September 19, 2018 - elguey

Safety Issues for Target Seasonal Workers on Truck Unload

My experience working at a Target store unloading trucks during holiday season compels me to voice concerns for new employees regarding safety. I will address these hazards by relating the following incidents and offer possible remedies. The managers often just throw an inexperienced employee on the unload line with no training or instructions on how to deal with these problems.

Spills

 Actually spills happen quite often with degrees of concern ranging from annoying to hazardous. A  glass of pasta sauce will break almost certainly as will other glass items. The biggest problem here is that there was never a maintained and stocked a spill station near the truck. Sometimes I could keep a scoop, a broom, paper towels, or absorb powder  near but never all together ready to go;  I would have to go off looking for something to use and often there was no more powder and no broom or paper towels to find. You might ask about a spill a station but some careless team leads might consider you a troublemaker.

Now of course sometimes the spill was my fault to begin with because I was in a trying to move fast (never fast enough for them!), but mostly cases get pushed off the line and bottoms of repacks of loose items give way and scatter all over the floor. Very aggravating! Also they want to you to save the labels from the broken glass so it can be charged back. I found that a pair of gloves was useful for this. Some employees were lacerated.

Pinch Points on the Line

The line is pushed very tight and it is difficult to remove your designated cartons. One employee was injured when she was removing a carton and the line was shoved on her shoulder. Be careful here.  Be always alert! You are your best first line of defense. All the team leads are going to do is bawl you out when you slow down for any reason. Keep calm and work safe when unloading and pushing the line.

Eyewash Stations

Major concern here. One employee had ammonia slung in his eyes and could not find an eyewash station. He ended up using the nearest water fountain which did work, but OSHA regulations require one to be available. Turns out that a squeeze bottle of in the first aid cabinet does satisfy the requirement but it seems to me a multi-billion dollar company like Target could do better than this.  At Wal-Mart the stations are designed into the store and always functional. In the incident above, the squeeze bottle was located but was empty! Management blamed the contractor responsible for replenishing the first aid cabinets. So if there are eyewash stations know where they are and that you can get to them–if not use the water fountain if it has enough pressure or bring your own water bottle.

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Employee Experience / TargetSucks