The 23,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 has filed for a union election at a Target store in Valley Stream, L.I., the first filing in what is expected to be an aggressive, extended organizing campaign for 27 Target stores in the New York city area. For nearly a decade the UFCW has attempted to leverage Walmart into neutrality, using its political muscle to block the retail giant from building stores in NYC market. Meanwhile, the union ignored Target as it established itself in and around the city. Bernie Hesse, political director of UFCW Local 1189 in Minnesota, Target’s home state, explains the tactical shift this way — “We have to organize Target stores, or we’ll soon be irrelevant.” You said it, Bernie.
