Once considered a marquee assignment, the labor beat spent years on the decline. Over the past decade, however, the beat has bounced back to cover everything from how Uber treats its workers to the #MeToo movement to the lack of affordable child care.
Fueled by the Great Recession, the rise of digital media, and the pandemic, today’s labor beat tackles a different set of questions from its union-centric predecessor: Will many white-collar workers never return to the office? Will pandemic-battered workers press for workplace safety? And will the Great Resignation cause American corporations to treat their workers far better?
Bethany Mollenkof, photojournalist and 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow, on photographing the devastation the coronavirus is bringing to Southern and rural Black communities:
“When I am creating portraits of someone, I like to ask them to take me to places that mean something to them. Cemeteries are sacred ground, and it was special to me to be able to have Latasha offer to show me where her family was buried. It was a peaceful but very emotional time we shared reflecting on what she has been through in the pandemic.”
