Remember the heroic effort made by Target employees at the Valley Stream, NY store to unionize?
Well, it looks like the courageous employee behind the effort has now been fired on less-than-kosher grounds by the Big Bullseye:
She was the face of the failed campaign to make a Valley Stream, L.I., store the first unionized Target in the country. Again and again she told media outlets she was struggling to raise her daughter on what she earned as a Target sales floor team member.
Now, Tashawna Green, 21, of Jamaica, Queens, no longer has her $8-per-hour job. A Target supervisor fired her earlier this month, seven weeks after workers voted not to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500.
Really, Target?! You fire an $8/hour single mother. Hmmm -- what was your rationale?
Ms. Green said she was told on Aug. 5 not to report to work the next day because supervisors were investigating allegations that she had spread rumors that all staff members of Jamaican descent would be fired. (Team members who hailed from Jamaica, including Ms. Green, had been the most vocal in support of unionizing.)
Wait a second, Target, isn't firing everyone at the store -- by closing the store -- exactly what you threatened to do if employees were successful in unionizing?
"The most chilling and scary thing that Target did was suggest that the store might close should we win the election," said Tashawna Green, a Valley Stream Target worker. "They know the store won't close. It is just a dirty trick to scare people during a tough economy. I thought the days of trying to intimidate voters was over. The battle for Civil Rights was not won in a day and if we have to fight just as hard and just as long for our rights so be it. We are ready," Green concluded.
Target also threatened to fire-by-closing Chicago employees:
Target is putting plans to build three South Side stores "on hold" -- and making veiled threats to close existing Chicago stores -- if the City Council mandates wage and benefit standards for "big-box" retailers, African-American aldermen warned Thursday.
The saber-rattling is intensifying as the clock winds down toward a July 26 showdown vote on plans to make Chicago the nation's first major city to establish a "living wage" for stores with at least 90,000 square feet of space operated by retailers with $1 billion in sales.
Let's stand up for Tashawna Green, and against the cruel corporation that would fire an employee for seeking a better life.
Really -- do you want to shop at a store that would make a video like this?
Oh, and in case you were wondering, those were union employees in the video.