Hyundai plant may bring jobs to Alabama's impoverished Black Belt

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Good economic news has mostly bypassed rural Wilcox County, the state&#39;s poorest. Not far from it are five more counties that rank among the poorest 100 in the nation. <br> <br> The Hyundai Motor Co.&#39;s decision to locate a $1 billion plant south of Montgomery, near the impoverished area known as Alabama&#39;s Black Belt, has business and government officials talking about a possible change in the area&#39;s fortunes. <br> <br> &#34;I see today excitement about what the future can hold in Alabama unlike anything I&#39;ve seen in the last 20 years,&#34; said University of Alabama economics professor Carl Ferguson. &#34;Hyundai will be a magnet for the southern tier of the Black Belt. It will clearly bring activity into areas historically wanting for industrialization.&#34; <br> <br> Hyundai officials announced Monday that they would locate the company&#39;s first U.S. manufacturing plant at Hope Hull, now mostly rolling meadows, farmland and woods. The plant is expected to employ about 2,000 workers and begin producing vehicles by 2005. <br> <br> &#34;Every little bit helps,&#34; said Rep. James Thomas, D-Selma, a high school principal in Wilcox County, about 50 miles southwest of Montgomery. &#34;I&#39;m certain Wilcox County is situated so people will be able to land some of the jobs and should be not far from subsidiary plants.&#34; <br> <br> Gov. Don Siegelman said Tuesday he expects the Hyundai plant to attract up to 20 major suppliers to the state and to have a major economic impact within a 100-mile radius of Montgomery. Falling inside that radius are Wilcox, Perry, Macon, Lowndes, Bullock and Dallas counties, all among the 100 poorest counties in the U.S., according to the 2000 Census. <br> <br> &#34;I think we&#39;ll see a cluster of suppliers locating in counties inside that 100-mile radius. Keep your eye on Selma,&#34; the governor said of the voting rights landmark city in the Black Belt, a region named for its dark soil. &#34;This gives the families of Alabama a real hope for a better quality of life.&#34; <br> <br> Hyundai said it picked Alabama because of a high-quality work force, its location near U.S. population centers, a &#34;superb&#34; parts supply chain in the area and the commitment of civic leaders. <br> <br> Manufacturers through the years have favored Alabama&#39;s cheap land, low taxes, economic perks, temperate climate and mostly union-free labor force. Federal statistics show only about 11 percent of Alabama&#39;s work force belonged to unions in 1999, the last year for which numbers are available. <br> <br> The state&#39;s other pair of automakers -- Mercedes and Honda -- are not unionized. <br> <br> Ferguson said the Hyundai plant will provide hope for rural areas of south and central Alabama similar to what the Mercedes-Benz plant at Vance provided for the west Alabama area when the German automaker arrived nearly 10 years ago. <br> <br> He said the greatest benefit to rural counties may come from the $75 million the state has committed to training workers for the Hyundai assembly line. <br> <br> &#34;This is a particular need in these rural counties, where they have lost textiles and apparel industry,&#34; Ferguson said. &#34;These are workers with a very strong work ethic who produce a dollar and a half worth of the labor for a dollar&#39;s wage. But these workers need to transition into a new set of skills.&#34; <br> <br>

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