[There was a video here]

Workers at the Target store in Valley Stream, N.Y. voted against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers on Friday, 137-85. Had the measure passed, the Valley Stream location would have been the first Target in the U.S. to be unionized.

Target's senior vice president for stores in the Northeast told The New York Times that Target's goal "has always been... to have a culture where our team members don't want or need union representation." A lofty goal! (For the record, we've heard from workers that Target culture is "soul-crushing," among other things.)

Though maybe Target "team members" don't want a union because the chain implied on more than one occasion that the store would be shut down if workers unionized? ("Companies close stores for economic reasons. Our store will stay open only so long as it meets Target's economic and operational needs," Target's anti-union propaganda reads.) Or maybe they don't want a union because they were won over by the notorious anti-union video Target plays for its employees (you can see it above)?

Or maybe it was one of the many stunts the UCFW says Target pulled during the run-up to the vote:

The union filed a complaint with the labor board last month asserting that Target had unlawfully prohibited employees from wearing pro-union buttons and from discussing working conditions on online sites. It also said Target had unlawfully threatened employees with dismissal if they spoke about the union.

In meetings and fliers, Target officials told employees that a union could not guarantee better pay or benefits and that the organization only wanted their dues. In a move that worried numerous workers, the company said there were no guarantees that the store would remain open if the workers unionized.

The UFCW has already called on the National Labor Relations Board to call a new election.

[NYT]