Alabama"s Auto Investment

 From an Alabama Aride Report on the benefits and Negatives:

"... below the surface of rosy sales numbers and flattering media stories, Alabama’s auto industry is asleep at the wheel in one crucial arena: equitably compensating the workers employed in the state’s auto plants and suppliers. Despite record sales and profits, the state’s auto employers’ policies and practices are falling short regarding their workers – and Alabama more broadly – in the following ways:

• Pay has declined across the board, despite significant profits in most years. Alabama’s autoworkers are earning significantly lower pay (when adjusted for inflation) than they did 20 years ago. Their pay is also below the current national average for autoworkers across the country. Meanwhile, the state’s auto plants are earning billions of dollars in profits that aren’t being adequately shared with workers every year.

• Shocking gaps in pay persist across race and gender lines. Black and Hispanic workers are earning significantly less than white workers, and women are earning less than men. This is mostly due to women and workers of color being siloed into and working disproportionately in lower-wage occupations (also known as occupational segregation).

• The ripple effects from these pay gaps and declining wages are costing Alabama’s overall economy thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in labor income and economic growth each year.

• Working conditions on many shop floors are deteriorating. Interviews^[1] with Alabamians employed at auto plants confirm recent media stories about unsafe working conditions and child labor. Interviewees also described arbitrary and unfair disciplinary practices and a tiered wage system that is holding down wages for many autoworkers.

Based on these results, it’s clear that Alabama’s big bet on auto manufacturing has only partly paid off. The industry has a wheel in the ditch as wages fall and working conditions worsen.

FULL REPORT: https://www.alarise.org/resources/the-state-of-working-alabama-2023.