TGT Target Corp

By Sarah Nassauer and Paul Ziobro 

A group of employees at a Target Corp. store in New York City have voted to unionize, the first time in the retailer's history that its workers have decided to join a labor union.

A group of less than a dozen pharmacy employees in Brooklyn, N.Y., passed the measure on Sept. 8 after the National Labor Relations Board approved a request to conduct a vote.

Target had argued against the vote, saying it shouldn't have been allowed given the pending sale of the company's pharmacy business to CVS Health for $1.9 billion. Target plans to appeal the NLRB's decision to allow the vote, said spokeswoman Molly Snyder.

"Although we are disappointed by the results of the election, and believe that our team members do not need paid third-party representation, Target respects the rights of its team members to make this choice," Ms. Snyder said.

The union would be the first such group among Target's nearly 350,000 employees. There have only been two votes to unionize at Target stores since 1990, according to Ms. Snyder: at Valley Stream, N.Y., in 2011, and in the Detroit area in 1990. Both were rejected.

The Brooklyn employees decided to pursue a union vote after CVS agreed to buy Target's pharmacy business, according to a pharmacy employee at the location who asked not to be named. Staffers were worried about potential layoffs, reductions in their hourly wages or other labor changes after the CVS deal, the employee said.

"We were all happy with our jobs at Target. That wasn't the problem. It's more that we didn't like being thrown into uncertainty," said the employee. Seven Target pharmacy employees met with local United Food and Commercial Workers International Union representatives at restaurants to learn how to unionize, said the employee.

After filling the petition with the NLRB on Aug. 11 "our daily routine got turned upside down," as Target executives from corporate headquarters streamed to Brooklyn, said this person. Several Target and CVS executives came to Target in Brooklyn over several weeks to convince the pharmacy employees they didn't need a union to be heard, said this person.

"Leading up to the election, Target dispatched a variety of employees to visit the store and meet with employees," said Ms. Snyder, the Target spokeswoman. "We wanted to be sure our team members were able to continue to have open and honest communication as a team and with a variety of leaders," she said.

"The approximately 14,000 in-store Target health care professionals will be offered comparable positions with CVS Health as part of the transition, subject to customary pre-employment checks," said a CVS spokeswoman.

The group of pharmacy employees approached the UFCW to ask for help creating a union, says Louis Sollicito, organizing director for UFCW 342.

The NLRB approved the vote because CVS's purchase of Target's pharmacies is still subject to federal approval, therefore Target has official ownership of the unit, said James Paulsen, regional director at the NLRB who heard the case. Small groups of employees at a store are able to unionizes as long as the group mostly stands alone within the store, said Mr. Paulsen.

In this case Target never argued the group wasn't large enough to unionize, he said. Target can appeal the decision with the NLRB, he said.

In 2014 a group of 41 cosmetics and fragrances workers at a Macy's Inc. store in Massachusetts won approval from the NLRB to unionize, at the time raising concerns among retail and business groups that more small groups of employees within stores would attempt to unionize.

Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com and Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2015 19:51 ET (23:51 GMT)

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