Dollar General was caught illegally intimidating workers just days before a store in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, is set to vote on whether to form the company’s first U.S. union. District managers visited the store on Saturday and threatened to close the store if workers vote YES.
The United Food and Commercial Workers will file charges with the NLRB against Dollar General for conducting illegal union busting activities.
Dollar General is America’s biggest retailer. With $3.6 billion in profit and 18,000 stores, it is as big as Walmart and McDonald’s combined. This expansion and profit is built off the exploitation of workers.
Workers at the Dollar General store in Barkhamsted told In These Times that they are seeking to unionize “as a result of poor treatment of employees by a Dollar General district manager.”
“The employee said that the district manager ignored a complaint of sexual harassment in the store, and was heard making racist remarks about the store’s manager. When the district manager unfairly accused the store’s manager of stealing, the employee said, ’We all got scared. If they could do something like this to someone who didn’t do anything, what could they do to us?’”
The union vote is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 22.