Issue: Other Issues

State, federal attacks on workers underscore need to organize in Alabama

By Dev Wakeley

Labor Day gives Alabamians an opportunity to celebrate the contributions that workers across our state and country make to keep our vital institutions operating and build a better world for all people. We live in a state where powerful and wealthy interests often leverage money and influence to discourage workers from unionizing. But even in the face of corporate opposition both in the state and nationally, workers and their unions have won many improvements, including overtime pay, a five-day workweek, child labor protections and workplace safety standards.

All these worker protections, and the unions that help safeguard them, are under attack now. The National Labor Relations Board has been non-functional for most of 2025 and recently received two anti-worker appointments. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also has been under attack, diminishing workplace safety protections. Dismantling federal protections likely will embolden bad-actor companies and could result in more illegal or unethical employer practices.

A man and two women sit around a table. One woman gestures with her hand as she speaks to the couple. The man and the other woman look at her, appearing to be in a serious discussion. The image is a blog post header for "Alabama Arise," with the title "State, federal attacks on workers underscore need to organize in Alabama."

Amid the changing federal regulatory landscape, claims of employer abuses have continued. During the 2024 organizing campaign with United Auto Workers at the Mercedes facility in Vance, workers accused the company of many union-busting activities, ranging from charges of worker intimidation to illegal retaliatory firing of union supporters. And during the recent Navistar election in Huntsville, workers allege the company violated its own neutrality policy and manipulated the election through gamesmanship regarding provision of health benefits.

Meanwhile, the White House recently has ramped up its worker attacks even further. These attacks include canceling contracts that protect thousands of Veterans Administration workers. This move likely will diminish quality of care for veterans nationwide.

Even against a stacked deck, improvement is possible

Workers unionized in the private sector and state and local governments have mobilized in opposition to the White House’s wholesale assault on federal workers’ rights in solidarity with federal workers. Workers’ unions and labor federations this Labor Day are having rallies and protests across the country to support worker protections and oppose federal attacks on unions and workers who are union members.

Well-funded anti-worker lobbies are strong institutions in Alabama. They remain powerful remnants of the state’s centuries-old plantation economy. But working people’s efforts to secure a stable, prosperous future for all Alabamians continue. And recently, they have borne fruit.

Efforts to provide paid parental leave to public school teachers, state employees and two-year college workers were successful this year. As of July 1, these groups of vital workers have increased economic stability through the provision of eight weeks of paid leave for mothers and two weeks for fathers. These state efforts have built on other, less expansive wins in other Southern states.

But these efforts rely on a limited view of good employment principles and the state’s role in providing quality jobs to the people who do the work. With educators and state employees, state agencies are acting as an employer, not as a regulator. Broader efforts to ensure paid leave and other concrete improvements for workers’ lives could face a drastically different response. Moreover, Alabama’s declining private-sector unionization rate reflects how workers face more limits in seeking better pay and treatment.

Job quality in Alabama is persistently low

The lower unionization rate has resulted in suboptimal job quality policies in areas beyond subpar wages. Workers fought unsuccessfully last year against anti-union legislation and a measure to reduce existing child labor protections. While undermining laws that protect working Alabamians’ well-being, state officials have continued to give billions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies to private companies.

These giveaways persist even when those companies benefit from child labor law violations. A bill to restrict taxpayer money from going to child labor law violators came up just short in 2025. Alabama Arise and our partners will advocate to get this important legislation across the finish line next year.

Alabamians labor in a state where numerous employment practices and policies prevent many of them from building stability and improving their overall well-being. More than 1 in 5 Alabama workers (22%) are paid less than $15 per hour. That is a poverty wage for a family of four and less than half of what that family needs to thrive. Alabama’s workers also make less, even after adjusting for lower cost of living, than workers in Rust Belt states like Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

These anti-worker policies are enforced statewide even when some localities are open to requiring good jobs and worker protections. Alabama cities and counties are heavily preempted by state law. The state bans local governments from enforcing worker protections like fair scheduling, minimum wages, breaks and a host of other job quality safeguards.

The shortcomings of Alabama’s low-road economic development model reach far beyond employers’ failure to pay adequate wages. Southern workers broadly have less access to paid leave than other workers. And though teachers and state employees now have paid parental leave protections, Alabamians working in the private sector still have no such protections under state law.

Alabama’s workers are essential, not disposable

Despite advancements, Alabama workers still lack guaranteed paid sick leave, caregiving leave, domestic violence leave and bereavement leave. With the state shutting the door on local efforts to give workers a square deal by preempting any local legislation to improve conditions for workers, lawmakers have funneled the fight for decent treatment through legislation into the State House – and even more so into communities and workplaces themselves. Organizing campaigns remain the primary vehicle for workers to protect themselves and ensure a brighter future for their families.

Hostility to workers has left Alabama’s workers significantly behind across the board. And this mindset unfortunately is not limited to our state. Other Southern states have passed policies that restrict community benefits agreements, which improve aspects of the communities where corporate facilities are located. These shortsighted efforts are largely indefensible, but Alabama’s workers still are likely to face attempts to pass the same policies here. Efforts like these can make workers more reluctant to stand up for their rights when bosses abuse them.

The low road to economic development doesn’t make sense. The people who do the work in Alabama are essential, not disposable. Without a thriving working class, the economy grinds to a halt. Our state’s traditional top-down economic model is a key reason why Alabama’s outcomes fall measurably short in important areas like earnings, health care and educational attainment.

A better path forward is available for Alabama. This Labor Day, state decision-makers should dedicate themselves to building a worker-focused economy built on raising the well-being of all Alabamians, not just those at the top.

New paid parental leave law improves life for Alabama workers

By Chris Sanders

A mother holds her baby while the father holds the baby's hand. Both parents are smiling. Text: "Alabama Arise news release: New paid parental leave law improves life for Alabama workers."

Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB 199 into law Wednesday. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, will ensure paid parental leave for new parents who work as teachers, two-year college employees or state employees. The law, which will take effect on July 1, provides eight weeks of paid leave to mothers and two weeks of paid leave to fathers after childbirth, adoption of a child aged 3 or younger, stillbirth or miscarriage.

Alabama Arise executive director Robyn Hyden released the following statement Wednesday in response:

“Paid parental leave helps workers create and grow their families while maintaining their financial well-being. Alabama’s new law guaranteeing paid parental leave for teachers and state employees makes our state a leader in the Southeast. And it is important progress toward ensuring every parent can care for their families without scrambling to pay the bills.

“This new law will enhance the quality of life for families across Alabama. Paid leave will help improve health for babies and families, and it will ease economic stress for new parents. This policy also will improve employee retention for schools and state agencies, and it will help mothers in particular to remain in the workforce.

“Paid parental leave is a common-sense, pro-family policy that will result in a better, healthier future for everyone in our state. Alabama Arise appreciates the leadership from the legislative champions on this issue, Sen. Vivian Figures and Rep. Ginny Shaver. We appreciate Gov. Kay Ivey for highlighting paid leave as a priority in her State of the State address and for signing this bill into law. And we appreciate every legislator who voted for this law and every Arise member who advocated in support of this important investment in healthier families in Alabama.”

Federal workers are vital to Alabama’s economy

By Dev Wakeley

Federal workers help keep our food, workplaces and environment safe. Thousands carry out critical missions like weather forecasting, disaster relief and medical care. Federal employees and their families are our neighbors who live, work and send their children to schools across Alabama.

But waves of firings in recent weeks have targeted federal employees who serve Alabamians in every sector of society. In some of our communities with the best growth rates and highest standards of living, such as Huntsville and Madison, federal workers are the primary driver of recent economic improvements and quality-of-life gains throughout the region.

Who are Alabama’s federal workers?

The federal workforce consists of roughly 3 million employees. The vast majority of them (98.4%) live in the states, outside the District of Columbia.[1] Here are a few facts about federal workers in Alabama:

  • Alabama is home to 62,000 federal workers, about 3% of the state’s total non-farm employment.
  • This makes the federal government a larger employer in Alabama than UAB, Amazon and Mercedes combined.
  • Some of our state’s most rapidly growing metro areas depend heavily on federal workers. More than 1,800 workers live in Enterprise, accounting for 8.2% of total metro area employment. And an astronomical 17,135 federal workers live in Huntsville, or 6.7% of all workers in the metro area.
  • Federal employers in Alabama include the U.S. Postal Service, Department of Agriculture, Social Security Administration, Department of Defense and many other agencies.

Attacking federal employees means cutting Alabama jobs, services and expertise 

Federal employees carry out missions that underpin our entire economy, and they do jobs that require specific experience and training. For example, Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville is the linchpin of the country’s aerospace and defense industries, and NOAA’s weather operations save lives every year when hurricane and tornado seasons hit Alabama.

On average, federal employees have more experience and education than members of the workforce at large:

  • More than 42% of federal workers are over age 50, compared to 33% of the overall workforce.
  • Nearly 50% of federal employees have been in public service for more than a decade.
  • More than half (55%) of federal employees have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 40% of the overall workforce.

Attacking federal employees means attacking many veterans, women and people of color 

The federal workforce is very diverse, both in Alabama and nationwide. This is due to many factors, including strong equal employment policies, union contracts guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, and programs to recruit people who have completed military service.

Historically, federal employment has offered important opportunities to women and workers of color. In many states, federal jobs have played a central role in building the Black middle class. Here are a few facts about the demographics of the federal workforce.

  • In Alabama, 31% of workers are Black, compared to 19% nationally.[2]
  • Nearly 1 in 3 federal workers (30%) are veterans, compared to only 5% of the overall workforce.
  • More than 1 in 5 federal workers (21%) are disabled, compared to the overall U.S. disability rate of 5%. Many of these workers with disabilities are veterans.[3]
  • Black workers make up 19% of the federal workforce, compared to 13% of the overall workforce.
  • About 1.6 million federal workers, including postal workers, are represented by a union (roughly 53%), compared to only 11.1% of the overall workforce.

Alabama’s federal workers are standing up against illegal attacks to defend critical services

Many of Alabama’s federal workers and their unions are challenging illegal firings and funding freezes. And they are doing so while still maintaining vital services and defending their obligations to the public and the Constitution. When you speak to your U.S. representative or senator’s office, please let them know the facts about how much federal workers mean to the economic well-being of Alabama and all of our people.

[1] The 3 million workers include postal workers, and the share of workers living in states is based on the residency of federal workers. Other sources, such as FedScope, produce similar statistics, though FedScope uses the employers’ location and excludes postal workers.

[2] Demographic data are for the federal workforce excluding postal employees.

[3] Disabilities in the workforce are self-reported, so this number may be undercounted.

Paid parental leave improves life for Alabama workers

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

We all benefit when new parents are able to dedicate more time to bonding with their children. Paid parental leave is a crucial policy to promote stronger families, and it also helps more people remain in the workforce and continue to contribute to our economy. Alabama lawmakers should embrace the opportunity to ensure paid parental leave is available for all state employees and teachers.

Paid parental leave’s benefits for Alabama children and parents are clear and broad. Babies have better outcomes across the board when their parents can stay with them in the crucial weeks after birth. Fewer babies are born with dangerously low birth weights when mothers have paid leave to address medical issues throughout pregnancy. Paid leave also cuts the risk of rehospitalization in half for mothers and infants following birth.

From an economic perspective, paid leave also makes sense for employers because it reduces employee turnover. This policy can help employers save the equivalent of 50% to 200% of a worker’s salary on hiring and training a new worker to replace one who otherwise might have to quit to meet caregiving duties. Paid parental leave is a common-sense, pro-family policy that will result in a better, healthier future for all of us across Alabama.

Paid parental leave is growing across the South

Since 2020, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have implemented paid parental leave for new groups of public-sector workers. After enactment, Georgia doubled its initial parental leave duration. Municipalities, too, are beginning to recognize the benefits of paid leave for workers. Birmingham implemented 12-week paid parental leave coverage for its city employees in 2023.

These steps forward contribute greatly to better quality of life for the workers covered by the new policies. Paid parental leave eases economic stresses for new parents and helps mothers in particular to remain in the workforce.

Beyond the benefits to workers, state agencies also benefit from providing paid parental leave. Workers who have more stable economic situations and feel valued as people are less likely to leave a job. And employee churn is expensive for agencies. The average cost of replacing a worker is between six and nine months’ salary. For technical employees, filling an open position can cost employers double the worker’s salary.

Great momentum for paid parental leave in Alabama

Alabama has an opportunity to take the same step forward as many of our neighboring states. Bills to provide parental leave for both state employees and teachers made significant progress in the 2024 legislative session. Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, sponsored a bill that passed the House and came one step from Senate passage last year. Shaver will file the bill again in 2025. As introduced, this bill would provide eight weeks of paid parental leave for state employees, covering childbirth and adoption.

Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, sponsored a bill to provide 12 weeks of paid leave for teachers in 2024. This bill won Senate committee approval, and it was combined with the state employees’ bill on the Senate floor before time ran out on the last day of the session to iron out details and secure passage. Covering teachers is important with regard to retention because better compensation policies can overcome some of the factors that contribute to teachers leaving the profession.

Best practices for paid parental leave in Alabama

Alabama has an opportunity to implement a paid leave policy that will lead the South. A first-class parental leave policy should meet these standards to ensure the highest benefit to both workers’ quality of life and agencies’ retention rates:

  • Sufficient duration. At least 12 weeks of parental leave at full replacement rate should be available to workers.
  • Broad coverage. Both parents should be covered to support bonding and recovery of both mothers and infants.
  • Flexibility. Workers should be able to use parental leave at a time they decide would best benefit their families in the first year of a child’s life.
  • Inclusivity. Workers should be able to use parental leave for adoptions, childbirth, long-term foster care and new family caregiving duties.
  • Availability after adverse outcomes. Leave should be available in case of a child’s death during the first year or of a miscarriage after the first trimester.

Bottom line

Like any employer, our state should ensure its workers have jobs that support their ability to care for their families. The teachers, social workers and many other state employees who help look after our children and who build up Alabama for all the families in the state should be able to create and grow their own families without scrambling to pay the bills.

Paid parental leave is a common-sense policy that helps workers care for their families while maintaining their careers and financial well-being. State officials often have said Alabama is pro-family. Ensuring that teachers and state employees have paid parental leave is an important step to prove it.

Remove tax incentives for companies that break child labor laws in Alabama

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

Companies that accept public money through economic development incentives should be held accountable when breaking laws that protect workers. 

But because Alabama’s historical development model caters to big companies at the expense of workers, consequences for bad actors are too light. 

The state’s development philosophy is heavy on tax breaks and light on accountability for companies that accept them.

These tax incentives can climb to hundreds of millions of dollars per company. But policymakers too often don’t demand good wages, fair treatment of workers, or worker input into decisions when handing out incentives. 

Further, the state doesn’t take public money away when companies and their subsidiaries break labor laws, including laws that prohibit employing children in dangerous work.

The scourge of child labor violations in Alabama

Child labor scandals have plagued the state recently, and the number of children illegally employed nationally has increased significantly in recent years. Bad employers often seek out cheap labor to maximize profits, and that profit-above-all mentality can result in worker abuses.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor sued multiple companies in the Hyundai supply chain for violations occurring at a facility in Luverne. The lawsuit alleged that Hyundai, its subsidiary SL Alabama and temporary worker agency Best Practice Service jointly employed a 13-year-old to work 60-hour weeks in auto manufacturing. 

Hyundai received more than a quarter of a billion dollars in tax incentives for the initial plant buildout, and the company has received millions more since then in expansion incentives.

At the same time Alabama has refused to force accountability on companies for breaking child labor laws, the state has stripped incentive eligibility from companies that voluntarily recognize unions. 

Many lawmakers voted to strip incentives from companies that choose to support workplace democracy. But the Legislature so far has not extended the same financial consequences for companies that break child labor laws.

Hyundai’s supply chain is not alone in violations of child labor laws. Alabama’s agricultural industry, particularly chicken processing plants, has a recurring problem with employers exploiting child labor in dangerous work settings. 

And child labor violations can be deadly for workers victimized by bad employers. As one example, Apex Roofing paid a $117,175 fine in 2024 after a 15-year-old boy in Cullman County fell to his death on his first day illegally working to install a roof on an industrial building.

Not all companies with child labor problems have gotten generous state incentives like Hyundai has received. But common sense dictates that Alabama shouldn’t be using public money – much of which ironically is diverted from the Education Trust Fund – to subsidize companies that illegally employ children in dangerous work.

How Alabama lawmakers can fix this problem

SB 22, sponsored by Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, would be an important step toward corporate accountability in Alabama. This bill would allow removal of tax incentives from companies that violate either state human trafficking laws or child labor provisions in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

This bill would provide an important enforcement avenue for basic standards of human decency from employers and important protections for Alabama’s children.

Bottom line

Companies that break child labor laws shouldn’t receive public money while they’re doing so. The people of Alabama deserve good jobs and responsible employers. Economic development does not require that we accept bad actor companies taking dangerous, illegal shortcuts. Bad employers harm their workers and the overall economy, and they shouldn’t be rewarded for exploitative business practices.

SB 22’s removal of tax incentives from child labor law violators would help protect Alabama children from dangerous economic exploitation. And it would force companies to act more fairly toward workers and communities across our state.

School breakfast for all: What Alabama can do to help feed all of our kids

By Alabama Arise

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst, and LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate | January 2025

Overview

Alabama can and should do more to equip our children and our schools for success. One big step would be to provide school breakfast for all our children. And our lawmakers can make major progress toward that goal this year with a modest allocation from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget.

Alabama Arise is recommending an ETF appropriation of $16 million to support public schools, including public charter schools, that wish to provide breakfast to all their students. 

From this amount, each of the 1,459 Alabama schools participating in the National School Lunch Program would be eligible to receive a $5,000 base grant to upgrade their food service capacities.

The remaining $8.7 million could be distributed to eligible schools to bring their breakfast service reimbursements to the maximum possible federal level.

The benefits of school breakfast

Children who start the day with breakfast learn better, participate more in class and are less likely to skip school than are kids who don’t get breakfast. But tight family budgets, busy mornings and before-daylight bus routes can mean many children arrive at school hungry. School districts across the country have found that breakfast for all children, served after the first bell, reduces hunger and helps kids learn.

It’s time for Alabama’s school districts to join their peers nationwide in feeding breakfast to all of our kids. Here are just a few of the benefits:

School breakfast reduces child hunger across our state. In Alabama, 23% of school-age children are food insecure, meaning they do not always have enough to eat or know when they will get their next meal. That rate is even higher among children of color. School breakfast could guarantee a morning meal for all Alabama children during the school day. School breakfast for all kids also allows schools to experiment with food delivery services like grab-and-go kiosks or breakfast in the classroom that increase participation and make sure kids are ready to start the day.

School breakfast reduces chronic absenteeism. Nearly 1 in 5 Alabama children have been chronically absent from school, and 53% of Alabama schools have high absenteeism rates. Research has shown that students who get breakfast at school have improved attendance and decreased tardiness, according to the Food Research and Action Center. 

School breakfast improves standardized testing and math scores. Alabama ranks 48th in average math ACT scores. Academic achievement improves, especially for math, when breakfast is available for school-age children.

School breakfast reduces behavioral problems. Child hunger contributes to impulsivity, hyperactivity, irritability, aggression, anxiety and substance abuse, according to the National Institutes of Health. Reducing hunger would reduce these behaviors.

How Alabama lawmakers can help feed children

The Alabama Legislature can help schools offer school breakfast for all children.  The Legislature can help feed Alabama’s schoolchildren by appropriating ETF dollars to match federal funds for school breakfast. Schools that choose to offer breakfast to all their children can use these matching funds to give all their students breakfast at the start of the school day. Thirty-five other states are considering similar legislation, and eight states have approved some form of school meals for every child.

How is school breakfast funded now? Many schools already provide breakfast for all children, but other schools need state help. Some Alabama schools offer breakfast to income-eligible children under the traditional federal School Breakfast Program, administered by the Alabama State Department of Education. 

Schools with a significant number of low-income children can receive the maximum federal reimbursement for all meals served. But some Alabama schools can’t make the federal reimbursement rate work for them without additional state or local dollars. And some Alabama schools would like to offer breakfast for all their children but don’t want to deal with federal regulations that might impact their Title 1 distribution to local schools.

Bottom line

Providing school breakfast at all public schools would be an important step to improve child nutrition and student success. An ETF budget appropriation of approximately $16 million would allow Alabama schools to be made whole if they can’t receive the maximum federal reimbursement for these meals. This support for school breakfast for all would help children grow, thrive and learn across Alabama.

Alabama voted. Now let’s organize for a better state

By Robyn Hyden

The State Capitol in Montgomery.

Alabama Arise and our members have worked for more than 35 years to push for state policies that improve the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. We advocate for policies to build an Alabama where everyone has the resources they need to reach their full potential. And we’ve always remained steadfast in this mission and our values, regardless of who holds public offices at any given time.

On Tuesday, Alabama voted. So today, we have a clearer vision of what we may face as we look toward the 2025 legislative session in February. The path to dignity, equity and justice for all has always been a long one in Alabama. None of us are strangers to this work, and we’re in it for the long haul.

To make positive change, we must work together. We all must lean into our relationships, communities and networks to find solidarity and grow our collective voice for change. As a member-based organization, we know power is built from the ground up. And Arise will continue our commitment to growing our people power to expand health care access, reduce hunger, reform Alabama’s upside-down tax structure and support working people across our state.

We’re glad you’re with us. Join or support our movement for a better Alabama for all today.

How Alabama can build an economy that works for workers

By Dev Wakeley

Multi-colored logo of the state of Alabama with the text The State of Working Alabama

 

Labor Day is a holiday where we can reflect on the contributions that working people – and the unions that workers form to build power together – have made to the well-being of all people in the United States. These contributions include overtime pay, a five-day workweek, child labor protections and workplace safety standards.

These advances for working people didn’t come easily. Workers won them through strikes, pressure and solidarity. These advances came in the face of overwhelming opposition by bad employers that would have rather seen their workers die than to win workplace democracy.

And the fight continues. Many steps that the working people of Alabama have won toward better lives for their families are under attack today. In Alabama, workers fought this year against anti-union legislation and a measure to reduce existing child labor protections. And while passing these harmful bills and others, state officials have continued to give billions of dollars in tax incentives and subsidies to private companies. These giveaways persist even when those companies benefit from egregious child labor law violations.

These attacks on workers are continuations of longstanding economic strategies of worker abuse in the South. But at the same time officials choose to make life tougher for working people, officials are asking why people aren’t in the workforce.

The answer is straightforward: The Alabama economy doesn’t work for workers. And that’s by design. But we can move toward a better economy with better policy choices.

Job quality in Alabama is low

Alabamians labor in a state where numerous employment practices and policies prevent them from building a stable life and improving their overall well-being. More than 1 in 5 Alabama workers (22%) are paid less than $15 per hour. That is a poverty wage for a family of four and less than half of what that family needs to thrive. Alabama’s workers also make less, even after adjusting for the state’s lower cost of living, than workers in Rust Belt states like Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Two people working under the hood of a car with text on the top that reads How Alabama can build an economy that works for workers.The shortcomings of Alabama’s low-road economic development model reach far beyond employers’ failure to pay adequate wages. Southern workers broadly have less access to paid leave than other workers. Alabamians have no paid parental leave protections under state law, though momentum is building to fix that problem for some workers. Alabama workers also lack guaranteed paid sick leave, caregiving leave, domestic violence leave or bereavement leave. And the state has prevented local governments from giving workers a square deal by preempting any local legislation to improve conditions for workers, in an extension of policy barriers that limit Black Alabamians’ self-determination and participation in society.

State policymakers prop up employers’ anti-worker strategies by opposing workers’ efforts to build a better economy for themselves. The recent upswell of unionization in Alabama has met with vicious opposition from some officials, including a picketing ban, use of state troopers to support scabs against miners, and a slick, businesslike campaign of officials orchestrated to oppose workers organizing with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Tuscaloosa County.

Officials also have attacked employers who freely and voluntarily recognize workers’ decision to unionize by forbidding those companies to receive economic development incentives. Hostility to workers, coupled with persistent underinvestment in work supports, has left Alabama’s workers significantly behind across the board.

Remove barriers by investing in child care, health care, public transportation

We know workers face specific barriers to workforce participation. The workers themselves and the businesses employing them have said so. These barriers include child care, transportation, housing and medical coverage.

But as our state’s economy has grown less than it would with broader opportunity, officials have made shortsighted anti-worker policy decisions that make life worse for working people and those who depend on them. Even the steps forward have been tentative, lacking in focus directly on the people who do the work to keep Alabama going.

Instead of just providing tax incentives to companies for child care and stopping there, workforce development should include direct investment in child care for workers. Our state’s hardheaded, hard-hearted refusal to expand Medicaid has cost lives and worsens our rural hospital crisis. Alabama remains one of just 10 states yet to close the health coverage gap.

Alabama also has yet to fund the Public Transportation Trust Fund that the Legislature created in 2018. Significant investment in public transportation would help all workers – particularly people working in manufacturing and caregiving, two areas of need where investment would provide rippling benefits for all Alabamians.

These persistent state policy failures bolster an overall economic structure that comes up short on providing jobs where people can thrive or even just get by. By not investing in essential work supports, lawmakers are limiting our state’s human potential and economic future.

Job quality for Alabamians is lower than in many other states. Many Alabamians make less than other states’ residents do for the same work, and that’s the wrong way to build an economy. 

A high road to a brighter future

Alabama’s economic development strategy of removing every guardrail for worker well-being while treating the people who do the work like they are disposable doesn’t make sense. It never has. The top-down model is why our state’s outcomes fall measurably short in important areas such as earnings, health care and educational attainment.

On this Labor Day, state decision-makers should move beyond the low-road strategies that have Alabama spinning its wheels on improving quality of life for the people who keep the state running. By investing in a high-road economic structure that uplifts workers, we can build an Alabama we’re all proud to call home.

VIDEO: The path forward in Arise’s work to untax groceries

By Matt Okarmus

On Labor Day weekend in 2023, Alabama’s state grocery tax reduction finally became a reality. The 1-cent decline in the sales tax on food brought welcome news to Alabamians who are struggling to make ends meet. And it marked a milestone in Alabama Arise’s work to build a more just and equitable tax system for our state.

In our new in-depth video, we talk to current and former lawmakers and Arise staff members about the decades of determined advocacy that made the grocery tax reduction possible. We discuss the details of the 2023 law and the benefits it is delivering for families across Alabama. And we look ahead to our continuing work to remove the rest of the state grocery tax sustainably and responsibly.

As we approach the anniversary of the grocery tax reduction’s implementation this Sunday, we celebrate the hard-won progress that Arise members helped secure. We recognize the continuing need to eliminate this cruel tax on survival. And we commit to keep advocating until we end the state grocery tax once and for all.

Click here to watch Arise’s video on our ongoing work to untax groceries in Alabama.

What are the benefits of a universal school breakfast program in Alabama?

By LaTrell Clifford Wood

Alabama should do more to equip schoolchildren and teachers for success. Our state consistently ranks among the bottom five states for educational outcomes. And one essential school supply missing from several Alabama schools would immensely improve said outcomes: universal school breakfast. Below are a few of the positive effects that universal school breakfast would have for children across Alabama.

Reduce child hunger across our state. In Alabama, 23% of school-age children are food insecure, with a disparate impact among children of color. Universal school breakfast could guarantee a morning meal for all Alabama children during their required school day.

Address chronic absenteeism. In recent years, nearly 1 in 5 Alabama children have been chronically absent, with 53% of Alabama schools experiencing some form of high to chronic absenteeism. Decades of research has shown that students who participate in school breakfast see improved attendance and decreased tardiness, according to the Food Research and Action Center. 

Improve adolescent mental health. Young adults who reported experiencing food insecurity during childhood also reported greater psychological distress in adulthood, according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.

Improve standardized testing and math scores. Alabama ranks 46th in average math ACT scores. Student academic achievement increases, especially for math, when accessible breakfasts are made available to school-age children.

Reduce the long-term cost of closing the health coverage gap. Given the chronic health conditions associated with hunger, like diabetes and heart disease to name a few, a state subsidy for universal school breakfast is a form of preventative care that could have a long-term impact on the projected cost of closing the coverage gap in Alabama.

Alleviate behavioral problems. The behavioral effects of hunger include impulsivity, hyperactivity, irritability, aggression, anxiety and a greater propensity to using rewarding narcotics, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health. Reducing hunger would reduce these behaviors.

Aid Alabama’s teachers in regulating their classrooms. Attrition rates among teachers have surged nationwide and statewide in recent years. Teachers spend roughly $300 per year of their own money to feed hungry students in their classrooms.

Address educator attrition rates. Nearly 40% of teachers who left the profession said they had better material support in their current roles when compared to teaching, according to a survey conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences. Universal school breakfast is a simple but powerful way to provide material support for Alabama’s teachers and students.

For questions regarding the implementation, impact and general importance of universal school breakfast, please contact Alabama Arise’s LaTrell Clifford Wood at latrell@alarise.org or Carol Gundlach at carol@alarise.org.