ast month, we highlighted a conversation we had with Dr. Larissa Petrucci about a study she conducted with the Illinois Economic Policy Institute on the topic of “prevailing wage”; the research focused on the negative effects experienced by states who had dismantled their prevailing wage laws. Michigan was numbered among the states who had removed…
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A New Twist of the Knife from Warrior Met Coal
he Warrior Met Coal strike has been one of the biggest labor stories in Alabama since the miners first walked out on April 1, 2021. The strike came to a fitful end in mid-February, but negotiations between the company and the workers, who are represented by the United Mine Workers of America, have continued. The…
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Alabama Democrats eliminate youth, LGBTQ+, disabled caucuses at contentious meeting
The Alabama Democratic Party approved new bylaws Saturday that eliminated youth, LGBTQ+ and disabled caucuses and reduced the powers of others. The proposed bylaws, which passed the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) 63-49, eliminated the three caucuses because they don’t represent 15% of the executive council. The bylaws also reduced the powers of affirmative action;…
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Florida Politicians’ War on Public Sector Unions
lorida Governor Ron DeSantis has been engaging in a concerted effort to strangle the liberties of the labor movement in the Sunshine State, and those efforts only seem to be growing bigger and bolder with time, as the Right-Wing governor is taking aim at Public Sector unions in the state. “A big enemy of DeSantis…
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LEAD Academy: A Case Study in School Privatization
he Valley Labor Report has been keeping an eye on so-called “School Choice” efforts and motions by lawmakers to privatize schools, and we have not kept silent on our strong opposition to these efforts, as we believe that school privatization is a deeply flawed education system built on greed, segregation, control, and more. One thing…
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Birmingham Writers Walk Out After Three Years of Bad Faith Negotiations
en workers at Hearst Magazine in Birmingham, Alabama, staged a walkout recently in protest of bad faith negotiations. These workers successfully voted to unionize in 2020, joining up with the Writer’s Guild of America East, but claim that, since then, they have been stuck in “negotiation hell” with their employer, who has consistently and intentionally…
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7 Years Later, Hyundai Supplier is Penalized for a Workers Death
midst allegations of child labor, mismanagement, and racism, Hyundai’s supply chain in Alabama just can’t seem to “catch a break” as they are now facing penalization for the death of a worker on the shop floor. But to demonstrate just how much employers can get away with, this citation comes 7 years after the death…
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What 42,000 Disney Workers Won in their Tentative Agreement
hortly after rallying together to reject their employer’s so-called “best offer” (estimates are that the offer was rejected by 96%) Disney workers have won big in a new tentative agreement, marking a victory for the labor movement in an anti-union state (Florida). McKenna Schueler, Florida-based freelance journalist and reporter for Orlando Weekly joined Jacob on…
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“66 People Have Died in Alabama Prisons Since We Last Spoke” – Alabama Reporter on the State’s Prisons
t is fairly common knowledge by this point that Alabama’s prison system is among the worst in the country, not only in terms of mass incarceration and stringent parole rates, but also the horrific and even lethal conditions of the prison facilities themselves. Journalist John H. Glenn joined The Valley Labor Report last week to…
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Alabama Politicians Want to MICROCHIP Parolees
his strange move to consider microchipping parolees was kicked off by representative Prince Chestnut, a democrat, proposing a bill with some urgency before the legislative session began, during a house judiciary committee meeting on March 22. The bill was to ban microchipping of employees by employers within the state. At face value, this doesn’t seem like…
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Advocates visit Alabama lawmakers to urge support for Medicaid expansion
edicaid expansion is an issue deeply relevant to working Alabamians, from the hundreds of thousands caught in the healthcare coverage gap to the many more who stand to gain from the potential economic impact. The Valley Labor Report will continue to provide coverage of the important fight to expand Medicaid in Alabama. Critical to that…
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Why did Huntsville school bus drivers unionize?
e broke the news a couple weeks ago that Huntsville City School bus drivers are unionizing with the Teamsters; their organizing comes after a vote among the drivers that led to a blowout of 131 yes to 6 no. While the fact that they are unionizing is important in itself, it’s just as important to…