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I completely agree with you.
That said, whether or not I agree is immaterial. The fact remains, Target has no intention of changing their business model... and I suspect that it is safe to say they will never change it, even if it eventually means bankruptcy.
With that in mind, TM's have to be realistic. They can stick around 5, 10, 20, even 30 years and hope things will change.... or they can go with a better employer after looking for a few months for something better. The sad truth is, those who stick around 20 years are going to look back 20 years from now and say "WTF did I just waste 20 years of my life for?".
There is way way way more out there besides Target. If you find a better opportunity, take it. You will never get ahead otherwise.
Just because we have an opportunity to move on doesn't mean we can't stop and fight it. What if people are happy they like being a cashier? Life isn't about moving up and up. We want stability and able to have a good life. Not everyone wants to be a business owner nor a boss. I just want a stable life and able to afford to have a family. That is all I want. If people can do that at a unionized store as an cashier. We should be able to do that everywhere else.
It's thoughts like you have is why America has no class consciousness.
There is nothing wrong being happy as a cashier.... except if you are unhappy with the pay of a cashier.
The fact of the matter is, you will not get ahead in life being a cashier. You will be poor forever. If you are OK with that, then there is no problem. If you are not ok with that, you need to be realistic and start thinking about finding a job that does pay more.
What you are calling "stability" is actually stagnation. It's called "getting comfortable" or "settling". Nothing wrong with that, but when you get comfortable, you don't advance. You are basically choosing to stay in your present condition.
With that said, do cashiers need to make more? Absolutely. Would a union help? Probably. Would a majority of TMs at the store support it? Not a chance in hell.
You need to realize that the people on this forum are the ones who bleed red and khaki. Usually only top tier employees care about even thinking about their job when they are off the clock. The people here genuinely care about their jobs and the company and have a vested interest in improving situations. Unfortunately, they are an extreme minority.... it just doesn't seem that way because they are ultra-concentrated online.
Now enter the offline world of your store. Most TMs, when it comes down to it, really aren't interested in improving things. Will they sit there and bi*** and moan? Yup. Will they actually take action about anything to make things better? Nah. Don't believe me? Go around the store and get the phone number of every TM in the store. Text them after work about coming to a union meeting at your choice of venue. See how many show up. You'll be lucky if one or two do.
You can't help people who won't help themselves.
Let me give you an example. When I was a TL, I used to be brutally honest with TMs even if it got me in hot water sometimes. When I gave performance reviews to TMs who clearly deserved either an EX or even O review score, but the ETL's screwed them with E or IE, I would always tell them something like "Listen, I have to be honest with you. You deserved way more than this, and behind the scenes, the ETLs knowingly and willingly screwed you over. You actually should be getting a much bigger raise than this"
What happened nine out of ten times? The TM would smile and me and say something like "That's ok. I don't mind. I'm happy I got any raise at all!". Most of them time I would just think to myself "Dude, stop being such a fu**ing chump push over". Actually, now that I think about, I only had one TM ever tell me she knew she was getting screwed and was pissed about it.
Now that I am a TL again, and have had a lot of time to reflect on those days, I don't think I'm going to do that anymore. It really just ended up depressing me.
