SUMMARY: On this Labor Day, News 5 NOW covers key stories: Former Alabama Crimson Tide and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Leroy Jordan died at 84. The Alabama Department of Conservation extended the recreational red snapper season as fishermen have caught two-thirds of the quota. An SUV crashed into Sage Health on Airport Boulevard, hospitalizing the driver. Mobile Police investigate a shooting injuring two men and damaging multiple vehicles. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency bolstered patrols for holiday traffic, which is heavy today. Commemorating Hurricane Katrina’s 20th anniversary, viewers shared personal stories of survival and recovery. The broadcast ends with a poll about burying time capsules.

Local law enforcement is prepared for all the extra traffic and revelers this Labor Day holiday, a car crashes into a local business, and those wanting to catch some red snapper still have a chance.

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by Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector
September 1, 2025

The president of one of Alabama’s largest unions said last week that people forget the meaning of Labor Day: You should not have to work every day to afford to live. 

Anthony Holton is the president of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local Lodge 2003 (IAM). The union’s members work at Fort Rucker, an army aviation base in Daleville, Alabama, between Enterprise and Dothan. 

“When union density goes down, so does the middle class. The two literally coincide,” He said in a phone interview Friday. “When union density is up, the middle class is up.”

Alabama was traditionally one of the South’s more unionized states, due to its long manufacturing heritage. But union membership has declined in the state. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in Alabama declined from 156,000 workers — about 7.5% of the state’s 2.1 million workers — to 140,000, about 6.6% of the state’s workforce, in 2024.

Holton said the union has between 3,500 and 5,000 members. Its goal, he said, is to fight for the employees of the base to be “normal.”

“They’re not going to have to work double and triple and another job, and they can go spend the time watching their children play ball like everyone else in the world,” Holton said. “To be able to go out and be volunteer coaches, to be able to be someone in our community that is there all the time that are actually contributing. You’re not stuck at work all the time doing things that you don’t want to do.”

He said he is frustrated with lawmakers and politics in the South because the union is at a military base. He said it seems that Democrats are for unions, but against military growth, but Republicans are the opposite.

“What is wrong with not having to work two jobs? What’s wrong with having the ability to retire a pension plan? What is wrong with having safety standards? What is wrong with those things? It doesn’t have to be a left or a right side,” Holton said. “In my mind, it needs to be a decency side. What is decent for human beings, your people, your workers, people that are the backbone of this country?”

Holton said that there would probably be more unionization in the state if people realized that the issues unions usually fight for – fair hours and wages – are faced by their coworkers.

“I think a lot of times people forget we can grow our own allies by starting with … there’s a lot of brilliant people I know right there on the floors beside us,” Holton said. “They are working the same kind of jobs, worrying about the same things: Are they going to pay the rent or are they going to take their baby to the doctor?”

Holton’s goals at IAM are similar to those of Lance Ingwersen, the co-chair of United Campus Workers of Alabama, Local 3821 (CWA) at Jacksonville State University. The campus union launched two years ago, joining chapters at Auburn University and the University of Alabama. Since the launch, Ingwersen and his colleagues have been fighting for a livable wage for JSU’s hourly employees, per the Livable Wage Calculator by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Through that campaign, the campus’ custodial staff – among the lowest paid hourly workers, save for student workers – starting wage has increased about 15% from $9.09 per hour to $10.45 per hour, he said.

“It’s still well below the $15 and then later $17 that we’ve been pushing for those workers,” Ingwersen said. “That’s still the primary focus of our work on campus is just trying to get fairer wages for those hourly workers.”

According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a livable wage in Calhoun County, where JSU is located, for a family of three where both parents are working is $18.53 per hour.

CWA’s biggest challenge, though, is advertising its existence. Under a university policy, Ingwersen said, “Protected Expressive Activities” that are not sponsored by the university can only assemble in two places on campus.

“It’s very murky, so it’s really hard to let people know,” Ingwersen said. “We have to rely on things like social media and other stuff.”

For CWA and IAM, it has become a reminder that you should earn fair pay for the work you do.

“If a man or a woman goes, and they put in a hard day’s work, they deserve the wage that they deserve because they are the reason you are successful,” Holton said of companies. 

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post Alabama union leaders say they’re fighting for the state’s middle class appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content leans center-left as it focuses on pro-union perspectives, advocating for fair wages, better working conditions, and the importance of union membership in supporting the middle class. It highlights labor issues and union leaders’ viewpoints without extreme rhetoric, emphasizing decency and fairness rather than partisan politics. The article also acknowledges challenges from both political sides, suggesting a balanced but labor-friendly stance typical of center-left viewpoints.

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
August 31, 2025

Alabama’s state grocery tax is scheduled to drop on Monday as a law passed last spring takes effect.

The state portion of the grocery tax will fall from 3% to 2%, the result of campaigning by both liberal and conservative groups.

“This is great news for the people of Alabama. The latest grocery tax reduction – the second in three years – will make it easier for every Alabamian to make ends meet, especially in this time of persistently high food prices,” said Robyn Hyden, executive director of Alabama Arise, a civil rights advocacy organization that has been at the forefront of efforts to reduce the tax.

HB 386, sponsored by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville and passed during the 2025 legislative session, does not directly impact grocery taxes imposed by city or county governments, though the law allows local governments to cut those taxes if they wish. It forbids local governments from raising them further.

A message was sent to the Alabama Grocers Association seeking comment.

Most states exempt groceries from sales taxes. Alabama for years was one of a handful of states that fully taxed groceries, and had done so since the state first imposed sales taxes in 1939. State and local levies combined could raise the tax as high as 10% in some areas. Critics said the tax fell disproportionately on lower-income earners and added to food insecurity.

A family that spends $600 on groceries each month and paid a total 9% tax will see their tax on the groceries go from $54 a month to $48 a month, or from $648 a year to $576 a year.

Legislators for years resisted cutting the grocery tax, citing the potential impact it could have on the Education Trust Fund budget (ETF), which pays for most public education in the state. The ETF gets most state sales taxes; HB 386 was estimated to reduce revenue in the ETF by $121 million.

But a surplus of money in 2023 led lawmakers to push for a reduction in the grocery tax. HB 479, sponsored by Garrett, the chair of the House Ways and Means Education Committee and enacted in 2023, reduced the state grocery tax from 4%, the standard sales tax rate in the state, to 3%.

The bill opened the door for an additional reduction, but only if revenue in the ETF increased 3.5%. In the fall 2023, budget experts for the state forecasted tax receipts to increase by less than 2%.

Garrett, however, moved to reduce the tax last spring, saying a repeal of an income tax exemption on overtime wages would pay for the cut.

Even after reducing the state portion of the grocery tax bill in half, Alabama Arise is hoping for further reductions to eliminate the tax altogether.

“We continue to support our longstanding proposal to replace grocery tax revenue by capping or ending the state income tax deduction for federal income tax payments,” Hyden said. “Alabama is the only state to allow this full deduction, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest households. Closing this skewed loophole would protect funding for public schools and ensure Alabama can afford to end the state sales tax on groceries forever.”

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post Alabama state grocery tax to fall 1% on Monday appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content presents a generally favorable view of reducing the grocery tax, highlighting the benefits for lower-income residents and food security, which aligns with progressive economic concerns. It includes perspectives from a civil rights advocacy group advocating for further tax reductions and critiques of tax policies benefiting wealthier households. However, it also fairly presents the legislative process and fiscal considerations, maintaining a balanced tone without strong partisan language, placing the overall bias slightly left of center.