Target workers vote against unionizing at Huntington Station store

Target has no unionized stores, and a Long Island effort to change that failed this weekend.

In an election at the chain's Huntington Station store Friday and Saturday, workers voted 118 to 39 against being represented by Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, according to Target spokeswoman Jenna Reck.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. welcomed the voting results.

“Today’s outcome confirms Target’s longstanding belief that a culture of mutual respect, in which we listen to our team and resolve issues directly, will always be better for our team members than relying on a union intermediary. We deeply value our store team in Huntington Station and want to thank them for their confidence in Target,” Reck said.

About 200 people work at the Huntington Station store on Jericho Turnpike, which opened in October 2013.

The Target employees in favor of unionizing had sought better wages, improved and affordable retirement and health care benefits, and more defined work schedules, Aly Waddy, assistant to the secretary-treasurer and a vice president of the Westbury-based union local, said Friday. 

Waddy could not be reached for comment Saturday night.

The National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency headquartered in Washington, D.C., oversaw the voting and will certify the results. 

The union has seven days to appeal the results.

Local 1500 represents 18,000 members in New York City and Long Island, as well as Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.

Target employs about 350,000 people and has 1,839 stores nationwide.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.