Liars. My girlfriend had to watch that tape just this year.

This video was in use as late as 2009; I worked at Target part time in early 2009 and I saw this video.   They probably still show this video!

All it means to me is that they likely show an “updated” (however minor) version of the video, it doesn’t mean they’ve stopped showing similar anti union propaganda.  

I was hired last week. I watched this video last Tuesday. No lie.

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So what? The people who write your paycheck shouldn’t be able to sit you down and give you their view of how best to conduct their business?

Did you get paid to watch it? Are you glad Target gave you that opportunity; ie. your job?

@Pablo — I think the bigger question is why lie about it, instead of having the courage to own the fact that they’re still screening it?

What is wrong with a company making their case about unions? Do you operate under the presumption that a union is always a good thing? I don’t. I’m a member of two and they’re corrupt and dysfunctional entities that only care about growing as big and fat as they can. Oh, and “diversity” – approximately 70% of the emails I get are related to “diversity” or “LGBT” issues.

I’ve worked for 2 Fortune 500 companies and have had to watch numerous videos, attend meetings, watch CEO level broadcasts that all are formulated to make the employee think the way the company wants them to think. I am thankful for the opportunity to sit in a comfortable chair in an air conditioned room and get paid to watch anything. I watch and add the company line to just one more narrative that I use to decide what I should actually think and how I should act.
This is standard operating procedure at all companies. If you don’t like watching the videos, you can get a job at a fast food place of for the government.
I started as a entry level employee and the 1st Fortune 500 paid for me to go to college at night and started promoting me after I just took a couple of classes. I now have a very technical job and and have no problem with the companies that allowed me to start with basically nothing and become the millionare next door to ask me to support their viewpoint once in a while.

autoplant in michigan workers make $28 per hour autoplant in Tenn workers make $14.00 per hour which one can afford to send their kid to college, which one can afford to buy the car they are making

That is what companies are supposed to  do….their sole job is to make money for the owners…shareholders.  They are not there to provide for you.  You are there to perform a task.  end of story. If you do not like that task, or the conditions you are free to find one that you do like.  Thats why you have these freedoms. 

I don’t like the lying about it, but to show a video like this is fine.   The best thing a company can do AFTER the presentation of such a video is to run the place in such a way that very few employees (except perhaps the marginal ones, performance-wise) have any reason to be interested in paying dues to a union.  

Just because they hire you doesn’t give your employers the right to force feed you their completely biased opinions. People should be free to make up their own minds about whether or not they want to join a union. If you watch the video Pablo it’s nothing but scare tactics and misinformation.

I agree that the video is fine…..people can make their own decisions and just because a company chooses to sway their employees a certain way should not make them evil or the subject of a boycott.   A company should have the right to operate their company in the way they believe will make them successful.   From my recollection, they just told us we had to watch the video, no consequences if we didn’t.   I read the newspaper the whole time.   The lie is the problem!   Why would Target not just own up to showing it…..they have already had enough PR problems already in the past.   Just shows that a lie and a casual “Well…okay we still show a version of the video” explanation for their dishonesty will suffice.   Honesty and integrity and, more importantly, a stand for your beliefs has been flushed away.  If Target management doesn’t like unions and wants to keep them away, fine with me, but just admit the video is being shown.   They might find that individuals will flock to work there because they believe in Target’s values and company vision.

That video is old, we watch a new video now

I disagree with you, Shambolique.  I worked in the corporate sector in human resources, in both union and non-union environments, and was responsible for employee communication and employee relations, legal compliance, etc.   I DO believe your acceptance of a job give employers the right to communicate their opinions, visions, policies and preferred business model.

True, as you said, people are free to make up their minds about unionization, and we have laws that spell out how that process is administered and who can say what during a union organizing drive, if one should occur.  If an employer conducts its business in a way that leads employees to conclude they NEED the protection of a union, the business deserves one, and the employees may not be intimidated or promised anything by the company in return for voting against the formation of a union.

Would I author the video as shown in my company?  Probably not; I would emphasize even more the positive, employee-friendly policies that the company acts out to make unionization unnecessary, keeping the negative stuff about unions more in the background.  But, I don’t call the shots for Target management and shareholders.

I might understand your point better if you mentioned what it is about the video that you consider “scare tactics”, and what “misinformation” it presents.  Maybe I am missing something you saw; or, maybe you watched it with your mind already made up.

In closing, imagine you were a new Target employee and watched the video.  You would have every right to work for Target for only as long as it took to find another job in a company with a different operating philosophy.  So, what’s the problem?  

This isn’t the anti-union video I had to watch back in April. The one I saw was just as misleading, but whoever wrote the new script seemed to choose their words more carefully. As I was watching the video I was incredulous that they could get away with misleading their employees the way they were. It was pretty sleazy. It reminded me of the Republican smear ads that come out around election time, full of misleading information and half-truths.

I would be interested in knowing, if you have time to reply, what you find to be “misleading” in the video.   My initial reaction is that Target was putting its cards on the table re: their goal to avoid becoming unionized, and so incoming people will know “where the bear poops in the buckwheat” (as my father would say).  

But I must be missing something because you are so convinced it is misleading.  Help me out here.

I just went to orientation and they showed the anti union video; it was pretty much the same as the one shown here, with the same themes and topics, but the actors were different.