National Customer Week of Action Will Culminate in Dollar General Shareholder Meeting Protest in Tennessee Next Week
May 21, 2024, NEW ORLEANS—Dollar store customers, Step Up Louisiana members and community allies will gather on Wednesday for two demonstrations demanding safer working conditions at Dollar General stores. The demonstrations come on the heels of a year of widespread public scrutiny and media coverage of Dollar General’s repeated track record of store safety violations across the country. Customers in nine cities are gathering this week in solidarity with workers to demand change after workers shared safety demands with the company more than a year ago. Customer actions are also taking place this week in Houston, Texas; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Nashville, Tenn.; Asheville, N.C.; Decatur, Ga.; Hartford, Conn., Orangeburg, S.C. and Los Angeles, Calif.
What: Dollar General Is a Hazard! Customer Action for Dollar Store Safety
When: Wednesday, May 22, 12:00 p.m. CDT
Where: Two Dollar General locations: 230 N Broad St. New Orleans, LA; 2650 Canal St, New Orleans, LA
Who: Dollar store customers, Step Up Louisiana members and community allies
Last summer, Step Up Louisiana surveyed over 300 Louisiana dollar stores and found an unconscionable number of safety violations that pose an imminent threat to both employees and customers, including lack of working phones, blocked emergency exits and more. Tomorrow’s rally will be one of a series of actions in Louisiana and across the country leading up to a protest of the Dollar General shareholders meeting on May 29 in Goodlettsville, TN.
Over the past two years, a national worker justice movement led by Step Up Louisiana and other ally organizations has escalated and garnered national attention in the fight for safer working conditions in dollar stores across the country. Last May, Dollar General shareholders approved a resolution to create an independent audit into worker safety and well-being at the corporation’s annual shareholder meeting, an indication of mounting pressure on Dollar General and other national chains to improve store safety. Since then, the company’s safety audit—led by Jackson Lewis, one of the nation’s top union-busting law firms—fell short in relieving lack of safety measures at the store level and also failed to engage with workers organizing for improved safety measures.
The national Customer Week of Action and next week’s shareholder meeting protest at Dollar General headquarters are taking place in the midst of a groundswell of labor victories across the South at Starbucks, Amazon and in the automotive industry.
About Step Up Louisiana
Step Up Louisiana is a community based organization committed to building power to win education and economic justice for all. Step Up works with Louisianans of all races and ages to “step up” by campaigning, organizing from a racial justice perspective, and holding public officials accountable. The organization partners with parents, workers, students, and community members to disrupt systemic oppression in our schools and workplaces through voter education, advocacy, and action.
