PRESS RELEASE: Following Federal Raid on Hyundai Facility, Louisiana Residents Tell Governor Landry to “Get Back Our Money”
Governor Claims Hyundai Will Bring Quality Jobs for Residents in Ascension Parish. Today's Raid on the Company's Georgia Facility Proves Otherwise. Residents Call on Landry to Claw Back $600M Gift to Hyundai, Give to Small, Local Louisiana Businesses Instead. “Governor Landy needs to get our money back and to start creating quality jobs for Louisiana families,” - Ashley Gaignard
(Baton Rouge, LA)
Following troubling news reports that ICE officials rounded up nearly 500 people at a Hyundai plant in Ellabell, Georgia, residents from Ascension Parish today called on Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry to immediately claw back the $600 million giveaway he offered the company in exchange for creating high-quality, local jobs.
“Clearly Hyundai isn’t committed to creating high-quality jobs. It appears the company was exploiting hundreds of its employees. Nearly 500 men and women were arrested- they were presumably working off the books, earning substandard wages with little to no benefits, in inhumane conditions,” said Ashley Gaignard, a West Ascension resident and founder of Rural Roots, a community organization headquartered in Ascension Parish. “Those aren’t the kinds of jobs our community needs. So now my only question is: where’s our money?”
Gaignard was referring to the $600 million gift of Louisiana taxpayer funds Governor Landry announced earlier this year for Korea-based motor company Hyundai to construct a new steel mill in West Ascension Parish. The money was proffered in exchange for creating quality jobs for the community. Today residents said Governor Landry must claw back the $600 million he offered Hyundai in exchange for creating quality jobs.
“Governor Landry, when will you finally create jobs for the Louisiana residents you were elected to serve?” asked Anne Rolfes. She continued, “you gave $600 million of taxpayers’ hard earned money – not to the local in-state businesses who are proven job creators and who pay taxes in our state – but to a multi-billion dollar corporation that’s already enjoying record profits. We’re counting on you to get that money back, and give it to the local business who need it most.”
Gaignard joins many Ascension Parish residents and local leaders in calling on the Governor to rescind the massive giveaway of taxpayer dollars and to reinvest the funds in Louisiana businesses. To bolster their claims, they point to decades of poverty and Louisiana’s embarrassing status as the 50th out of 50 states for overall quality of life. They argue that if subsidies for heavy industry and multinational corporations led to new jobs and a stronger state economy, those results should be evident by now.
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