NPR.

Unions are hot right now.

Yeah, think of all the different big name companies where workers voted to join unions this year.

You got Starbucks, there's Amazon, Apple, Google, Starbucks again, Activision, and lots more Starbucks.

Literally hundreds of Starbucks are voting to unionize right now.

But Steven Bessaha, you're actually joining us on the indicator from a place where unions are not so hot.

Yes, I report for the Gulf States newsroom, a big happy family of public radio stations and Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

And while unions might be the trend right now, it's actually a bit of a dirty word here in the deep South.

But we do have something else, alt labor.

It's sort of a grungeer, less mainstream version.

I like that grungee, yeah.

If the unions are like the backstreet boys, alt labor is more like Nirvana.

This is the indicator for Plano Money, I'm Adrian Ma.

Today on the show, Alt Labor.

We're going to meet some dollar general workers in Louisiana who've been using alt labor tactics to push or changes at their stores.

And we'll hear how 90 years of unions hog in the spotlight may actually have hurt the US labor movement.

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Dollar stores, nearly every state has got them and they've really boomed during the pandemic.

But while these stores are popular and cheap, they can be tough workplaces.

Workers in Louisiana complain to us about broken air conditioning and bathrooms.

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