Alabama’s Auto Suppliers: A Dangerous Place for Workers
Alabama leaders have long touted the jobs created by the state’s big auto manufacturers such as Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai. But a recent story in Bloomberg Businessweek reveals that employees at suppliers that make parts for those plants are faced with dangerous conditions and in a few cases death. WBHM’s Andrew Yeager spoke with investigative reporter Peter Waldman about the story.
The Highlights
The safety record of Alabama auto suppliers:
“Deaths [in Alabama] are fairly rare but they have occurred. On the risk of amputation, which is one of the most serious injuries one can receive short of death, it was in 2015 twice the risk of the auto parts industry nationally.”
What contributes to dangerous work conditions:
“The suppliers are forced to produce parts at rates that are entirely unrealistic for their plants and their workforce, and that pushes people to work very long hours and to cut safety corners and we see this again and again. As one person put it to me, it is just-in-time manufacturing on steroids.
“…Unions are a big part of this story. The right-to-work states in the South obviously have very, very, very few unions…The result of that is you don’t have the shop stewards on the floor holding the management accountable for the overwork, in terms of hours. You don’t have them enforcing safety rules. The UAW literally has safety experts that roam the floors looking for these issues.”
Federal regulators’ response:
“[An OSHA administrator] had gone to Seoul, South Korea in 2015 and warned the Kia and Hyundai executives specifically that they were pushing their auto parts manufacturers too hard and it was going to result in serious problems for workers. He was very explicit about that. He said to the folks in South Korea that Americans are not gonna want to buy your cars if they have the blood of American workers on them.”
Response from the auto manufacturers:
“When I asked Hyundai about it, I got a response from their spokesman Robert Burns that they do care about safety. They do try to keep their suppliers compliant with all OSHA regulations. He was saying that, you know, this is not an issue that they are indifferent to.”
‘Helping every dang soul’: Beloved camp director was among those lost in Texas flooding
Jane Ragsdale ran the Heart O' the Hills camp for girls in Kerr County. The camp was between sessions when the deluge hit. The only person killed there was Ragsdale.
Federal judge orders stop to indiscriminate immigration raids in Los Angeles
Civil rights groups alleged that ICE and Border Patrol agents are rounding people up based on their race, and denying them access to lawyers. A federal judge said there's evidence what they're doing is illegal.
David Gergen, adviser to 4 presidents, dies at 83
David Gergen worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as a speechwriter, communications director and counselor to the president, among other roles.
Preliminary report says fuel switches were cut off before Air India Boeing 787 crash
Indian investigators determined the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was properly configured and lifted off normally. But three seconds after takeoff, the engines' fuel switches were cut off.
2 years ago, Amanda Anisimova put down her racket. Now she’s in the Wimbledon final
Anisimova was a teenage tennis prodigy. But by 2023, tournaments had become "unbearable" for her mental health, and she stepped away. Now, she is a win away from her first Grand Slam title.
Guantánamo plea deals for accused 9/11 plotters are canceled by federal appeals court
A federal appeals court has canceled plea deals with three men accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, deepening the legal morass surrounding the long-stalled case.
