Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama to vote on union
Amazon workers at an Alabama warehouse will vote next week on whether to unionize in one of the most visible labor-organizing pushes at the online retailing giant. Employees at the Bessemer facility are seeking to form a union to represent the full and part-time workers at the center. The employees are seeking to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Mail-in balloting begins Feb. 8, under a decision posted last month by the National Labor Relations Board. “We face outrageous work quotas that have left many with illnesses and lifetime injuries,” the site reads. The site takes the familiar swoosh on the Amazon logo and turns it upside down to look like a frown. Amazon has said that since the warehouse opened in March, it has created thousands of full-time jobs in Bessemer, with average pay of $15.30 an hour, including full healthcare, vision and dental insurance. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Report: Poverty and crime put 5 Alabama cities on list of 50 worst places to live
A list of the 50 worst cities in America to live in has been compiled by 24/7 Wall Street, and five Alabama cities have made the list. 24/7 is a web based news source which according to their website that has seen articles “republished by many of the largest news sites and portals, including MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, MarketWatch, Time.com, USAToday, and The Huffington Post”. According to the study’s authors the list was determined metrics that rank “high crime rates, widespread poverty, weak job markets, and little in the way of entertainment options or cultural attractions.” California had the most cities on the list with ten. You can view the entire methodology here. Lowest on the list is Arab, located in Marshall County. With a population of around 8,200, the poverty rate is more than 17 percent. With 549 violent crimes per 100,000 people, it is in the top 25 percent of cities for that measure.That is more than double the national average. 24/7 Wall Street says “Few U.S. cities are shedding jobs faster than the northern Alabama city of Arab. In the last five years, the number of people working in the city declined by 9.8%, even as employment across the U.S. as a whole climbed by 6.1%.” Next is Fairfield, which comes in just one place higher, at 34th. Part of the Birmingham metropolitan area, Fairfield has a population of nearly 11,000 with just over 25 percent living below the poverty line. Their violent crime rate of 1,905 per 100,000 people puts them in the top 10 percent, while the median home value of $96,000 puts that in the bottom 25 percent. Like Arab, unemployment is a major problem. While national unemployment is 4.1 percent, Fairfield comes in at 7 percent. Pritchard ranks 12th on the list. A key factor in this is job loss, losing 17 percent of their jobs in the last five years, one of the highest rates in the country. Over that same period, employment nationally went up 6.1 percent. Perhaps because of this job loss, the median salary in Pritchard is $25,000 (less than half of the U.S. median), and their population dropped by 3.4 percent. Pritchard’s poverty rate (35.1 percent) and violent crime rate (1,826 per 100,000) are in the top 10 percent nationwide and the median home value ($67,400) is in the bottom ten percent. Anniston comes in at ninth place. Anniston has the most violent crimes per 100,000 people (3,434) of any city in the country, 24/7 Wall Street reports. The poverty rate of nearly 30 percent is in the top ten percent nationally, and the city’s population has declined nearly five percent in the last five years. At the same time, the number of people working within that city is just over 10 percent. Coming in as the sixth worst city in America in which to live, and the worst in Alabama, is Bessemer. Just behind Anniston, Bessemer comes in second for violent crimes per 100,000 people (2,986) according to 24/7 Wall Street. “Nearly 30% of residents live in poverty, and more than one in three residents have low access to grocery store or super markets. The typical Bessemer home earns less than $32,000 a year, well below the U.S. median annual household income of $57,652,” the site reads. Changes on the way? Things could be changing. Gov. Kay Ivey has made workforce development a key initiative, and companies and government entities are moving into Alabama or expanding, bringing tens of thousands of jobs with them. Ivey won the Business Council of Alabama‘s (BCA) 2018 Chairman’s Award for pro-business initiatives which had, at that time, already brought an $8 billion investment and 16,000 jobs to the state. “Governor Ivey’s support of a thriving business climate has been key to landing coveted economic projects including the new Toyota-Mazda plant and its 4,000 anticipated jobs to north Alabama,” said BCA chairman Gary Hand. “Governor Ivey supports a business environment which grows tech companies and she continues to be a strong recruiter of companies in the automotive, aviation, and aerospace sectors.”
The results are in: 2018 Municipal Election Day
On Tuesday, several municipalities across the state of Alabama held elections for city seats, new mayors, and school board members. Several races resulted in a runoff, including the race for mayor in Auburn, city council seats in Montgomery, Bessemer and Huntsville. Ozark approved alcohol sales on Sunday, while Muscle Shoals denied a property tax increase. Municipal Election Results: Auburn According to the Auburn Villager, mayoral candidates Ron Anders and David Hill will head to a runoff election, as will Ward’s in place 2, 5 and 6. Race winners were: Ward 1: Connie Fitch Taylor with 328 votes Ward 7: Jay Hovey with 701 votes Ward 8: Tommy Dawson with 414 votes. Bessemer Incumbent mayor Kenneth E. Gulley won the mayor’s race with 68 percent of the votes on Tuesday, but almost all other races resulted in a runoff. According to the City of Bessemer, City Council District no. 1, 2, and 3, resulted in a runoff. As did, Board of Education District No. 1, 5 and 7. You can view the full results here. Gadsden Incumbent mayor Sherman Guyton faced four opponents in the Gadsden mayor’s race, but won with 47 percent of the votes. A runoff will be held for Gadsden city council seat 5 between Jason Wilson and incumbent Billy Billingsley Sr. Huntsville Only city council and school board seats were up for election in Huntsville Tuesday. Jennie Robinson won the District 3 city council seat with ease, garnering 73 percent of the votes. According to AL.com, the District 2 city council seat is headed to a runoff election. Muscle Shoals Muscle Shoals voters heavily denied the “5-Mill Tax Increase,” voting against the increase by 81 percent. The property tax increase, if approved, would have raised the existing 7.5 mills dedicated to education to 12.5 mills. “School officials said they would use the revenue generated by the additional 5 mills to seek a $20 million bond issue earmarked specifically for capital improvements,” the Times Daily reported. Ozark According to WTVY, Ozark voted to approve alcohol sales on Sunday by 73 percent, adding themselves to the growing number of Alabama cities willing to do so.
It’s Election Day in some cities in Alabama
It’s Election Day! In August? Yep. Some big municipal elections are happening in many cities in the Yellowhammer State today; Auburn and Bessemer are among those who will have a chance to elect a new mayor, and members of the Huntsville and Mountain Brook communities will be electing city council seats. Oneonta, Jacksonville and Opp are holding elections for their city school boards; and the city of Ozark will decided today whether or not they will allow alcohol sales on Sunday. According to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, the following elections will be held today: City of Huntsville – Regular Municipal Election – City Council Seats City of Opp – School Board Election – Districts 1, 2, and 4 City of Mountain Brook – Municipal Election – City Council Seats City of Oneonta School Board Election – Places 2 and 4 City of Ozark – Election for Sunday Sales of Alcohol City of Scottsboro – Municipal Election – City Council Seats City of Auburn – Regular Municipal Election City of Phenix City – Referendum for Elected City School Board City of Muscle Shoals – Ad Valorem Tax Election for Educational Purposes City of Bessemer – Regular Municipal Election City of Jacksonville – School Board Election – Places 1 and 2 Sample Ballots and full lists of candidates for some cities: City of Huntsville City of Mountain Brook City of Bessemer City of Auburn
Bill Veitch files lawsuit to stop ballot printing for primary ballots
Presiding Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Boohaker issued a restraining order on Friday that halted printing of June 5 primary ballots in the Bessemer Cutoff. The printing was stopped due to a lawsuit that Bill Veitch, a Republican candidate for the Birmingham division of Jefferson County, filed on Friday afternoon. “Without your knowledge and consent someone in Birmingham decided your cut-off votes don’t matter. Every single voter in the cut-off from Hoover, McCalla, Hueytown, Bessemer, Midfield and Brighton matter to me and your voice should be heard,” Veitch said in a facebook post on Friday. In the lawsuit, Veitch argues that all voters in Jefferson County should be allowed to vote in the primary, not just those who live in the Birmingham division. He then asked that a judge declare a 1953 law unconstitutional, that Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King put the names of all candidates in the upcoming primary for District Attorney on ballots for both the Birmingham and divisions, and called for the restraining order that halted the ballot printing. According to AL.com, “Veitch lives in the Bessemer Cutoff, which means if the names of the District Attorney candidates were left off the ballot, he couldn’t vote for himself in the Republican Primary. It also means Democrats in the Bessemer division couldn’t vote for the district attorney candidates in Birmingham in their primary.” “The Bessemer District Attorney is listed in the state code as an assistant,” Veitch told AL.com. “The district attorney for the Birmingham division, however, has authority over all the county. ‘If that’s true that the (Birmingham) district attorney has jurisdiction all over the county shouldn’t they (Bessemer voters) be allowed to vote on those who have jurisdiction over all of them?” Veitch will face Mike Anderton in the Republican primary on June 5. The winner will then face Danny Carr, Raymond L. Johnson, or Jr. Carr in a a November special election to determine who will fill the seat. The full text of the lawsuit can be found below: Bill Veitch lawsuit uploaded by KentFaulk on Scribd
Milo’s Tea announces major plant expansion in Bessemer
Sweet tea is the quintessential beverage of the South. The Southern staple regularly shows up at family suppers, picnics, football games, cocktail parties, and wedding receptions, where many folks literally drink it like water. But not all sweet tea is created equal. For many across the South, Alabama-based Milo’s Tea is their go-to tea of choice. The third-generation family owned and certified Woman Owned Business has quickly become an America, and international — Milo’s has won or placed in the Global Tea Championships for seven years and counting — favorite in recent years. On Tuesday, in light of their ongoing success, the company announced the opening of their newly expanded campus in Bessemer, Ala. Boasting over 150,000-sq. ft. of tea-making materials, the facility is located on 15.5-acres and employs more than 155 people. “Milo’s continued growth is a testimony to our investment in our people, the quality of our products and the support of our loyal fans,” said Patricia Wallwork, CEO of Milo’s Tea Company. “When my grandfather founded our business in 1946 his motto was, ‘use high-quality ingredients, listen to your customers and never sacrifice taste.’ More than 70 years later, Milo’s mission remains the same.” Working with the City of Bessemer, Milo’s Tea made water filtration upgrades and installed water treatment buildings to filter City of Bessemer water for consistent product quality. The company also unveiled a Quality Assurance Lab, which provides employees with the opportunity to maintain rigorous quality testing, tasting, and training programs with two added walk-in coolers for stress testing at various temperatures. “Milo’s Tea sources 25% of their products from Alabama and a shift was added at Pratt Industries in Jefferson County this year to cover their production needs,” said Brian Hilson, President and CEO, Birmingham Business Alliance. “Milo’s is truly invested in both the Bessemer and Birmingham communities.” Milo’s Makes a Difference program incorporates sustainability and stewardship efforts to give back to the communities they serve. Over one percent of Milo’s profits are donated, and they have also implemented programs to ensure the facilities on their campus produce zero waste. “We’re proud of Milo’s as a company and the overall growth of the brand through the past fifteen years here in the City of Bessemer. Milo’s is a great corporate partner, and we were thrilled to work with them on this latest expansion,” said City of Bessemer Mayor, Kenneth E. Gulley. “Milo’s success is the city of Bessemer’s success, and we’re honored to know as they expand into new markets across the country their product is stamped as ‘Made in Bessemer, Alabama.’” Milo’s efforts for consistency in quality and taste are what have helped make it retail favorite. Southern Living Magazine recently recognized the “Milo’s Difference” in a feature stating, “What we love most about Milo’s Sweet Tea is that it’s made exactly the same way as it was on day one—just the same as my grandmother makes it: fresh-brewed tea, water, and sugar.” Milo’s was founded as a restaurant in 1946 by Milo and Bea Carlton after Milo returned from serving the United States in World War II. His philosophy was simple – use high quality, natural ingredients, listen to your customers and never sacrifice taste. Milo’s vision still guides the company today as they source natural ingredients, fresh brew all of their teas and never use added colors or preservatives.
