Target To Lay Off Thousands Of Zellers Employees

[Locutus]

Thousands of Zellers workers slated to lose their jobs when more than 100 stores across Canada are converted to Target locations beginning next spring are ramping up a national campaign to protest the mass firing, calling on the public and government to intervene.

Though the small number of unionized workers that will be affected by the takeover may have some legal recourse to protect their jobs, the outlook for the vast majority is nowhere near as optimistic.

It’s a situation that one labour expert says should serve as a poignant reminder of the precarious nature of non-unionized work, which has become a hallmark of Canada’s growing retail sector, where the relatively low-skilled nature of jobs has made workers particularly vulnerable.


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Target Canada: Zellers Employees Slated To Lose Their Jobs Launch 'Target Fairness' Campaign

 

[B00Mer]

Until you shop at Target, don't knock their way of doing business.. I love Target..

 

[spaminator]

will zellers bramalea and zellers woodbine be targeted?

 

[Cabbagesandking]

Why are foreign entities allowed to come into Canada without guarantees that they will serve Canadian interests?

 

[Machjo]

Why are foreign entities allowed to come into Canada without guarantees that they will serve Canadian interests?

They abide by local and national laws just like any other companies. What? You expect foreign companies to be even more committed to Canada that Canadian ones?

 

[BruSan]

Why are foreign entities allowed to come into Canada without guarantees that they will serve Canadian interests?

Why are foreign entities who come into Canada expected to serve our interests in a "global economy"?

If they buy a business but trim the fat and operate on a business model of tighter margin and still employ Canadians; where's your problem?

You want those remaining employees to still have job security don't you? How would forcing Target to keep operating using the Zeller's model and fail just like Zeller's be helping them? How about Sear's closing Canadian stores; wanta kick them out entirely?

Retail sales are hurting badly due to flagging economy and fierce competition among big box stores and if you insist they operate on a failed model of employing surplus people and operating stores in areas that are not competitive with other outlets; guess what happens?

A chain operating in that manner would reduce it's market value so that they would become an unsaleble entity to another chain such as Target and ultimately have to declare bankruptcy, ergo; employees are all gone, shareholders all take a hit, large unoccupied stores in malls all over the country become a blight, further reducing property values and rental revenues, Government realizes lower tax intake; in short we all lose.

 

[Cabbagesandking]

Not really but I do expect them to look at labour practises and the federal government to ensure that they do. Why are the Zeller's employees not part of the deal? Why does Target not want them as part of the package? Is it to, like WalMart, prevent Unionising and to ensure cheaper labour?

There are questions and the biggest is whether it is in Canada's interest. An interest that should include the labour market.

 

[Retired_Can_Soldier]

Why are foreign entities allowed to come into Canada without guarantees that they will serve Canadian interests?

Target bought Zellers some time ago. Zellers is in the position it is because it cannot compete with department stores like Wal-Mart. While we can blame Wal-Mart for killing a Canadian Department store, the truth really lies in how Zellers has conducted itself over the last 30 years and that is what led to its demise.

Zellers has neither modernized itself or stepped up to the challenge of competition. While they proclaimed that "The Lowest Price is The Law!" the fact is that their stores were often disorganized, sometimes even dirty and they treated their employees like crap. (Not that Wal-Mart treats its employess any better).

The writing has been on the wall for Zellers for quite some time. The jobs that will be saved by the Target purchase is far better than what was inevitable (bankruptcy).

If you don't like how these stores treat their employees your best form of protest is to shop elsewhere instead of demanding that foreign entities protect Canadian Interests. In other words, don't buy their sh!t and tell others not to buy their sh!t.

I hear a lot a folks whining about foreign entities whilst grabbing a Television made in China or a car built in Mexico.

 

[Machjo]

Not really but I do expect them to look at labour practises and the federal government to ensure that they do. Why are the Zeller's employees not part of the deal? Why does Target not want them as part of the package? Is it to, like WalMart, prevent Unionising and to ensure cheaper labour?

There are questions and the biggest is whether it is in Canada's interest. An interest that should include the labour market.

Why does it matter that they are a foreign and not Canadian company? If a Canadian company did the same thing, how would that be different?

If you want to raise labour standards or what have you, we can certainly debate that. But the moment you suggest doing so only for foreign-owned companies, then we know you're less concerned about the workers themselves and more about your nationalist ego.

 

[Cabbagesandking]

Why is Zellers a failed model? Is it because of the advantages given to WalMart by short sighted municipalities and the failure to protect workers?

There are many features about WalMart that have been translated into the Canadian scene that have given them an unfair advantage over Zellers and others and there presence has not been a blessing.

In the US, the federal government pays more than $2.5 billion annually in welfare to employees of WalMart: making up for r remuneration that is, for many employees, less than subsistence.

It has been estimated that a Municipality that allows a WalMart receives one third less in taxes than it had from the businesses lost. Manufacturing is lost and jobs with it. Other corporations are forced to lower their employee wages in order to compete - remember Loblaws reducing wages by $4 per hour.

The whole WalMart concept is am abomination not an example of free enterprise. It is raw power with the collusion of government.

 

[Machjo]

Target bought Zellers some time ago. Zellers is in the position it is because it cannot compete with department stores like Wal-Mart. While we can blame Wal-Mart for killing a Canadian Department store, the truth really lies in how Zellers has conducted itself over the last 30 years and that is what led to its demise.

Zellers has neither modernized itself or stepped up to the challenge of competition. While they proclaimed that "The Lowest Price is The Law!" the fact is that their stores were often disorganized, sometimes even dirty and they treated their employees like crap. (Not that Wal-Mart treats its employess any better).

The writing has been on the wall for Zellers for quite some time. The jobs that will be saved by the Target purchase is far better than what was inevitable (bankruptcy).

If you don't like how these stores treat their employees your best form of protest is to shop elsewhere instead of demanding that foreign entities protect Canadian Interests. In other words, don't buy their sh!t and tell others not to buy their sh!t.

I hear a lot a folks whining about foreign entities whilst grabbing a Television made in China or a car built in Mexico.

Good points, especially the one about Zellers mistreating its workers. The idea that it's OK for Canadian companies to ignore "national interests" while requiring foreign-owned companies to out-Herod Herod is just a show of blind nationalism, not out of any real concern for our workers.

If the concern was really about our workers, he'd be showing more concern for how workers are treated than on who's treating the workers.

Why is Zellers a failed model? Is it because of the advantages given to WalMart by short sighted municipalities and the failure to protect workers?

There are many features about WalMart that have been translated into the Canadian scene that have given them an unfair advantage over Zellers and others and there presence has not been a blessing.

In the US, the federal government pays more than $2.5 billion annually in welfare to employees of WalMart: making up for r remuneration that is, for many employees, less than subsistence.

It has been estimated that a Municipality that allows a WalMart receives one third less in taxes than it had from the businesses lost. Manufacturing is lost and jobs with it. Other corporations are forced to lower their employee wages in order to compete - remember Loblaws reducing wages by $4 per hour.

The whole WalMart concept is am abomination not an example of free enterprise. It is raw power with the collusion of government.

Walmart is bound by the same laws and bylaws as any other company. If you have an issue with any of its practices, why not propose legislating higher labour standards across the board. What you seem to be suggesting here is to legislate higher labour standards for foreign-owned companies but to Hell with those working for Canadian-owned companies. You're showing more concern for Walmart being here than on how it actually treats its workers.

 

[petros]

HBC owns Zellers. HBC sold off Zellers properties to Target.


P.S.
HBC isn't Canadian.

 

[spaminator]

Virtual Library of Newspaper Articles

Zellers fires poor dad for taking chocolate from trash for his kids

The Canadian Press, December 21, 2005
ST-HYACINTHE, Quebec A single father of three fired for taking chocolate bars from a garbage bin at a Zellers store will get some Christmas cheer from a charitable organization.
Guy Masse, 47, had planned to give the discarded chocolate to his children, ages six, nine and 15, for Christmas.
Masse, who was on welfare and had been working at the store only for a couple of months, was first suspended and then fired.
"I think its inhuman," Masse told CJAD radio station in Montreal of his dismissal.
Zellers, which is part of Toronto-based retailer Hudsons Bay Co., has said Masse should have notified his supervisor that he was taking the chocolate out of the garbage at the St-Hyacinthe store, about 50 kilometres east of Montreal.
"Its a very unfortunate situation. We would never have willingly let an associate go at this time of year without just cause," said HBC spokes woman Hillary Stauth in an interview from Toronto.
"Unfortunately this associate breached the trust of his supervisors by removing merchandise from the store, and as a result, he was let go from his position."
Established in 1670, Hudson's Bay is Canada's largest department store chain and oldest company with more than 500 outlets, led by the Bay and Zellers chains.
Added Stauth: "We have over 70,000 across Canada. They work so hard especially at this time of year. Its very upsetting that one bad employee tarnished the reputation of everybody else."
Montreal's Sun Youth Organization said Tuesday that Masses family will be provided for this Christmas.
"Its important to Sun Youth now that this family will have a Christmas that they deserve, food on the table and gifts for the kids," Sun Youths Tommy Kulcyzk told CJAD.

Zellers fires poor dad for taking chocolate from trash for his kids-Canadian Press-21DEC05

 

[Machjo]

"Unfortunately this associate breached the trust of his supervisors by removing merchandise from the store, and as a result, he was let go from his position."

Are they saying that Zellers considers rubbish to be merchandise?

I'm sorry but if you chuck something in the garbage, unless it's personal information, it's public domain to the first who finds it. Those chocolates were going to the local dump. That I do not consider to be theft by any stretch of the immagination. To dismiss an employee for taking rubbish is beyond ridiculous.

 

[BruSan]

The only employee entities who will maintain job security or benefit levels are those covered under a contract with successor rights written in. People like executives or union members whose rep's did their job during collective bargaining to insert clauses and pattern duration of agreements to last long enough to cover the changeover.

That is the current practice for all employers in Canada covered under the various Provincial labour laws.

Target will not move in and ignore "labour practices" as the poster put it; those are legally binding and in that respect they will behave no differently than a Canadian company.

Where is it a given that Target will be a bogeyman whereas Zellers were "father christmas" employers.

You want to rant about the effects of this global economy and free trade among other things better paint your sign and "occupy".

 

[WLDB]

Pretty bad when you cant even find an unskilled minimum wage job.

 

[Machjo]

Pretty bad when you cant even find an unskilled minimum wage job.

If there is a shortage of unskilled work while companies are struggling to find skilled workers, it would seem teh solution is not to legislate people out of work by raising the minimum wage, but rather by retraining the unemployed for the jobs that are available.

 

[Locutus]

No matter, it can be blamed on Harper eh. :lol:

 

[MHz]

P.S.
HBC isn't Canadian.

Same owners as in the fur-trading days??

Luckily those employees can just grab another job, probably at a higher salary, and save money by shopping at the new chain.

No matter, it can be blamed on Harper eh. :lol:

All Politicians should be made to wear clothes from Target. Be sure to get the plaid that comes from China, it it says Taiwan expect the elbows to blow out the first time you bend your arm, nothing like a short sleeved shirt wit ragged ends.

 

[TenPenny]

Are they saying that Zellers considers rubbish to be merchandise?

I'm sorry but if you chuck something in the garbage, unless it's personal information, it's public domain to the first who finds it. Those chocolates were going to the local dump. That I do not consider to be theft by any stretch of the immagination. To dismiss an employee for taking rubbish is beyond ridiculous.

With an attitude like that, you'd be fired from most workplaces.

employees have been known to throw stuff in the garbage so they can 'recover' it later.

almost every workplace has rules about taking trash - if you want to stay employed, you should get permission first.