After facing public scrutiny for the use of prison labor, a supplier to South Korean automaker Hyundai said it had dismissed dozens of incarcerated men it had employed through the Alabama Department of Corrections and ended its inmate labor contract with the state.
The supplier, Ju-Young, ended the contract weeks after The New York Times published an article about the company’s involvement in the state’s expansive prison labor system. Prison labor is facing increased legal challenges in state and federal courts after Alabama changed its constitution in 2022 to more broadly ban “involuntary servitude,” removing a previous exception for those convicted of crimes.
“The contract with ADOC has been terminated,” a Ju-Young official, Eunjung Lee, said in an email. “We are not sure yet if we will be resuming work with ADOC.”
Men being held at a correctional facility said local managers at Ju-Young plants had informed them in early November that the attention brought to the firm by the Times report was unwelcome, according to affidavits from several workers collected by a nonprofit labor group that is considering filing a legal challenge to the firings. They were told that executives would begin letting people go that month until all imprisoned workers could be replaced.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections did not respond to requests for comment.