TORONTO — United Food and Commercial Workers Canada has begun posting billboards and bus-stop ads to make consumers aware that workers at Zellers stores will lose their jobs when Target begins converting the locations to its own banner later this year.
As previously reported, the UFCW is seeking to persuade Minneapolis-based Target Corp. to retain the Zellers workers at their current rates of pay. The UFCW currently represents workers at 15 Zellers stores.
The “Target Fairness” outdoor ad campaign began rolling out billboards and bus-stop ads earlier this month in over a dozen metropolitan areas, including Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Trois-Rivieres, Sherbrooke and Halifax.
“The Target brand is well known in Canada, and many Canadians are looking forward to visiting the retailer once their neighborhood Zellers store is converted to a Target,” Wayne Hanley, president of UFCW Canada, said in a statement. “At the same time, more and more shoppers are learning about Target's response to Zellers workers and those shoppers are voicing their disappointment with the global retailer, as they should.”