We Love You (But Not Your Workers)

Art gallery display? Nope, it's a sign - Target Loves Canada - on the wall at Square One shopping centre in Mississauga.

Ha! The US Target chain might love the idea of taking cash from Canadian shoppers. But it doesn't seem to be quite as much in love with the thousands of workers axed at the Zellers chain, the country's second largest, which it bought last year. "It was a real estate transaction," said a company spokeswoman. "We didn't take the employees."

"That's another way of saying we're firing 10,000 people," countered Ontario Federation of Labour head Sid Ryan, who said Canada's Tory government supports policies that make Canadian workers more "competitive," which means lower wages, lower benefits, no unions and no pension plan.

Now the sacked staff, some with decades of service, will have to reapply for their jobs at the 100 or more Target stores when they begin to open in the spring.

The old Zellers stores, according to an 'expert', "were cheap, but not cheap chic like Target." Cheap chic? Give me strength!