NEW: Half of all stores opening in the U.S. this year are dollar stores. These chains prey on low-income communities, shut down local businesses, and attract violent crime.

But cities like Fort Worth are fighting back and showing how working people can defeat corporate greed.
In 2019, there were at least 75 dollar stores clustered on the majority-minority east side of Fort Worth, a city divided by a highway.

When another dollar store moved in, residents took action. First, they protested. Then, they fought to change the law.
Fort Worth ultimately passed a new ordinance that limits the spread of dollar stores.

It also requires that many new stores carry fresh produce instead of just peddling junk in a food desert.

Similar laws have also been passed in Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Birmingham.
Dollar stores cashed in on the pandemic — the biggest chain, Dollar General, saw profits soar up to 25% last year.

They don't spend on employees — the average hourly dollar store worker makes just over $8-an-hour. And many have to work unpaid overtime. mashed.com/170954/this-is…
Dollar stores continue to wreak havoc on communities — Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar plan to open 1600 stores this year alone.

At the same time, more communities are rising up to fight the invasion of the exploitative chains. myfox8.com/news/locals-wi…

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More from @MorePerfectUS

9 Jul
NEW: Texas Republicans have a new voter suppression bill that's even worse than the one Democrats stopped in May.

This time, Republicans want *monthly* voter purges and a ban on drive-thru voting.

They've just launched a special legislative session to ram it through. Image
The ban on drive-thru voting and the voter purges would disproportionately impact disabled voters and Latino voters.

“They’re actually going backward because of these discriminatory acts, and frankly, it just pisses me off," one disabled voter said. texastribune.org/2021/07/05/tex…
Democrats & activists rallied in Austin on Thursday, promising to do whatever was necessary to block a new voter suppression bill.

They also called for the Senate to drop the filibuster and pass the #ForThePeopleAct to end the GOP attack on voting rights.
Read 5 tweets
7 Jul
NEW: Frito-Lay workers in Kansas are being forced to work 12-hour days, 7 days a week, in a dangerous factory. Their stories are shocking.

Now nearly 600 workers have gone on strike in Topeka to demand better pay and treatment.
Frito-Lay workers say they're required to take “suicide shifts” — two 12-hour shifts in a row, with just 8 hours of rest in between.

They told us they can't get decent sleep & they miss their kids.

“You leave at 7PM and they want you back in here at 3 o’clock in the morning.”
Workers are also protesting unsafe conditions like extreme temperatures.

According to workers, Frito-Lay refused to heat the warehouse during an ice storm, only providing small kerosene lamps.

During a heat wave, management made workers keep going despite heat exhaustion.
Read 5 tweets
25 Jun
EXCLUSIVE: A veteran Tesla worker has come forward to detail extraordinarily dangerous conditions at @ElonMusk's auto factory.

"It was like a modern-day industrial sweatshop," said Dennis Duran, who worked at Tesla’s Bay Area plant for 5 years.
Duran’s Tesla stories are harrowing:

"Someone got their leg run over. People were sent home for exhaustion. They were throwing up at random because they didn't have enough water.”

"Management never really cared. All they care about is hitting numbers and pleasing @ElonMusk."
For years, Tesla had injury rates far higher than other carmakers.

In 2019, Tesla claimed its rate dropped. But a damning report later found Tesla under-reported worker injuries that year.

Duran says people often worked while hurt and even bleeding. revealnews.org/article/tesla-…
Read 5 tweets
24 Jun
NEW: @EdMarkey tells Senate Democrats: We can't let bipartisan theater get in the way of dealing with the climate crisis — again.

His signature climate change bill died in the Senate in 2010. But our planet doesn't have another decade to waste.
@SenMarkey’s climate change bill of 2009 failed because the White House spent months chasing Republicans votes.

“The White House and Congressional leadership told us they would send my bill to the Senate once we passed a health care law and other legislative priorities.”
“It's 12 years later, and Congress still hasn't passed big legislation to address the climate crisis."

"Today, I see the same process playing out. Democrats are being told we can pass a climate bill after we pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill.” - @SenMarkey
Read 4 tweets
22 Jun
NEW: We reviewed the 7 most far-reaching Republican voter suppression laws enacted this year.

Passing the #ForThePeopleAct would invalidate roughly 2/3 of their attacks on voting access.

The only way to save democracy is for Democrats to act. This is what's at stake:
Georgia’s infamous SB 202 remakes almost every element of the state’s election laws to make it harder for people of color to vote.

The For The People Act would end its onerous voter ID requirements, restore ballot drop boxes, and block partisan poll watchers, among other fixes. Image
In Florida, the #ForThePeopleAct would overturn much of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP's assault on voters.

It would prevent the destruction of the state's mail-in voting list, stop extreme voter ID requirements, and end the criminalization of ballot delivery. Image
Read 8 tweets
19 Jun
NLRB documents reveal aggressive, flagrantly illegal union-busting by Tesla under @ElonMusk.

Tesla autoworkers are fired, interrogated, photographed, verbally harassed by security—all in violation of federal law, the NLRB found.

Threading newsworthy findings below (1/)
2. The NLRB investigated Tesla's firing of Richard Ortiz for trying to organize a union. The agency ruled the firing was illegal—but the probe uncovered much more.

For example, how Tesla deployed security to harass autoworkers if they passed out union pamphlets:
3. In the span of just 3 hours one morning, Tesla security guards harassed workers handing out fliers 6 separate times. Different guards each time.

One guard declared that “unions are worthless” and “no good” and people “should not join one.”
Read 10 tweets

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