On Tuesday, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union-UFCW (RWDSU-UFCW) and the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), who are members of SEIU, joined incarcerated workers and local community partners to file a class-action lawsuit in response to the systemic exploitation and forced labor of Alabama’s incarcerated population. The suit, strongly supported by the AFL-CIO, outlines how the Alabama Department of Corrections denies Black Alabamians parole at twice the rate of their White counterparts in order to maintain a cheap labor force through wrongful detention. And though Black Alabamians are only a quarter of the state’s residents, they make up over 50% of the incarcerated population.