bapifar01: Anti-union video from Target used union actors

Friday 17 June 2011

Anti-union video from Target used union actors

Anti-union Target employees? No, union members.

Workers at a Long Island Target store have been attempting to form a union, an effort which comes to a vote on Friday. Target has been waging a pretty standard corporate anti-union campaign?which is to say, lots of intimidation. But now it's taken a turn for the humorous.

Gawker's Hamilton Nolan, who has been doing stellar work focusing on this issue and the realities of working at Target, obtained a copy of an anti-union video shown to all new Target employees.

But Target's anti-union stance apparently doesn't extend to video: the actors in the video are union members:

As it turns out, the video was filmed under the jurisdiction of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), according to actor (and union member) Ric Reitz, who plays Target spokesman "Doug" in the film.
"If someone hires me to play a rapist, does it make me a rapist? You take the job, and you're an actor," says Reitz, a longtime member of AFTRA and the Screen Actors Guild. "Am I pro-union? Absolutely."

So when it comes to convincing their workers not to join unions, Target wants the quality of union actors. But when it comes to staffing their stores, it's non-union all the way.