A group of workers at a Target pharmacy in Brooklyn, N.Y., have voted to organize, making them the first union in the retailer’s 113-year history.
The pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers are forming a microunion—an organizing unit that the National Labor Relations Board sanctioned in 2011 in circumstances where members share “a community of interest,” Reuters reported on Wednesday. Based on that ruling, the NRLB gave 41 workers in the fragrance and cosmetic department of a single Macy’s store the right to form a microunion in 2014.
The NLRB’s approval of microunions has enraged the National Retail Federation, which says that the organizing tactic will pit groups of employees against each other and force retailers to bargain with multiple unions that could have opposing interests.
Target told Reuters that it was disappointed with the NLRB’s decision to allow the vote by its Brooklyn pharmacy workers to proceed, especially since the company is in the midst of selling its pharmacies to CVS Health. It plans to appeal the ruling.
