A majority of Holt Renfrew employees at the Yorkdale mall location voted Thursday against forming a union, amid accusations that the company engaged in unfair tactics to persuade employees to vote against union certification.

“We are investigating the company’s conduct the past couple of days for potential violation of the Labour Relations Act,” said Pearl Sawyer, president of Local 1000A, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

“Workers who signed union cards changed their minds,” Sawyer said. “We believe that was influenced by the company’s conduct over the last few days.”

She also said the company held meetings with employees before the vote and there were reports of intimidation and coercion. Sawyer declined to provide further details until consulting with the union’s lawyer.

Alix Box, senior vice-president of sales and marketing for Holt Renfrew, denied there was any coercion or intimidation.

Box said there have been changes to incentive programs for employees but Holt Renfrew employee remuneration remains well above department store standards.

“Our employees expressed some frustration with some of the changes we implemented. Change isn’t always easy,” she said. “We really value our people more than anything else in the organization.”

Sawyer said voter turnout was high. Approximately 190 employees were eligible to vote. In all, 50 voted to unionize, 99 voted against and one ballot was spoiled.

Twelve ballots were disputed by the company, not enough to affect the outcome, Sawyer said.

The salary structure at Holt Renfrew varies widely. Employees at the high-end retailer are paid hourly, by commission or a combination of both.

Employees reached out to the union a couple of months ago because they were upset that the threshold for sales commissions had been increased, reducing their income at a time when profits at the company were rising, according to union representatives.

“They’re looking for some fairness,” said Jonathan Lobo, co-ordinator of the organizing department for UFCW Canada Local 1000A. “It’s hard times for everyone and employees in the retail industry are getting pinched everywhere. But if you’re a profitable business, you should be sharing those profits with your employees who are working very hard to ensure that you are profitable.

“At least leave things at status quo,” he added. “If they had left things at status quo, it wouldn’t have happened. It’s the take-take-take mentality. Employees eventually band together and say enough is enough.”

According to Statistics Canada, retail trade is one of the lowest-paid sectors on average, although there has been a recent 4.4 per cent rise in weekly earnings to $531.

Box agreed that Holt Renfrew has been doing extremely well.

The UFCW is also fighting for employees of Zellers who are losing their jobs as Target takes over the leases.

Kevin Shimmin, national representative for the UFCW, said Target has not responded to requests from the union that Zellers employees be transferred to jobs in the new Target stores, respecting their pay, benefits and seniority.

Shimmin said the UFCW is trying to unionize Zellers stores before they shut down so it can fight for successor rights for employees at the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

“Many of these Zellers workers have worked up to10 years and should automatically have that opportunity to continue working,” he said.

The requests have been put directly to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel, but there has been no response.

Steinhafel is one of five high-level Target insiders who sold $13-million (U.S.) in stock this month as shares shot up to a multiyear high, according to Barron’s magazine. Steinhafel sold 75,800 of his shares for $4.5-million on June 15, the magazine said. He now directly holds 269,093 shares and holds 368,301 shares indirectly.

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The explosive growth in retail in Canada means retailers including Walmart and Target are hiring.

According to data from Cushman and Wakefield retail services, the retail sector is Canada’s largest employer, accounting for 12.5 per cent of jobs.

There are 220,000 retail establishments in Canada and 2,677 shopping centres totalling nearly 500-million square feet.