A new group called “Good Neighbors Alabama” has been making quite a splash over the last few weeks since it was formed, particularly regarding their protest of an Alabama-based company’s treatment — or rather mistreatment — of its employees after a detailed and critical report was released by Jobs To Move America.
According to their website, Good Neighbors Alabama is a coalition of “workers unions, advocacy groups, and community organizations who want more accountability for the big manufacturing companies in our state.”
Too often, the big companies are not acting as good neighbors even after they receive millions of dollars in public money. Good Neighbors Alabama is bringing the big companies to the table to find solutions, seek partnership, and build power for our neighbors.
One such “big company” is Neptune Technology Group, a tech company and manufacturer headquartered in Tallassee, Alabama, that, according to their website, serves over 4,000 water utilities in North America by way of manufacturing products, including smart water meters, made specially to help conserve water; Neptune’s technology has been vital in helping communities across the country that are facing water crises. But while this is a praiseworthy mission and their accomplishments have been celebrated, Neptune doesn’t seem to be showing that same drive of “helping communities” with regards to a particularly important community that is much closer to home, a community that makes Neptune’s crucial work possible in the first place: their own workforce.
And the greater public is starting to take notice, thanks to an in-depth report that was published earlier this month by Jobs To Move America (JMA).
In the 32-page report, which is based on a two-year study, JMA outlines the following in their summary:
Employees report working between 55 and 75 hours per week, often across weekends, with mandatory overtime as a routine expectation. Neptune’s offering of ‘family weekends’ is limited and inconsistently implemented. The result is a workplace where extended shifts and restricted personal time are the norm, not the exception. These dynamics reveal significant trade-offs: workers sacrifice time with family, control over their schedules, and long-term well-being — and yet they stay, often for decades, with an employer that helps create public benefits like efficient drinking water infrastructure elsewhere. In short, Neptune’s economic contributions to distant cities are not matched by equivalent benefits to its own community.
Matt Fullone, an organizer who is part of Jobs to Move America‘s Southern Program, joined us on The Valley Labor Report this past Saturday to talk about the report, as well as the work Good Neighbors Alabama is now doing in an effort to hold Neptune accountable.
“At JMA, our motto is: Public goods for the most public good,” Fullone stated, explaining that the products which Neptune produces that conserve water or that help produce clean drinking water are an example of a “public good,” but there is another layer to it. “[The motto] means we want to see the creation of those public goods lead to benefits in the places where those products are manufactured, like Tallassee.”
Fullone described the “benefits” he referred to as including “good jobs, a clean environment, [and] high-road behaviors.” But it seems this is the polar opposite of what is actually occurring within the Neptune workplace. On the contrary, when workers at the facility were asked to describe what it’s like to work there, they painted an incredibly dark and dismal picture of being overworked, underpaid, and all-in-all subjected to varying levels of abuse or mistreatment, and it has been taking a toll on workers, not least of all longtime employees.
“I spoke to a worker who’s been there for thirty-plus years,” said Fullone, “and when I asked him what he would do if they weren’t working as many hours as they were, with a tear in his eye, he said: ‘Spend more time watching my kids grow up.’”
Fullone underlined that a significant amount of the workers they spoke with said they have been subjected to some form or another of unfair or abusive treatment, including everything from favoritism to inconsistent discipline to racism to sexism — according to Fullone, a woman who has been with the company for a while told him that when she asked higher-ups about the possibility of a promotion, they denied her request and stated: “It’s a man’s world.”
There is also a significant problem with wage growth at Neptune, according to the report, where the investigation revealed that for workers who have been with the company for the longest, some as long as 40 years, they are actually making less now than they were 20+ years ago, when factoring in inflation.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, so we recommend reading the full 32-page report to get a more detailed picture of what has been happening.
So what now? What is Good Neighbors Alabama looking to do in light of this revelation?
The goal now, according to Fullone as well as the report, is to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with Neptune, which would allow the community to actively keep the company accountable and ensure that it is not only taking care of the communities across the country that rely on its products, but also taking care of its own workers.
“We’ve come up with a clear list of recommendations for Neptune, based on the findings of the report,” Fullone said, going on to list some of those recommendations: “We hope to negotiate ambitious and measurable hiring and promotion goals to ensure people with historically disadvantaged groups are offered jobs, and most importantly opportunities for promotion; commitments to new and accessible in-house training; a joint initiative to grow next generation of factory leadership in highly-paid positions; commitments to allow workers to speak freely amongst themselves, with representatives of non-profit organizations, without fear.”
Fullone explained that this last one of being able to speak without fear was particularly important, because the workers they spoke with described the overall atmosphere as being hostile to that kind of thing, and there was a general fear among workers to speak freely, whether about issues or even so much as offering solutions or ideas.
Watch our interview with Matt Fullone to learn more about the additional problems at Neptune, as well as the ways in which they hope to use the CBA to enforce safety standards for things like toxic waste: