Target Virginia Store Employees File For Union Election

(RTTNews) - Workers at a Target Corp. (TGT) store in Virginia have filed with the National Labor Relations Board seeking a union election.

According to reports, the workers are looking for collective bargaining power and representation through the New River Valley General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World. The store in Christiansburg, Virginia has about 100 employees.

Adam Ryan has been working at the Target Virginia store for five years and formed the independent Target Workers Unite in 2019. He said that the filing to form the union is important as workers feel that their pay does not cover rising costs for basics like food and rent. He also said that workers had to do too many tasks, from filling online orders to unloading trucks.

Target later sent out a statement, in which it reiterated that the company has always invested in its workforce with starting wages as high as $24 per hour and expanded health care benefits. The company has in the past not supported the formation of employee unions.

The Minneapolis-based retailer now employees about 350,000 total employees. Analysts are of the opinion that the union formation at big retail chains could be a slow store-by-store process and will not have any major impact on earnings.