AFT calls on educators, families to avoid Target during back-to-school season

As back-to-school shopping season ramps up, the American Federation of Teachers is urging educators and families nationwide to stock up on supplies someplace other than Target.

The union’s “Shop Smart, Support Working Families” campaign is a response to Target’s refusal to condemn the unlawful Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that continues to roil communities around the country – a position the union called “starkly accommodationist.”

The nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, endorsed the boycott in June at its constitutional convention in Minneapolis.

AFT encourages supporters to find alternate retailers that respect labor rights at ShopSmart.AFT.org.

Additionally, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1189 maintains a list of union retailers in the East Metro at ufcw1189.org/shop-union.

The AFT, with 1.875 million members nationwide, rolled out its boycott this month after the union’s attempts at dialogue with Target leadership “did not receive a constructive response.”

Educators spend an average of $895 of their own money on school supplies each year, and union pension funds hold billions in Target stock.

In March, the union passed a resolution demanding the Minneapolis-based business speak up against the ICE atrocities in its own backyard. AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote to Target CEO Michael Fiddelke in January and again in March.

“We gave Target ample time to stand with the communities in which they operate and help their neighbors, but its silence about federal immigration abuses has been deafening,” Weingarten said. “We wrote letters, passed resolutions and reached out to management in good faith but have yet to see any meaningful movement.”

Twin Cities union leaders praised AFT for holding Target accountable.

“We’re disappointed that Target has failed to live up to its promises to be a good neighbor to the families who have shopped there for years,” Natasha Dockter, a vice president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said. “In this scary time, we all need to come together, from the classrooms to the corner offices, to protect Americans’ right to free speech and to ensure our democracy endures.”