WHY HAS OUR COMMUNITY BEEN TARGETED?

WHY IS TARGET OUTSOURCING LOCAL JOBS?

Target, a national corporation headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota is building a store at 11501 W. 97^th Street in Overland Park, Kansas. 

 Target has hired S.M. Wilson, a general contractor from St. Louis.  In turn S.M. Wilson has hired a company headquartered in Van Buren, Arkansas, to perform the carpentry, metal stud and drywall work on these stores.  This contractor pays well below the area standard and provides little, if anything, in the form of health and/or retirement benefits.

 This is the same economic philosophy employed by colonial powers; i.e. treat the locals like peasants and pump the profits back home.  It may have made Spain and Great Britain wealthy but it didn’t do much for the local folks.

 It is hard to understand why Target has decided to refuse to allow area craftsmen to participate in building these projects.  These are tough times for working people.  If Target wants to do business in Overland Park then it ought to allow the citizens of our community to participate fully in the construction of this store.  For a start, how about hiring construction contractors which pay local workers fair wages and benefits?!  We should not let our community be fleeced by foreign corporations who have targeted us for a fast buck.

 Please call Al Amoit, Project Manager for Target at 612-761-5704 and ask him why they believe you should spend your hard earned dollars to support a company that hires out of state contractors.

 UPDATE!

In June of 2005, organizers of the Carpenters' District Council of Kansas City and Vicinity spoke with workers installing the drywall and metal studs at this Target store.  Some of the workers for the Drywall/metal stud contractor P & K Construction from Van Buren Arkansas, told organizers their pay ranged from $12.00/hr. to $15.00/hr. and that they got their jobs through a broker in Texas.  "Some of the workers are regular employees of P & K, and some are not" they said.  While they weren't sure what an "independent contractor" is, they said "No they aren't taking taxes out of our pay".  P & K Construction also provided these workers with a place to stay while working at this Target store.  These workers  told organizers that at one point, all 12 P & K workers, their assistant foreman and foreman were staying at the Rutlader Outpost RV Park and KOA campground (roughly twenty miles from the jobsite) in two travel trailers.