FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Joey Mason from Mason Hills Farms - Mobile Chamber's former U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne - Midday Mobile - Thursday 8-15-24
There will be no personal nor direct attacks on anyone and I would ask that you please try to Keep down the loud cheering and the clapping. There will be no booing and no unruly behavior With that this is painful and it will be for a long time After all these are a couple of high-stepping turkeys and you know what to say about a high stepper No step too high for a high stepper. This is midday mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM talk 106 five was shot a tough guy. I mean I think everybody knows that you know Sean He took some licks he hangs in there. Yeah, what's wrong with the beer? We got I mean the deal We got drink pretty good don't it. Did you hear what I said? So this is a babe council I had no doubt about them that doesn't shock if you don't like it Last question were you high on drugs? And where we go FM talk one oh six five and midday mobile on location from the 2024 business Expo with the mobile Chamber I'm good to be back here do it every year in the Well next to the mobile command you did so we bring the van in here Which is a whole another story bring the van in here set it up and then we set up the radio studio right here in front So it's it's always fun to visit with folks and do radio at the same time. Hopefully you get a chance to come out here I think they're open till three o'clock today and We'll be here doing the show till two but be here till three o'clock as well So stop by and say hello coming up in just a little bit Chamber president CEO of the chamber see you walking by and Bradley burn is gonna join us also daily from land yap and our number two of the show And uh, we got a lot to talk about you heard the west allen And west allen the clip there that just played I guess before the show started story come that's come out We talked about it a little bit of what he was looking into I guess he was on Secretary of State west allen was on the show with us about two three weeks ago now the story out from wpmi Here's the headline from uh, andrew reimee says alabama secretary of state discovers thousands of non citizens registered to vote so you know we hear like when they when they Move legislation and they're like, oh, well, there's not really a problem here with uh illegals voting remember that in congress They said uh, the republicans are just moving something here. That's just uh, you know, just to get in the news Maybe Maybe not so we'll get in the story in just a little bit Uh, when you come out too, we see a lot of folks at this business expo We see every year and I get to also see friends I see even places not like the business expo is my man joe mason from mason hills farm sitting in with me for the first segment How are you? Hey, son doing well, man. There's a lot of people here Yeah, there's a lot of people here and like I don't know of an event That you're not at so I say it Events that i'm at you're at every one of them. Yes, and then I want your social media and you're at every other event We're just trying to keep up, you know, but I'm trying to keep up with you but you know, it's a it's kind of it doesn't surprise me because I know you but Somebody who's in the in in the world where you are of getting locally sourced beef and product products to people um the uh the fact that you're Doing that at events like this you're doing social media. I mean, it's what happens when this great idea meets with a young person Right. I mean, that's just what it is. Just take it a birthday So i'm not as young as I want. Well, happy birthday today. So happy birthday So no, but it is interesting i'm gonna talk about the product and we do that a whole bunch But I also want to talk about what you do since we're at a business expo here And people are talking about the ways they market and do things Imagine in the world of the outside of your world here locally, but the people you deal with in the cattle world and all that The idea that you're social media savvy that you go to events is is different. I mean, yeah, right? I mean it comes from camera farmers. You get you know that I can't picture my grandfather and mongrels ever do Yeah, like you do Well, you really you really have to be social media conscious because you're telling the the story of what we're doing here We're offering farm table products locally Uh, so we're this is kind of a new concept right that we've uh, everybody's been growing cattle here growing Right pigs and chickens and those things, but we're really trying to make it Easily accessible to the masses, you know, you and I came together on a main discussions here But one of them was that locally sourced and back during uh, back during shutdown You know, right back during covid People were like, why can't I get beef and producers? We were saying they were like, oh, you must be killed at Sullivan The prices are so high and I said no, yeah We the producers weren't killing it and it was a fact that there were entities that aren't local like you are That were the bottleneck of getting from the producer to the store to the consumer, right? There was it there was a there was a yeah a disconnect. It was that bottleneck It was that disconnect and it's still we we have to move volume We have to move a lot to make this thing work and we're without the support of your listeners and the support of people in mobile Uh, we we've been we've been trouble. So right. I'm grateful for the support, but we need more You know, we just need more Yeah And and the fact is that two reasons you get a superior product and people say we'll buy local yes buy local But it also ensures that god forbid the next time some has stories monkeypox Who knows next time some hits right? Yeah that we're not so disconnected From getting the food here locally. That's correct. Yeah, we want to make sure that we kind of shore up the uh The food supply and the food economic security right of mobile counter because you're doing Great quality products and many different Packaging's in yeah, but the core of it is y'all Joey makes sure that there's not some entity that's so far away. That's in between us And getting our and controlling it right you do the process in here we do And a lot of people didn't I mean because they don't have to it's not their job But they go to the grocery store and they just buy buy some beef. That's right Or they buy some pork or the buy some chicken they don't think about that part of it But you need to because I think they got woken up to that during the yeah during the pandemic Well, what kind of separates us is Is We raise them locally, but we also Dryage all of our animals so that whenever you get a pound of protein for us You're getting closer to a pound of protein than if you buy it at the grocery store Right, so they wet age their beef for 28 days. It sits in its own juices and whatnot And so but we actually dried it so we're we're removing 1% moisture per day. So at day 14 You've lost 14% moisture. So when you get a pound of ground beef from us. It's not going to shrink You're not buying water. You're buying edible protein Yeah, you mean that effect where you you make the hamburger. Yeah, you're like yeah Those are going to be great for everybody you come back and they're like half the size What and not only doing that now you've expanded obviously you never stop moving I've never long enough now, right you've expanded to doing so many more things and We're talking about those products. I also want to talk about the fact that you are Now involved in inviting people in to compete. That's correct So talk about the event you have coming up. This is a cooking competition It is this called smoke on the farm and it would be october 11th 12th and 13th We have an sea state competition friday night and saturday. We have a people's choice Awards our people's choice competition There on saturday along with a judged event. We have about 15 000 worth of prize money and Different things that we're going to give away just for people's choice. We have live music We have vendors. We got sponsors that have really come together. We've raised some money already We just picked up a 10,000 response from yesterday. Nice. So that's pretty cool for the VIP tent And so you really want to show up. It's gonna be a lot of fun Yeah, so you got people that are you know, like this is their hobby is to make it to make fantastic food But we as the not even the non competitors get to come out and sample those where yeah So we'll have a our cattle ear tags. We'll get some new ones that have our logo on it And that's what you vote with that'll be your voting token. I like it And so uh, yeah, first prize is going to be, you know, like a 4,500 dollar smoker Uh second place will be something and then a judge is it'll be some cash prizes or something else We we got plenty of time And if you know for the listening audience if you want to be a part of it, you can go to smoke on the farm.org You can reach out to me on social media My name is joey mason Just get ahold of us. We'd love to support what you're doing because you're supporting what we're doing And also, uh, a fun part of this too is now getting ready to get into football season Just go ahead and figure this out. It's it's right around the corner Uh, chance for people to win weekly, uh prizes from y'all to throw on the grills. Yeah, and y'all you know, really We really couldn't have done the reach that we have done without one on 6.5 And so y'all we've put together some stuff with laurin Uh, and we're gonna be doing some giveaways here for the next few months. It looks like Okay, so we'll give you more details coming up, but weekly y'all gonna be able to win what we've been talking about great products from Mason and I say products too because when you first started you did have several products where I first came out there How many do you have a number of how many parts are in your line now? So we have seven different brands underneath the mason. But inside the brands there's products Yeah, like Herschel burger alone has four different flavors And four different skews four different packaging and so uh, it's really starting to pick up some steam here Yeah, so if y'all think okay. Well early on I thought about it for like the first tomahawk steak I ever had was for you And then they're like oh, yeah, I know this tomahawk steak and I know the new york strip I know these cuts But there's a whole bunch more like every time I refresh your website. There's more stuff Well, and there's even a secret menu that we developed Uh, why do I not know about the secret menu? Well, you know now and now you're uh, you're you're listening audience knows too Like we have bacon now that is uncured without nitrite so that it can it's really good and we smoke it We have a smoker there in our farm now. We're actually uh, we just launched a social media campaign That if you sign up with us you can become a taste tester and we'll send you free product Uh, okay. Yeah, it's like like pro team like yeah. Yeah. Just we just need some honest call back And qualify as a pro food tester. Yeah, you do send it to me. I will all right. So people want to go to the website Uh all the with the information Uh for smoke on the farm be on the website. It is yeah Mason Hills farm.com smoke on the farm.org And then you can always give us a call at 251-865-7748 Follow us on social media We got a new social media person that's been working for us for a few months and she is knocking it out of the park Good stuff. Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate it. Appreciate what you do there. Thank you And I can't wait to be a professional tester. We'll help you out. All right. Be on the pro Be I got a protein meal here. I'm working with joe. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be really fun. Good stuff. Well, thank you so much. Yes, sir There he is. Joey Mason, Mason Hills farm And we continue our conversation from here at the 2024 business expo We are at the convention center and it is absolutely popping in here A lot of people here and it's a great thing to do even looking business to business But if you're looking for opportunities you're looking for vendors out there Uh, they are here today and they will be here till three o'clock today All right before we head to the news here. I do want to just quickly read this story that Andrea rami put up And this is we'll get secretary state west allen back on the show soon I know he's been on with jeff recently, but he was on about three weeks ago And he had talked to us about how there was a chance That maybe uh, maybe there is something Something fishy going on here in alabama. Well, here's the story from angel rami said secretary state west allen says 3251 people who are here Legally in the country, but not u.s citizens Had somehow been able to register to vote in alabama, which is against law Remember we talked about that before when they moved that act in washington, right? The republicans moved it of course it died in the senate and boden of course would veto it It was the idea that you got to be a citizen to vote you got to be a citizen to vote not Not really edgy stuff. I wouldn't think right And the the pushback on many groups was hey, this is not really an issue Yeah, and we go we go the news, but there was not really an issue because nobody was doing this Well here just in alabama once again the number coming out 3251 Non-citizens registered to vote All right get your comments on that on the text line at three four three zero one zero six three four three zero one zero six And we're coming right back boke mid-day mobile live from the business expo right here in the convention center Good morning. I'm shmani You're listening to mid-day mobile with shawn sullivan on fm talk one oh six five call shawn now at three four three zero one oh six All right, so welcome back fm talk one oh six five at mid-day mobile We are on location at the business expo here at the mobile convention center And appreciate everybody stopping by and saying hello. There's a lot of fun doing this every year I also want to check in with my buddy playing price who if I was figuring out somewhere I would like to like look at the merchandise at a place. I've worked it would be at well It would be a parish tractor for sure playing you work in a you work in a uh, you know Placeful of toys for sure. Absolutely. It's always fun. You never know what's gonna happen tomorrow for you or so Well, yeah, but you get yeah, you get to look at so much of the equipment the one we were talking about this yesterday Uh the deal y'all have and think about this y'all if you're Getting right to start doing work at the camp or at your house or whatever y'all gonna deal on those l series kabodas tractors I run an l series. I love mine. Talk about the deal you have going right now Absolutely. So right now we're we're running a deal. Um, if you buy the tractor with two implements Uh, it can be any two implements. Um, and we have all implements in stock right now But if you buy two implements, we're going to give you the trailer for free to kind of form that package up right here at the start of Look looking at the start of a hunt season coming up in the near nature is that still 0% fine answered on that Yes, all of it still qualifies for zero interest finance and along with all of our skid steers excavators Side-by-side and zero turn lawnmowers all qualify for that that zero interest financing right now All right, what's uh inventory looking like in the rental because y'all got all kind of stuff from big projects to small projects. How's it looking? Absolutely. We've got everything in stock in the in our rental fleet Um, a little bit of everything for everyone whether whether you're doing a small Weekend project at the house. Uh, if you want to go to the camp and plant their fields or doe fields Or if you're um a commercial guy in the in the contractor business, uh, we we got a little bit of everything So so come by see us or give us a call. All right bling. Tell people how to find you Well right here at paris tractor in the middle rober still on highway 59 Um, open monday through friday, uh, uh, uh, eight a.m. The five p.m. Or saturday eight a.m to noon Thank you, brother man. We'll check back soon Thank you, sean. All right, there goes At paris tractor in rober sale. Somebody is asking me on the text line, which i'm monitoring here even though i'm not at the station uh to see, uh, how many of the Uh, people that are registered to vote that are citizens are in district two uh, I I don't know. I mean, we'll find maybe maybe uh secretary st. was ellen knows the story was this just it's And this goes back to what was pushed the republicans in the house pushed this And I forget what the acronym is lord knows it's been more time on acronyms in washington than they should probably put The safe act or something like I don't know what it was but it was to say hey You got to be a citizen to vote In a federal election. Yeah, you know, how about that? And what a concept so secretary's the story from android raymond at w pmi says secretary of state west alan says 3,251 people who are here legally right so they're legally in the country But are not us citizens have somehow been able to register to vote in alabama And this is what we're talking about. This could be people with a green car. They're they're here legally. They're working. Whatever. That's fine Welcome, you know, you do it legally. Welcome to our country. Glad you're here. You don't get to vote West alan said he requested the board of registrars in all 67 counties immediately inactivate those people from their voter files And start the process of removing them in mobile county here we go. There are 1494 to the person asking earlier 394 in mobile county of course mobile county now split Between districts one and districts two so I don't know how many Fall in which in ballwind county. There are 143 non citizens registered to vote West alan says all were issued non citizen id numbers by the federal government He goes on to say if they can prove that they are naturalized citizens They have to show an alabama driver's license a valid alabent They have to show an alabama driver's license a valid alabama driver's license Or the last four digits of their social security number seems like the social number would be the most important, right Allen says finding this information now is not easy non citizen identification numbers are issued by the department of homeland security But he said the feds wouldn't supply the information. That's what he was talking about when he was on with us last time He went on to say we met a roadblock after roadblock after roadblock red tape bureaucracy So we had to go a different route and it's taken a little while to do that We built this from scratch and really from day one Alabama Allen says they obtained the non citizen information numbers through the alabama department of labor and the alabama law enforcement agency He said he's turned over his findings to the attorney general and as of a post I guess yesterday on x Uh attorney general c marshall posted this quote be advised Violations of state election laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and quote So I and there's a lot more to the story you talking about in the future, but it was interesting to me With the pushback from democrats in washington like how dare the republicans bring and listen both parties will bring Will bring bills up and it happens at a state level happens at federal level. There's show bills, right? They're not going to pass they're doing them from messaging to fund rays off of to make it uh a commercial from But this one I think was asking a very fair question and for the you know It's um what's the old thing when you're when you're over the target you take a lot of flak Well when the republicans were just pushing this it wasn't going to make it through the senate or of course It would be vetoed by president biden. They started getting a lot of slack and a lot of uh people saying well This doesn't exist the republicans are trying to push something here to protect from something that's not happening Well just here in alabama once again, let's go back just here in alabama 3,251 people Who are legal welcome to our country but you don't get to vote are registered to vote And this is it so if it's that way here What is it in other states? So once again, this is not pure. Oh the illegal immigrants. These are legal folks in the country Like our friend of mine's one of these people legal legal be in the country But you don't get to vote you're not a citizen. That's how it works It's my lament with the the census You know, they use census data And people who are not citizens to a portion representation for districts Which is not the way the founders wanted this so they're good work secretary was allen And uh, I wonder what it looks like in other states Governor i'm back. I may ask this question. He was he was in washington for a while as a congressman He's now ceo of the mobile chamber uh bradley bern joins us coming up next So This is mid-day mobile with shawn selivan on fm talk 106.5 All right, so welcome back mid-day mobile and we are on location the mobile convention center for the mobile chambers business Expo 2024 And I look up and I see the congressman and also the ceo and president of the mobile chamber probably born good to see you Sean it's great to be back good to have you back. It's been too long I want to like there's lots to talk about with what's going on here today, but I just this story I don't know if you've followed it. Um secretary st. West allen came in on my show couple week two three weeks ago. He said i'm looking uh for because he Looking for people that are Legally here But not citizens so they don't get to vote right and at the same time and y'all are remember the acronym now It's the save act the republicans had in the house and you know, they got a lot of flack for it You know, they know, it's just a messaging bill. There's nothing to this There's not people that are registered to vote in federal elections that aren't citizens And so you know what you get a lot of flack when you're over the target. I watched I said So the secretary said i'm looking at it. I'm having trouble getting the information Some pizntine thing in washington. You probably understand why he couldn't get the info He finally got it the story here secretary state says 3251 people in alabama are here legally But non-citizens are registered to vote federal elections. Okay, that that sounds like that wouldn't make a difference But in a close congressional race like cd2. Yeah, that can make a difference Well, and it's just i'm that rule of law person. It shouldn't it should be zero Well, I agree 3251 in alabama. What is it in another state? Well, but what i'm saying is it's not an academic thing. It can make the real difference in the outcome of an election Sure. Yeah, I'm stuck in the idealism. You're in the pragmatism, but on both sides. This is it's bad Yeah, the numbers now They broke down that 394 those people were in Mobile county 143 in Baldwin county I don't know the split because of the you know people saying well, how many are in in al2 I don't know because they just said mobile. I don't know how the split is But it is something that Like he took flak republicans in the house took flak like y'all are wasting everybody's time This is a insignificant this doesn't happen y'all are, you know Making him out and out of the mole hill. There's not here in alabama. Here's the numbers finally 3251 They're legal. They're here for whatever reason legally, but they're registered to vote in a federal election Am I missing something? No, you're not missing anything. This is the typical thing for the people on the left They've got this radical agenda of bringing people in this country who shouldn't be here Registering to vote so that they can give them to vote for them And it's you know, it's it's a real issue when the people in Washington say oh, this is not a real issue That's when you need to pay attention. Right. It's a real issue because I did wonder I you know when all the flak was coming up from People saying well, they're waiting to save act is wasting time These things listen sometimes there's messaging bills or knows you know that come through that have no chance of going anywhere But I said this one seems to get a really visceral reaction from the left I said so I think there's some smoke here and just to see those numbers that that came out I I do and people have been asked on the text line. I don't know how the mechanics how you how that happens How you get and these he's saying these are legal so they're green card or whatever here working How does that person then They could get get on the federal election rolls and nobody says you don't have a social you don't have a you know Well, I don't know what they're doing in terms of registering people these days But you should be able to require people to prove that they are a citizen before you put them on the roll It should be able to do that. I mean, this is I'm back on my idealistic stump here and saying that seems pretty simple I mean, uh, I mean it was my lament during the census and I get why you would in the census Find out how many people are in an area for different reasons, but not to a portion representation It'd be a citizen to be represented in our system. Oh, I went to get my store ID Man, I thought I was gonna have to you know, I got my picture when I was born or something to get the thing So we should be able to require people to give us enough identification that we can be assured that they are american citizens It seems like yeah, yeah, there we go. So all the you know when y'all got all the pushback Uh out there that this was a non thing go look at that story. I'll put it up on the twitter feed here shortly All right. Thanks for having us back out. Yeah, um, let's talk about what's going on here today other than a packed house 200 exhibitors well over a thousand people we can't keep up with how many people are coming in It seems to me based upon just my you know looking at the crowd from last year It's bigger than last year a good weather that probably helps, but um getting lots of good feedback from the people here today So very successful event and we're here until three who comes here I mean like obviously I see a lot of the same people as you need people but who like the people walking here are these Business to business people looking for opportunity. I mean who's here? Everybody so you've got people who are trying to sell whatever it is that they do or make And they have people here looking for opportunities and where it's stuff that's exhibited here could interplay with what they're doing So everybody is networking for their own reason, but everybody's networking with something in mind in terms of how they're going to make money Right. That's good. Yeah, it is good. I mean, it's reasoning unlock the door, right? Uh, but it is I guess Nice thing about it. It's like the boat show. I tell folks you could spend you know I spend a week going to every boat dealership and look at the boats or you can come one place and they're all the same thing kind of here You're looking for people that do these different business to business opportunities so you can walk down the aisle and Oh, well, we you know, we've got people that are in here who've been coming for years and they know what this does for their business They're grateful for the opportunity. We just love putting it on This is a big part of our year a lot of staff time goes into this a lot of staff time I don't know how many people we've got here right now, but at least half of our staff are in this room Well, you guys been not all hands on deck It is all hands on deck, but it's a fun. All hands on deck will be exhausted at the end of the day But it's it's fun. And when it's this successful, it makes it worthwhile Yeah, like like like he said, it's open till three today. So still time to get down here Um if people show up, I mean Just we parked uh, we parked right across street and walked over. I guess that's the easiest thing to do right now on parking Yeah, the uh the parking lot underneath is a convention center is full the one Outside to the south is full. So you have to go on the riverview parking deck and walk over I parked on the fifth floor in the parking deck. Yeah, y'all don't know where I said the next one up We're going to be seeing sunshine So yeah, there definitely a lot of people out here As we're talking about business too. I read in op ed you had on yellow hammer news here recently about unions Yes, and something you and i've talked about in the past, but you're You talk specifically and in general about unions your perspective about unions and union growth in Alabama Well, we sell Alabama as a place that's friendly to business Okay And we sell it as a right to work state and the unions want a part of the wealth that we're creating here Now if this were 50 years ago Maybe I could see the argument a union makes but tell me what value a union adds to an employee's life That they don't already have So many laws protect you, you know, it used to be the unions had to argue over safety stuff. We have ocean now Used to be the use no fought on on hours. We have the wage and hour law now I mean There's almost nothing that they can provide you don't already have but here's one thing that they can do They can't take you out on strike against your will And in Alabama, you lose your pay and your benefits and you are not entitled to unemployment compensation They can do that to you without you having to give them their permission You write in that op ed y'all can check out at yellow hammer news That also they are used from a federal perspective trying to boop Using the strength of the unions to move things that are more washington based whether somebody's going to be ev or they're going to do these Right they use that to the political Conta the political contacts from washington are using the unions, of course And so get like give examples. Well, the unions are huge Contributors to federal campaigns almost all on the democratic side Uh, they also provide a lot of manpower But they throw their weight around in washington so um the shawn fangot that runs the UAW He's been really throwing his weight around and if you look at what he's been saying recently He's been really going after president trump So, you know, I see the unions for what they are they're mainly a political action unit They can't really bring any real benefits to their members and all they could do is hurt the economic development environment We've got now a mobile in the rest of alabama So we're very much opposed to them. We're gonna do what we can keep them out Yeah, you you think that the average worker in alabama in a Right now in a right to work in non-union shop and then you come in and put a union in You mentioned the other things, but is there is there take-home pay better? Is it gonna be you know overall the national labor relations board has said that in collective bargaining Uh, an employee's pay can go up It can stay the same or it can go down. There's absolutely no guarantee you're going to get increase in pay It can be anything. That's right and that that's a quote from the national labor relations board So when the unions come in and say, oh, we're going to bargain up Well, they can bargain all they want but if the employer says I can't go up because that will drive my cost to the point where i'm no Longer competitive Then no good doesn't work the only leverage they've gotten at that point in time the union is to take you out on strike And they don't want to talk to you about strikes because they don't want you to know all the bad things that happen Is that different when you're talking about the fact that there's no unemployment or all that on strike It's that different alabama than a new york or somewhere like that. Well in many places you lose your pay That's just a thing with the employer different states will allow you to get unemployment compensation But in alabama in most southern states when you go out and strike you lose your you lose your pay And you don't get unemployment compensation and you lose your benefits you lose your health insurance So and talk about this a number of workers you've been on with me over the years talking about how many workers were needed in this area Health behind you know that people were coming in here because we were a thousand or whatever jobs That were Unfilled right you had I mean had need for workers. It wasn't here. Then I look at labor participation in the stuff So I mean you can look at the overall unemployment numbers. Okay, it's good But how many people are choosing that are able body that are choosing not to work But it's that what you're trying to change are those people are sitting on the sidelines. So Why are they sitting on sidelines? Well, we have a state study that says in alabama The number one reason why an able-bodied person is not working is because they don't have the means to get to him from work They don't have a car. Okay. So we started this program in mobile a few months back called mogo And it's like basically a ride-to-work system You can go online and check it out. You can call them on the telephone But if you're in that general area of the route, which is mainly the eastern part of the city of mobile You can jump on that thing for free if you're going to Austin airbus Bishop state to get your training a idt to get your training, etc And it's our hope is we're going to be expanding that up 43 spending it down rangeline road So that everybody in this area has the means to get to it. It's transportation gets you tuned from work So that is you know because they're talking at the state level about the labor participation rate not being good I hadn't Maybe they hadn't talked about the state level. You're doing it here that that is the thing that leads to yes Oh, because y'all look at the numbers. I don't have right in front of me, but it's like 40% of the people that are Working age able to work aren't choosing to work. I mean, that's I don't know the number It was the other thing that we found out Sean as we dug into this It's amazing what our high school graduates don't know about what's out there So we heard a story the other day about a young man who was the top welding a person in his welding class And uh, this woman was visiting the class and teacher was so proud of him and this woman looked at him and said you're going to graduate Oh, yeah, what you gonna do after graduation? Oh, we'll get a job at Burger King Now there's nothing wrong working for Burger King, but this but I'm even welders Yeah, I didn't and you know, it's you know, it's you know, there isn't nothing anything wrong with it But if you're a top welder, let's talk about what you get paid versus working at Burger King Well, it's you know, you know, you make talk. I mean you make a lot more money We've got a lot more stuff that we need to have done down here I mean, we're going to probably have another 2000 shipyard workers over the next three years But what so what's missing there then? Don't you like why is the word that you need that many people and here's whatever I don't know what the pay rate is for a top welder, but why is that not in the high school? Why does that kid not know that well, but be honest with you We the business community have not done a good job of telling that story. So we in the last year have gone to the school system We've worked with them. They had a job fair this year The monthly and up to that job fair every kid in technical education in mobile county spent that month learning about the companies We're gonna be at the job fair. They walked in that job fair and a lot of them got jobs right then 3000 students So if we continue to do that year after year after year We will get the word out to these young people about the incredible opportunities that are out there Yeah, because a kid who I mean not just a kid who's in high school a kid who's in top welder who's in that kind of trade class Should he should know he should he's am I doing this? Oh, here's why I'm doing this because when I finish here There's I got a dollar figure in my mind that I'm gonna be able to go make his instructor didn't know his principal didn't know So we have Dramatically increased our penetration into the school system to let them know and they are so grateful They've been so cooperative. I'm just very confident. We're going to make that labor force participation rate go up in a big way That's significant. I got a couple questions from the text line before I wrap up here Uh this one from david can you ask representative bern if there's anything a republican presidential administration can do To either four states to do what secretary alan just did here Uh with non-citizen voter registration or in states that do it for them if they refuse to in other words like I guess what west alan did here Can something from a federal level say secretary of states in the other 49 states go do what west alan did sure they could do that if they wanted to If they wanted, yeah, I think president trump will want to I mean that is I mean you think about our state 3,000 plus what must it be? Oh think about other states. Yes. My god. Think about california Well again y'all these are the way the story goes west alan saying it's not that they're elite These are legally here working for whatever, you know good welcome welcome board. We're glad you're here But you're not a citizen and you're registered to vote in a federal like it. I mean it's just so Hand-fisted to me. I don't like so I just got the number it's 58 Um labor force participation rate and I think the national number is up like 64 65 So to explain people what we're talking about so out of the people 58 of the people that are of working age Could be working Only 58 of them are working at 100 percent and some of them are not working because their mom staying at home not raising kids Or their people with disabilities. I mean, I'm not saying that there's No excuse to stay at home. But if you are able body agree, but that number is so big. It's too big Come on. It's too big. That's not that's not people with you know Some sort of handicap to keep some other words. That's not 42 percent. No, it's not and We've got some artificial barriers like not having a car We're going to get rid of the artificial barriers and we're going to get the word out And we're going to get those people to work and here's my thing And I hear this from a lot of people If after you remove the barriers, okay, if you give them that information Why would I pay you to sit at home? Yeah, why would we give you anything? All right You know get off the couch and go get a job to take take away once you take away that hurdle You know, then then you're right. Yeah, and it's and people it's good that you said that though about transportation because people may not Think about that thing. Oh, they're just not working Well, why and you all have at least asked the question why And the next thing i'll tell you this is going to be very difficult And we'll we'll see how far we get with this the number two reason why able-bodied adults aren't working is that they're women and they have little kids They don't have any daycare for them. Okay, so we've got to figure out how we goose up the number of daycare Positions in this area so that at least young moms that want to work can find somewhere to put their children Well, here I am coming from you know being private sector ideas if i'm this suite of businesses that says I can't get the people to work, right? I need the people work maybe along with government I could trip somehow to have Childcare and have things set up to where to where I can get those people here's here's my impediment All right. So how do I how do I help? Well, there is an effort going on It's just really at the beginning stages to try to increase the child care tax credit which will enable mom to have some money to be able to do that but Employers are going to have to get in there and help us find Buildings that we can put a daycare in that may be near where their place of employment is So one of the ideas we've been kicking around is do we get a a daycare started out at brookley So that the any of the aviation workers out there that need daycare We go to that daycare center and maybe we subsidize a little bit with private money to make sure that it's working right But it's going to take sort of out of the box thinking to address that sort of problem My daughter has a 18 month old. I mean and and you know, she's got to have a quality thing Put him in it took her forever to find it. This is not here some Virginia Beach Which is got it. She draws a half an hour each way. Oh, they're waitlisted I'm out talking friends mind to have young kids. Yeah, they're waitlisted and you don't want to put your kid just anywhere correct Understand that correct mom's have a responsibility to their children. We need to help them fulfill that responsibility At least in this we identify a problem, right? We can't fix a problem to identify what is causing the problem That's what you're doing that and that's why transportation and childcare, right? Instead of just saying well, it's just people not not no, it's good It's good to say here are the problems here the impediments and if we do that if we do child care, right Hopefully, that's the sort of positive signal to young women Hey, let's start thinking about having a family because we do know we have a problem in America with none enough young women having children And we've got to get them some positive incentives to do that Yeah, or the you know, look the average age of the first birth is getting so much later because they They've got to establish themselves with a career got back high house And yeah, yeah, and they've got to get themselves to be at that level where they're so valuable to a company that they they can come back after Three three months. So this is like change to it. Yeah, I appreciate you Sean. Always good to be with you. Likewise come back next year Yeah, we will we've been out here. Uh, yeah, I think um what five years in a row four five years in a row will keep doing it Maybe I'll come by and see you sometime soon. You know where I am. Okay. All right, uh, there you see you in president of the mobile chamber Uh congressman Bradley barn right here on mid-day mobile and we're coming back This is mid-day mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM talk 1065 Welcome back mid-day mobile FM talk 1065 and uh, we are on location at the mobile convention center for the 2024 business expo And uh, let me grab some text here as we have a couple minutes for the news Uh, let's see here. I named textures a plenty. But uh, this first one here That is interesting over 3 000 illegal voters makes me wonder about the story I heard of over 4 000 people over 110 years old voting Could this be true? Thanks for the reporting James And I think the subtlety of what this story from west allen i'm keep coming back to it because people like to Jump on it and say oh, it's the illegal. It's not illegal immigrants These are legal people. So people that we have Like green card or they're they're here legally working working in the state. Cool. Welcome aboard. I'm not you know, I'm I'm not zenaphobe I I mean Can't have a irish surname. It'd be a zenaphobe of a country welcomes people legally. I think is a great thing But until you're a citizen, you don't get to vote I mean such this stuff is so Like and the fact that there will be people that You know push back on this and say oh, the republicans are doing this and you know and i'm Carry water for republicans on everything, but this one's a slam dunk. This should be non-partisan You your citizen you get to vote. You're not a citizen. You don't get to vote bingo Supermom says how do they find these people that were legally registered to vote? What is that process like how they know where to look supermom? I know that Secretary of state west alan had told me something that came up that got him started on this before but I don't know Have to go back maybe to the podcast of that, but I think I need to get him back on the show soon and we'll ask that question uh Let's see that we got some more talk about we'll get this next hour some union talk here back and forth on the Yes or no for unions in alabama We'll get to those and we'll talk to by man dale lee from landf. He's coming up next right here on midday mobile We are at the convention center for the chambers business expo