Stay away from unions TARGET warns
A new training video for Target workers repeatedly warns them about the dangers of forming a union by framing it as friendly advice from co-workers, Salon reported this week. It’s just the latest move by Target to deny their employees the right to bargain collectively with their employer with the hopes of getting a contract with higher pay and better benefits.
“Think Hard: Protect Your Signature,” was posted online on March 19 by Americans Against The Tea Party, and features two employees, “Dawn” and “Ricardo,” telling employees to beware of being approached at work or at home and asked to sign “an authorization card, petition, or some other union document.” The video boasts that no Target employees have ever worked with the protection of a contract and union representation.
Among the many pitfalls of union membership, the duo claims, would be the threat of job losses, a negative impact on job performance, and the possibility that a union may try to “scare” customers into taking their business elsewhere.
“The union needs your dues money,” Ricardo says. “So at some point, you might be asked to join, and you’ll have a decision to make.”
“Unions are threatened by us,” Ricardo says in the video. “And here’s why: when we take business away from retailers that are unionized, those companies may downsize, reducing the number of employees. And that means the union loses members, which is a big problem for the union business. Did you notice how I just called it a business? Because that’s what it is.”