June 18, 2013

Member Spotlight: UFCW Steward Takes On Target

The following is the story of Angela, a former Zellers employee, who is now taking action in order to get Target to act responsibly and give better treatment to the Zellers workers in which the company displaced:

Former Zellers worker Angela Rankine

My name is Angela Rankine, and for thirteen years, I worked at Zellers in Toronto. But when Target took over the store leases two years ago, I lost my job, along with 25,000 other workers just like me.

When Target came to Canada, they had the opportunity to be a responsible neighbor and help build up our communities. Instead, Target chose to build at the expense of the community.

Target could have chosen to let us keep our jobs. Instead, the company has made workers, with over a decade of experience serving the community, re-apply for entry-level jobs. Those workers who did manage to get their jobs back have lost the pay and benefits that they earned over years of service.

Everybody knows about Walmart’s poor track record of disregarding their workers’ rights. But when it comes to Target’s record on workers’ rights in Canada, the company fares way worse than Walmart, and that’s a pretty scary situation.

Last week, I traveled to Denver, Colorado to ask Target executives to rehire Zellers workers. With the support of Denver-area union members and community allies, I spoke out at Target’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Over one hundred supporters cheered me on as our allies and I walked into the meeting.

I know that we still have a long fight ahead before we will get our jobs back, but I also know that we’re not fighting alone. My union brothers and sisters had my back in Denver, and together, we will keep on fighting.