Lately, I am struck by how many elected officials view their job as serving private industry and large corporations instead of their constituents and voters. 

This belief comes out in the ways some officials discuss Alabama’s “labor force participation” concerns. Instead of increasing workers’ autonomy by investing in public transportation, affordable housing, health care or child care – or instead of addressing low wages by incentivizing good-paying jobs with benefits – too many leaders continue simply to propose more and more corporate tax credits. It’s a tired “solution” repeatedly demonstrated not to work to address the root causes of poverty and labor force decline.

This attitude was also obvious in recent opinion pieces circulated by Gov. Kay Ivey and Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair opposing the United Auto Workers (UAW) organizing drive targeting multiple Alabama auto manufacturers. Rather than viewing labor unions as partners that could increase wages and benefits for Alabama families, our elected officials frame them as a threat to the economy and general order.

We know we can’t address poverty in Alabama without empowering every single family to access good-paying jobs with benefits and worker protections. With your support, Arise will continue to advance a pro-worker, pro-family agenda. And we will refuse to accept measly corporate tax breaks as the solution to our problems.