Archived Labor judge overturns union election at Target

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Happened to come across this:

http://www.omaha.com/article/20120522/AP05/305219814

"NEW YORK (AP) - An administrative law judge from the National Labor Relations Board has overturned the union election last year at a Target store on New York's Long Island and ordered a new election citing unfair labor practices.

The decision comes almost a year after The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 contested the 137-85 vote against unionization in June 2011. It argued that Target illegally intimidated workers for months leading up to the vote. Target denied the allegations.

A "yes" vote would have made the store Target's first with a unionized workforce. Target has 1,700 stores, all in the U.S.

"Target completely poisoned the democratic process from day one," said Patrick Purcell, assistant to the president of the UFCW Local 1500 in an interview with The Associated Press. "And now a judge agreed with everything we said." "
 
It's good to know that at least someone agrees that Spot is a bully.
The only problem is no what do they do?
Most of the people who organized in the first place have been fired so there can't be another election.
 
Never thought I'd see a day when I would welcome a union, but its coming down to that in our store.........
 
Oh Target, would it really be that difficult to remember that your employees are people and treating them like human beings is cheaper in the long run?
 
Wait, they closed the store?

So not only did they fire the person who started up the union and poison the election, they closed the store when it looked like they were going to lose?

No wonder this company is so difficult to run for, it's being run like a group of teenage girls.
 
Yeh, but they're "giving TMs the opportunity to transfer to other stores"; as long as you weren't a union sympathizer, kissed up to the right people, frequently brown-nosed, etc....
 
God I hate what target has become. Im no fan of Unions but in Targets case they really do need one.
 
A few years back working at target was great, slowly it has gotten worse and ever since this past year i now know target needs a union 100%! With hours beibg drastically cut and many team members losing benefits etc... A union is very welcomed!
 
Never thought I'd see a day when I would welcome a union, but its coming down to that in our store.........

yeah, stuff gets done at my store i guess. trucks still show up, all the boxes get stocked within 2 or 3 days...but man tensions are kind of high. A lot of team members are halfway on S, people standing around and talking 20 minutes for every 10 minutes of work, just stuff like that. People become more an more openly hostile to executives, i mean people are in controll of themselves, but they have no respect for management whatsoever, and don't feel like they have to do what they are told. Even the team leaders are getting in on it. It's all minor stuff though but still a lot of tension. All the new hires have bad attitudes because of how poorly operated and organized the place is, and anyone whose been there a year or more thinks its all a huge, sad joke.
 
That link is unique, spot doesn't closed for retrofits. I have been through 3 remodels & not closed. It maybe spot's way to avoid conflicts? I am sad for those tm's affected.
 
They closed it because they knew that the ruling would be against them. They'll offer transfers for TMs who have been vetted (translation: you didn't/wouldn't ever vote for unions) & the rest will be 'lost'. The retrofit will drag on until they decide it's 'unprofitable' & leave the store shut down (until the threat of union is past).
 
And who said Spot hasn't learned from Uncle Wally?
This is classic Walmart methodology.
Do they think that by crushing this down it will disappear?
Short term win, long term it's going to hurt the company.
 
And who said Spot hasn't learned from Uncle Wally?
This is classic Walmart methodology.
Do they think that by crushing this down it will disappear?
Short term win, long term it's going to hurt the company.

Ive watched Target become more and more like Walmart for years now. I honestly don't have any more respect for Target then I do Walmart anymore.
 
As much as Target needs a union to wake them up, it won't really matter when a union wins a particular store if a company is allowed to just pull a Walmart and close the store for "oh, um, this store isn't profitable anymore" kind of BS. As long as Target has one way or another to weasel their way out of a union victory, it won't matter. Until a company is legally forced to accept a union victory and not just whimsically close the store out of spite, it won't matter. Because the mere fact that people want to unionize, the mere presence of the desire, is apparently not getting through.
 
From what I understand of the situation, that store was one of two that was closed for six months for remodeling. Some typical corporate spin about how they couldn't do the remodel and keep the store open. The article I read a while ago didn't say anything about there being people trying to form a union at the store in Portland, OR that was also closed for remodeling. They said they waited until the end of all the pFresh remodels to close the stores because they knew these stores would take the longest to remodel. Then again, this is a corporate spokesperson talking, so who knows what the truth really is. Something doesn't quite pass the smell test.
 
In response to our Union’s accusations and charges filed at the NLRB, claiming its closing is retaliatory, Target argues a store in Portland, Oregon will close for a similar remodeling.
It’s true that store is closing, but for no more than two-months. Additionally, Target has not filed any WARN notice with the Oregon Department of Labor, meaning employees at the store will have the option to retain their jobs and will not be displaced/replaced.

So the two stores closings are nothing alike and from what the article says further Spot hasn't even gotten the building permits needed for the remodel.
They don't intend to do any work until this is long out of everyone's memories.
I only hope the judge will slap them with a ongoing fine that keeps building everyday they stay closed.
 
Yeah this is something the poor workers have no chance of winning. Wouldn't mind making Target shut my store down with a Union vote though.
 
It needs to happen to an extremely high volume store that would impact them severely if it were to be closed.
The dilemma would be deciding between SOP (closing rather than unionize) & losing big $$$ or permitting a trial run. If they did that, they might discover that TMs may decide in time that the union was a bad idea - but probably not.
 
If you think it sucks for us, it's even worse for the folks in Canada where Spot is firing some 1500 Zellers employees.
They can apply to get their job back but none of the vacation time or other benefits that they earned in the 15 or 20 years that they worked for the other company will apply (which I understand isn't Spots fault but really sucks).
What that does mean is that the the union they are currently represented by will have to start from scratch to develop organization and you can bet Spot will use every dirty trick in the book to keep them out.
 
A few years back working at target was great, slowly it has gotten worse and ever since this past year i now know target needs a union 100%! With hours beibg drastically cut and many team members losing benefits etc... A union is very welcomed!
And here is the wierd thing about cutting hours...........some people's hours are cut so much they get mad and quit. Then the remaining employeees think "since some people left that means we will get more hours ourselves since there are not as many of us sharing the hours..."
.wrong...Target then hires more new TM's and we are back where we started.
 
I'm so glad to see that another vote has to be had, but if the store has closed, how can there be a vote because they've either laid off or transferred the TM's that used to work at the store in question. There needs to be a law that makes it ILLEGAL to close to store anywhere NEAR a Union vote, it's simply not democratic to allow Big Businesses/Corporations to store the democratic process, which is that if people want to join unions, they should be allowed to do so.
 
If you think it sucks for us, it's even worse for the folks in Canada where Spot is firing some 1500 Zellers employees.
They can apply to get their job back but none of the vacation time or other benefits that they earned in the 15 or 20 years that they worked for the other company will apply (which I understand isn't Spots fault but really sucks).
What that does mean is that the the union they are currently represented by will have to start from scratch to develop organization and you can bet Spot will use every dirty trick in the book to keep them out.

Saw that coming miles away when the Zellers purchase was announced.
There was NO WAY spot would've allowed the union a continued presence.
 
Oh Target, would it really be that difficult to remember that your employees are people and treating them like human beings is cheaper in the long run?

I once had a teacher who said "I won't believe that corporations are people until Texas executes one."
 
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