Today, residents of Louisiana communities targeted for industrial expansion by Hyundai, CF industries, and other multinationals are reeling from shocking news about two of the companies with plans to develop in their area. A new report, published this afternoon by the Columbia Labor Lab, examines how Hyundai’s Southern manufacturing supply chain brutally exploits prison labor while driving down wages and generating other negative impacts for millions of workers far beyond prison walls.

Meanwhile, a frightening explosion at CF Industries plant in Mississippi has confirmed the worst fears of Louisiana community leaders: not only do heavy industrial plants not yield good jobs for local residents, but they put at risk the health and safety of surrounding neighborhoods.

In reaction to today’s news, community leaders and a technical expert released the following statements.

Statement on Hyundai Labor Report

Ashley Gaignard of Rural Roots Louisiana said,“This report about Hyundai makes me wonder: how will Louisiana accommodate Hyundai to fulfill yet another “need” from the community? If Alabama already depends on incarcerated labor to subsidize Hyundai’s labor costs — with documented lower wages and higher health and safety violations — what prevents that same model from being replicated in Louisiana?”

Anne Rolfes of Louisiana Bucket Brigade declared, “It’s unthinkable that the state of Louisiana would let these companies with such terrible track records into Louisiana. If Governor Landry cared about the people of Louisiana, he would send Hyundai and CF packing. Instead, he and our legislature are giving these companies a $600 million incentive package to come here. Louisiana taxpayers are footing the bill for companies to come here and pollute us and abuse our workforce.

We need to stop pretending that this is economic development. It’s destruction, it’s callous disregard for the people of our state. And it’s just plain stupid. We need to stop luring companies with terrible business practices to Louisiana, and instead give that money to companies headquartered in our state, to small businesses who actually care about people and don’t just use us to make more money.”

Statement on CF explosion

Twila Collins, who lives just a mile from the site of further proposed industrial development in the town of Modeste in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, said in reaction, “The CF plant in Mississippi that just had an explosion is owned by the same CF that is looking to expand in Ascension Parish. Do we really want CF to expand in our area after what just happened in Yazoo City? People had to evacuate!” Collins continued, “I don’t understand how the same company that just put another community through an explosion and evacuation can now try to convince the people of Modeste and Ascension Parish that building a new ammonia plant is safe.”

Michael Belliveau, Director of Bend the Curve and a national expert in chemical safety said of today’s explosion at CF Industries, stated, “Ammonia is too dangerous to be safely produced anywhere near people. Unintentional releases of ammonia occur way too frequently. In a worse-case scenario, a major ammonia release from a storage tank will form a toxic gas cloud that can travel for miles, placing anyone in its wake in immediate danger to their life and health. If you’re caught in a gas cloud, ammonia can blind you, take your breath away, and even kill you. The only way to protect the residents of Ascension Parish from a deadly ammonia disaster is to halt plans to build more ammonia plants.”

Belliveau noted that the CF Industries ammonia plant proposed for Ascension Parish would be the largest in the world, three times larger than the CF Industries plant in Mississippi that where the explosion and ammonia release occurred today. CF The company claims it could even expand future production at its existing facility in the parish five-fold.

BACKGROUND

The state of Louisiana has developed a $600 million taxpayer-funded incentive for Hyundai and other companies expansion in a project called the RiverPlex MegaPark.

In September, ICE officials rounded up nearly 500 workers at a Hyundai plant in Ellabell, Georgia, most of whom were foreign nationals, not local residents. Rural Roots Louisiana and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade stand firmly against ICE raids and abuse of anyone. The incident cast doubt on Louisiana Governor Landry’s promises that the Hyundai plant will employ local residents.

This comes as Governor Landry has announced the planned expansion of notorious Angola Prison to incarcerate undocumented immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The prison is already the largest maximum-security facility in the U.S. at 18,000 acres and more than 4,200 inmates and has for years been the subject of multiple accusations of forced labor under brutal working conditions.

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