Just kidding, we all know Target is awful like Walmart, well not exactly
like Walmart. Walmart is a special brand of sinister, but Target is really trying. Josh
Eidelson, my dream boyfriend, wrote about Target locking employees in their
stores overnight for The Nation.
Twenty-five workers
filed OSHA charges last week against Target in the Twin Cities alleging they
were regularly locked in the stores overnight.
But Target? Don’t
hipsters shop there? I know, I do too because they are the not-Walmart of the
stores that have everything you could ever think of needing.
Three of the janitorial
contractors named in the OSHA complaints are Carlson Building Maintenance,
Prestige Maintenance USA, and Diversified Maintenance Systems. Three of the janitorial
contractors named in the OSHA complaints are Carlson Building Maintenance,
Prestige Maintenance USA, and Diversified Maintenance Systems. The Minnesota
labor group, Centro de Trabajoadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL) are organizing
the workers. In an email to Eidedson, Target spokesperson, Molly Snyder said the company hadn’t
been informed of an OSHA complaint, “At Target, we are committed to maintaining
the highest standards of ethical business practices and we expect our vendors
to do the same. We take allegations of inappropriate working conditions
seriously and complete a thorough external audit of every housekeeping vendor
on an annual basis.”
The cleaning staff
are employed by Target’s contractors, but the CTUL alleges that Target
management was aware of the staff being locked in the stores overnight. According
to the workers, there was usually one manager onsite during his shift, and that
manager was an employee of Target not the contractors.
Spokesperson Snyder
was asked about the corporate policy regarding workers being locked inside of
stores overnight and said, “All individuals who are in Target stores after
hours receive information on Target’s standard safety protocol which includes
the locations and use of clearly marked fire exits and doors, which allow them
to exit the building anytime.” However, employees claim they never received
this information.
Phil Toomey,
Prestige’s outside general counsel, didn’t comment on the OSHA charges because
he hadn’t seen them. When asked about the company policy on locking workers in
stores, he responded, “ It’s practice at Prestige to comply with federal and
state law. They don’t own the building.” The other two maintenance contractors declined
to comment.
Target is the US’s
second largest discount retailer after Walmart, but many labor organizers have
alleged that both companies squeeze labor costs in similar ways and both are vehemently opposed to unions. Walmart faced
charges similar to this back in 2004 for locking employees in their stores
overnight. Target is entirely non-union in the US. UFCW filed a union election
in 2011 at a Target in Long Island, but lost after an anti-union campaign, and
the union alleges illegal threats and bribes by management.
The OSHA complaints
are one aspect of the CTUL’s campaign to improve working conditions for retail
cleaning workers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
I know Target is
lame, and I’ve known for a while. I also know in a lot of ways they are just
like Walmart. Alright, Target, we’re over. It will be interesting to see how
this turns out and if it has any long lasting effects on the way retail maintenance
staff is treated. There could be serious
ramifications for Target and Walmart if employees of contractors can file
charges against them for unfair practices because the protection these
contractors provide these major corporations are the reason their hire them in
the first place.
