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State, federal attacks on workers underscore need to organize in Alabama
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 [...]
News Releases
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 [...]
Blog
Federal workers are vital to Alabama’s economy
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 [...]
Fact Sheet
Paid parental leave improves life for Alabama workers
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 [...]
Fact Sheet
Remove tax incentives for companies that break child labor laws in Alabama
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 [...]
Fact Sheet
School breakfast for all: What Alabama can do to help feed all of our kids
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 [...]
Blog
Alabama voted. Now let’s organize for a better state
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 [...]
Blog
How Alabama can build an economy that works for workers
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.
Resources
VIDEO: The path forward in Arise’s work to untax groceries
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 [...]
Fact Sheet
What are the benefits of a universal school breakfast program in Alabama?
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 [...]