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Louisiana Dollar Store Workers Can’t Control Air Conditioning in Their Own Stores

The pandemic and the inflation panic have been a boon to dollar stores, which are spreading rapidly throughout low-income areas and “food deserts,” but dollar store employees are being left behind. That’s why workers and community members are organizing.

Maximillian Alvarez

A customer shops at a Dollar General store on March 17, 2022 in Vallejo, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

From Dollar General and Dollar Tree to Family Dollar, dollar stores are spreading rapidly throughout Louisiana and across the country, but dollar store workers notoriously have to endure low pay, understaffing, and hazardous working conditions. That’s why Step Up Louisiana, ​“a community-based organization committed to building power to win education and economic justice for all,” is organizing employees, customers, and community members to fight for safer stores and better pay and working conditions for dollar store workers. In this episode, we speak with Kenya Slaughter, who has been an organizer and frontline worker at Dollar General for a number of years, and Curtis Williams, a dollar store customer who has gotten involved in Step Up Louisiana’s campaign. 

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Maximillian Alvarez is editor-in-chief at the Real News Network and host of the podcast Working People, available at InThe​se​Times​.com. He is also the author of The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke.

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