Last Week in Southern Labor

Earlier this month, the Alabama legislature’s HB209 bill was officially passed by the House and has moved on to be deliberated on by the Senate, with unfortunately good odds that it will ultimately succeed. We have been reporting at length about how damaging this bill would be when it comes to Alabama citizens casting their…

Here’s a round-up of the bills that passed the Alabama Legislature this week.  Tuesday, May 9 Senate House Thursday, May 11 Senate House Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor…

TALLAPOOSA COUNTY, Alabama — The community of Camp Hill, Alabama, has been experiencing relentless disasters over the last several weeks. From environmental disasters to economic hardships to even loss of life, the ~1,000 residents are not only feeling like they are being kicked while down, but also feeling like they have been left behind by…

resident Biden has long touted his CHIPS Act as being a “masterpiece” that would give the economy and the working class a much needed boost. But, unfortunately, we are finding that it ultimately isn’t doing enough to help workers; on the contrary, in some ways it is actually hurting Labor rather than helping it. In…

ales of the “Tennessee Three” have been splashed across headlines over the last couple of weeks as the controversy unfolded following a horrific shooting in Nashville, which sparked a large protest against gun violence and calling for gun control. Three Tennessee legislators, two black men (Justin Jones and Justin Pearson) and one white woman (Gloria…

t cannot be overstated how crucial Veterans Affairs (VA) has been and continues to be to effectively caring for the people who serve the United States of America, and they have been through hell and highwater in the last couple years as everything from greedy politicians to privatization to downsizing and more has threatened the…

everal key victories for the labor movement have occurred in the State of Michigan, including the reinstitution of prevailing wage laws and the repealing of the state’s “Right To Work” system (which Alabama currently also employs). It is well known by workers in the labor movement that “Right To Work” is fundamentally anti-worker, and effectively…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…