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Protesting Target's anti-union agenda and other problems

An administrative judge from the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an election at a Target store in New York is invalid because the company engaged in illegal intimidation of employees, leading to the 137-85 against the union. This would've been the first union at a Target store.

The judge ordered Target, which is notorious for its anti-labor practices, to hold a new election after agreeing with the United Food and Commercial Workers, who had accused the company of intimidating workers ahead of the election, Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

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. [...]

“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.”

Among the complaints were that Target threatened to shut down the store if workers voted to organize and that employees were interrogated about their union activities. Target did shut down the store for six months for renovations. Most of their other stores undergoing renovations, however, stayed open during the process. Workers who were most vocal in their union support were not allowed to transfer to other stores and were not re-hired when the store re-opened.

Target officials said they "respectfully" disagree with the NLRB decision.