David Williams stands in front of the New Orleans DG Market where he works. Williams has been organizing, without a union, for better pay and safer conditions at Dollar General stores since 2022. (Photo by Fernando Lopez/Capital & Main)
NEW ORLEANS – When a Dollar General stocker named David Williams saw two of his co-workers struggling to subdue a would-be shoplifter who was carrying a knife in 2019, the then-33-year-old kept his mouth shut. Later, when a co-worker asked him why he did nothing, Williams told him the truth.
“I said, ‘No offense, but I only get paid one time, and that is to be a stocker,’” said Williams, who today makes $11.50 an hour filling shelves with diapers, ramen and discount shampoo at a New Orleans store. Some months, he said, he can’t make rent. ”So, sorry, I’m not about to put my life on the line,” he told his colleague…