Target Employees Would Like To Occupy Own Homes This Thanksgiving
LatestRetailers have already pissed shoppers off by beginning their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving. Now, workers upset that their holidays will be interrupted by the call of the almighty dollar are making a stink.
Bloomberg reports that a Nebraska Target employee has decided he wants to show the corporation that jerking workers around near the holidays is ho-ho-horrible.
Anthony Hardwick, 29, has worked for Target for 2 years. When he found out that his 10-hour Black Friday shift would be starting at 11 pm, he’d had it and started a petition protesting the move. He told Bloomberg,
I was so disappointed the day I found out about this because I did the math in my head and I was going to have to go to bed in the early afternoon on Thanksgiving to go in and work 10 hours. Everyone at work was resigned because the economy is bad and so our employer has us over a barrel.
Hardwick’s petition has garnered more than 54,000 signatures as of earlier today, and while he’s heartened by public support for his protest, he fears the company may retaliate. His fears aren’t unfounded; with the economy trudging through an endless field of sludge, employers pretty much have their workers’ balls in a vice. He’s not sure where he’d go for employment if his activism got him fired.
Of course, a petition isn’t the only kind of recourse available to upset employees; one can always just go to work and do a really shitty job on purpose.
Some analysts think that stores like Target, Best Buy, and Macy’s that have moved Black Friday sales into Thanksgiving Day are risking boycott from shoppers irritated by their encroachment on the holiday. And of course stores better hope that understimulated NBA players, itching to play some defense and deprived because of the ongoing lockout, don’t station themselves outside of stores on Black Friday in an attempt to keep shoppers at bay. Although that would be pretty awesome.
Target Employees Protesting Thanksgiving Hours [Bloomberg]