improve safety, and that higher productivity will follow.
— Madison McVan, reporter
JBS, Tyson invest in smartwatch app that monitors workers | Madison McVan, Investigate Midwest
JBS and Tyson Foods are using a smartwatch application that allows managers to monitor workers’ movements. The investments signal that the big meat companies could follow in the footsteps of other industries that have increased surveillance in an attempt to improve worker productivity.
More news
The following stories are a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an editorially independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in partnership with Report For America and funded by the Walton Family Foundation. Investigate Midwest is part of this network.
WHEN IT RAINS: To stay or to go: Increased flooding forces towns to make hard choice
Laurie Thomas and her mother have experienced flooding at least 15 times in the past 20 years in their Freeport, Illinois, home.
As increased rainfall and repetitive flooding strain aging infrastructure in many towns, residents along the Mississippi River ask the same question: Do we pack up and move out? For Thomas and her mother, Freeport, a historical Black community on the east side of town, has always been home.
“People have always lived over here and there's always been the Pecatonica, but lately the floods, they’ve been worse,” Thomas said.
This is the second of four stories in When It Rains, a special series. Reporting for this story was by Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, WNIJ-Northern Public Radio; Keely Brewer, Daily Memphian.
Low Mississippi River has barges running aground, farmers’ crops piling up
The Mississippi River is now so low that barges are running aground, and that has consequences for farmers. A low river’s impact on barge traffic is twofold. The lower the water, the narrower the river, and the fewer barges can fit in the channels. And the lower the water, the lighter the load.
This story is by Keely Brewer of the Daily Memphian.
Upcoming event
9 DAYS until mobile journalism conference!
Top digital journalists, innovators and researchers from universities and news organizations across the nation will lead this year’s MobileMe&You conference on October 21-22, 2022, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Register here.
Investigate Midwest is part of a mobile journalism conference coming up Oct. 21-22. The speakers include professionals from: American Press Institute, CNN Digital, the Knight Foundation, Loric Games, New York Times, Northwestern University, Santa Clara University, the University of Illinois-Chicago and -Champaign-Urbana, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Southern California Annenberg, Syracuse University, and Wall Street Journal.
The Mobile Me&You conference explores how to think differently about storytelling on mobile and social media platforms to better reach the audiences of today and tomorrow.
What our summer fellows and interns learned
Most editors and reporters started out as a summer intern or part-timer in a newsroom. At Investigate Midwest, we provide opportunities for young journalists to dive deeply into investigative reporting. This past summer, Investigate Midwest invested in two journalism fellows and three interns. Several of them shared what this taught them.
Mary Norkol, now a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, reported and wrote "She says her passion is teaching. Congress called her to meatpacking industry's 'go-to fixer.'" Norkol was a Gary Marx Journalism Fund fellow.
"My fellowship at Investigate Midwest helped me foster my skills in story development, following an investigative story about a niche, relatively under-covered subject from start to finish, following money, analyzing data, and preparing for and conducting interviews effectively. I was given the responsibility of any other reporter with the support and training of a fellow, a combination which helped me produce quality journalism and step up my overall skills in the field."
Marley Schultz, a University of Illinois master's program graduate, reported and wrote "SEC proposal could shine a light on Big Ag companies' supply chain." Schultz was a Gary Marx Journalism Fund fellow.
"I learned so much from my fellowship with Investigate Midwest. This was my first time reporting on agriculture and business. It was such a great experience being able to collaborate and talk with others who were learning alongside me. This step in my journalism career really helped me develop my voice more and extended my abilty to fuse investigative work with data and the importance of human impact. Having this opportunity right after graduation encouraged me to continue pursuing my passions for writing and reporting."
Aruni Soni, a senior at Columbia University, reported and wrote "Congress could beef up meatpacking oversight this fall. But obstacles to enforcement remain." Soni's internship was part of the Dow Jones News Fund.
"Investigate Midwest taught me how good writing comes from good collaboration. Ultimately, our goal as reporters is to bring information to the public sphere and amplify the voices of the unheard. While the newsroom imbued in me the rigor of investigative reporting, I learned that as a journalist working in a collaborative environment I produced my best work. From collective branstorming at weekly story meetings to all-hands-on-deck assignments, Investigate Midwest proved the unarguable value of synergy in a newsroom. The individuals I worked with inspired me, coached me and supported me — and I hope to pay this forward in my career."
