The rendering plant is dead, kaput, nada, zilch, history. On the surface, it offered Gadsden and Etowah County to further diversify the local economy and add up to 175 new jobs, the minimum paying $15 per hour.  

Not many jobs pay that much in the county anymore, with Goodyear and the steel plant gone. Their former workers are now pensioners. The county has high hopes that its Mega-Site on Interstate 59 will lure a big, single tenant.  

The County Commission is not interested in subdividing the 900-plus-acre undeveloped site. As a result of that strategy, I think the county is going to be waiting a very long time to secure an occupant. At least a dozen industrial sites in Alabama, especially in Huntsville and Mobile, have the upper hand to lure a major client. 

Gadsden has some choice sites and resources for mid-range industry; most notable is the airport. The optimal strategy would be for the city to lure a tenant to the vastly underused facility. That location has vast potential, especially for aviation-oriented businesses like a flight school or aircraft modification or repair.  

As we all know, Pilgrim’s Pride, a unit of JBS Foods, came here and proposed a rendering plant to process chicken carcasses into pet foods. Etowah County is at the epicenter of the chicken house business in Alabama. Vendors like Koch Foods and Tyson process millions of birds annually, making the chicken tenders, filets, wings, thighs and nuggets we all buy at Walmart or Chick fil-A.  

In all of North Alabama, there is but one rendering plant to process the remains of the slaughter. (The remains cannot be deposited in landfills and besides, those remains are easily converted to pet foods at rendering plants.) The existing rendering plant, in Haleyville, is old and prone to breakdowns. All breakdowns result in stopping the industrial processing of the whole chickens at every feeder plant, such as those in Glencoe, Albertville, Ashland, etc. Rendering plants require lots of water and natural gas. 

Opposition to the rendering plant was fairly universal in Etowah County. It became more public with the rise of a well-funded community group called Advance Etowah.  

Frankly, I did not see any signs of support for the plant. Most of the support resided in the mayor’s office and some members of the City Council. The most strident opposition was among residents and Gadsden business owners residing in Southside, Rainbow City, Hokes Bluff and Glencoe.  

The mayor of Rainbow City was most vocal in his opposition: “We don’t want those kinds of jobs in our community,” he forcefully announced to WBRC and at Advance Etowah’s “We Won” rally at the airport. 

Let’s understand something, these jobs paid well, more than $15 an hour, and were not involved in butchering the birds. 

Let’s be frank: Most local business owners do not live in the city of Gadsden. Most businesses located in Rainbow City, Southside, Hokes Bluff and Glencoe are retail or fast food. Most employees receive pay at the minimum wage, slightly more or less.  

Opposition to the rendering plant was completely based on economics. In order to compete, business owners in Gadsden and its surrounding suburbs were faced with the fact that they were going to have to increase the wages for their employees by at least $5 an hour. 

Let’s do the math. Someone earning a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour times 40 hours times 52 weeks earns $15,080 annually. Increase that wage rate by $5. That provides an additional earnings rate of $10,400 per year.  

Suddenly, with wage competition, workers’ earnings increase to over $25,480 annually. What business owner wants to have to do that? My take is this: Contrary to the protests of the mayor of Rainbow City, a lot of low-wage workers there would have been lining up at the hiring office of the rendering plant. 

Here is the ultimate irony of this story: What were the average wages of workers in Gadsden in 1928 when Goodyear decided to build its plant here?  

A group of far-sighted Gadsden business owners beat Atlanta in the final decision. My grandfather mustered out of the Navy in 1919. He lived in Clay County. There were no jobs there. He was the 13th of 14 children. He and his younger and immediate older brother packed out to Akron, Ohio. All three got jobs at Goodyear.  

In December, Edgar Browning answered the call to become part of the Akron team to come to Gadsden to train new workers and build the first tires coming off the line.  

Where is that kind of business leadership in Gadsden today? 

Bill Browning is a Gadsden resident.