Retail employees are pushing back over Black Friday work hours that are cutting into their Thanksgiving holidays, ABC News is reporting.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a time retailers have set aside for rolling out rock-bottom bargains, prompting shoppers to camp out in front of stores before they open and trample each other to get inside. It also is considered the official start of the holiday shopping season.
Target employee Anthony Hardwick has started an online petition protesting the hours. He has to be at work before the store opens at midnight. He has collected almost 200,000 signatures, ABC News reports.
"I'm going to have to get some sleep and I'll probably go to bed at 2 o'clock and miss my family's Thanksgiving dinner completely," Hardwick tells the news organization.
Customers tell ABC News they feel for the employees.
"I think the stores have a lot of nerve doing this," shopper Joan Feslen says. "I don't think the employees want to be working."
The National Retail Federation reports that 152 million Americans anticipate shopping on Black Friday or the weekend after it, according to ABC News.
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Michael Winter has been a daily contributor to On Deadline since its debut in January 2006. His journalism career began in the prehistoric Ink Era, and he was an early adapter at the dawn of the Digital Age. His varied experience includes editing at the San Jose Mercury News and The Philadelphia Inquirer.