Tuesday Protest to Call Out Retaliation from Dollar General and Family Dollar, Highlight Impacts of Shuttered Stores on Community
JULY 29, 2024, NEW ORLEANS—Dollar store workers and customers will gather at the Morrison Avenue Dollar General to call out the mega-chain for retaliating against workers who have been organizing for safer stores. The recent move to shutter six Dollar General stores and several Family Dollar stores in New Orleans East comes as the New Orleans-born movement for worker safety notched its latest victory—a Dollar General OSHA settlement that included several of their safety demands. Workers, customers and local advocates will stage a protest on Tuesday to bring awareness to the impact that closing area stores has on community members who rely on New Orleans East locations for groceries and other essentials.
WHAT: Worker & Customer Protest Against Dollar Store Closures
WHEN: Tuesday, July 30, 12:00 p.m. CT
WHERE: Dollar General, 11020 Morrison Ave., New Orleans
WHO: Step Up Louisiana members and organizers, dollar store workers and customers
“The community supports the store—why can’t the store support the community? We asked for safety, not a shut down. It’s unfair that the community has to suffer because Corporate won’t do their job. Now, community members without any transportation will have to go out of their way to get the groceries they need,” said Isaiah Stewart, a former Dollar General employee who was recently terminated from his position after attending a national Dollar General protest in Tennessee at their Corporate Headquarters for the shareholders meeting.
“Before they thought about closing the stores, they let all the theft and violence go on and on,” Stewart continued. “So the day they decide to do something about it, the decision is to shut it down? Now we all are going to suffer.”
Dollar General’s repeated track record of store safety violations has included blocked exits, perpetually understaffed stores, in-store violence including armed robbery and murder, backbreaking pace of work, poverty wages, rat infestations, and repeated OSHA violations. In 2023, the multi-billion dollar retail chain made headlines for being listed on OSHA’s ‘Severe Violators’ list, a label for employers with “willful, repeated” safety violations that haven’t taken effective measures toward improvement.
After years of worker activism demanding safer stores, Dollar General has settled with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for $12 million and agreed to implement new store safety measures, several which align with a list of demands from workers and organizers with Step Up Louisiana and other labor groups who have led a nationwide worker justice campaign for store safety. The campaign has escalated over the past two years, garnering public scrutiny and ongoing national media coverage.
This May, over 200 Dollar General workers and customers protested the corporation’s annual shareholder meeting to demand safer stores. This action followed a string of protests at Dollar General stores across nine states to protest dollar stores’ persistent safety violations and advocate for workers’ safety demands.
Dollar Tree, that owns the Family Dollar brand, also settled with OSHA for $1.35 million and other safety policy changes in 2023 following protests from Step Up Louisiana and Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Workers.
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.
