Economy

April 28, 2023 - Workers at a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Van Buren, Arkansas, walked out for several days this month, saying the company is putting their health and safety at risk — and is now shoving them out the door after hailing their loyalty through a deadly pandemic.

April 11, 2023 - Facing South recently spoke with Larry Spencer, an official in the United Mine Workers district that represents the over 1,000 miners who unsuccessfully struck against Warrior Met Coal in Alabama for almost two years. He discussed conditions for the returning miners, relations between the long-time workers and the scabs who replaced them, and how the union — now facing a decertification petition — is challenging the company's refusal to take back 41 strikers, many of them union officials.

March 22, 2023 - Millions of dollars from the federal COVID-19 economic stimulus bill remain on the table in Southern communities, offering an ongoing opportunity to press leaders to prioritize equitable distribution.

March 22, 2023 - Earlier this year, Louisiana regulators signed off on LCMC Health System's acquisition of three Tulane University hospitals in New Orleans. Documentarian Jason Kerzinski spoke with Tulane nurses about the deal, and they said they fear not only for their own jobs but for the safety of patients in what will now be the city's hospital duopoly.

February 10, 2023 - While public support for labor unions in the U.S. is at its highest level in a half-century, the portion of Southern workers in unions did not grow last year, even though unions added new members. But strikes and other workplace protests in the region jumped by over 20%, showing growing labor activism.

February 10, 2023 - A growing number of states have adopted policies promoted by the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council punishing financial companies that halt investments in oil, gas, and coal. But they also punish taxpayers by reducing competition among municipal bond underwriters, thus raising interest rates.

January 27, 2023 - The North Carolina Utilities Commission's newly adopted plan to limit Duke Energy's climate-disrupting pollution calls for new gas-burning plants — even though they leak methane, a greenhouse gas that in the short term is even more potent than carbon. Forty-five scientists recently called Duke's planned gas expansion "entirely indefensible from a climate and public health perspective," and advocates vowed to fight the proposed plants.