In a monumental display of hypocrisy that can only be achieved by Canadian unions, the UFCW, CAW, OFL & CUPE (aren’t they for government employees?) held a rally against Target yesterday- complaining that Target isn’t automatically hiring employees from Zellers stores. Why do I say hypocrisy? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that…
First, Target didn’t purchase Zellers. HBC shut-down Zellers (they weren’t doing very well) and sold the building leases to Target. So, there was never an expectation that Targer would hire Zellers employees. That said, Target has committed to guaranteeing interviews for all former Zellers employees.
Basically, the unions are a day late and a dollar short. If they actually gave a damn about Zellers employees they would have appeared on the scene much earlier- before Target and HBC completed their real estate transaction. They would have, back then, insisted that the deal be made differently. And, perhaps they did do something, but I don’t know anyone who heard about it back then. At the minimum, the grandstanding is much louder now- when it is already too late.
So, who’s benefiting from rallies against Target? Well, the unions for one- as I learned in the Occupy movement, the unions put a lot of support behind useless protests that don’t have any real impact. Remember when Occupy Toronto and the Steelworkers did a flash-mob to support usury?
There’s another organization that benefits from this sort of negative PR, Walmart. They’ve been out in the media promoting how, when the took-over Woolco, they hired many of their employees. Walmart isn’t very happy to see competition coming into Canada- it means that they’ll have to be more competitive in their pricing.
S. Robson Walton, Laughing all the way to the bank…
I really don’t know if the people who are running the unions are corrupt, or are merely dumb as a box of rocks. But, they always seem to be falling into trap of supporting the 1%. In this case i am guessing the latter is true. They just can’t seem to help themselves- always running into a protest without understanding the unintended consequences of their actions…
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