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

August 27, 2026 by

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.”

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St. Paul educators give away 40,000 books

January 30, 2024 by

Labor and community leaders joined a press event at the St. Paul book giveaway. Speakers (L to R) included St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson, Education Minnesota Secretary-Treasurer Rodney Rowe and Vice President Monica Byron, AFT President Randi Weingarten, SPFE President Leah VanDassor and St. Paul Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher.

The St. Paul Federation of Educators gave away 40,000 books to children, families and teachers Dec. 16 as part of their international union’s “Reading Opens the World” initiative, which aims to give out 10 million free books.

“As others ban books, we’re giving them out,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said during a brief program during the book giveaway. “As others try to stop kids from reading, we want to nurture minds and open the world to our kids and our families.”

Educators staged the event at Neighborhood House on St. Paul’s West Side, with volunteers unpacking boxes of books and arranging them by reading level. Organizers selected titles “that are diverse, that are interesting, that have lived experiences (relevant) to our kids and our families and our communities,” Weingarten said.

AFT launched “Reading Opens the World” in December 2021 as part of the union’s “Real Solutions”campaign to strengthen public schools and address learning loss, loneliness and literacy. So far, the international union has distributed 2 million books as part of the initiative.

In St. Paul, families could take home up to 30 books, and educators could take up to 50 free books for their classroom libraries.

Education Minnesota Vice President Monica Byron credited SPFE with “sparking so much joy in our community” with the book giveaway.

“To the educators that I see being able to grab books to share with their students across their classrooms, have fun and take those moments to see the joy,” Byron said. “And to the students, I hope you read these books over and over and over again because that’s where the magic happens –in the words, in the pages and in your minds.”

Co-sponsors of the book giveaway included the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation, Teamsters Local 120, Saint Paul Parks and Recreation, Neighbor-hood House, Education Minnesota and the West Side Community Organization.

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SPPS educators strike for schools their students deserve

March 10, 2020 by

The nationwide wave of #RedForEd strikes made a big splash today in St. Paul.

The St. Paul Federation of Educators called the city’s first teacher strike in 74 years after negotiations with the St. Paul Public Schools on union contracts covering 3,800 teachers, education assistants and other professional staff broke down overnight.

This morning, union members picketed outside 50-plus school buildings. By afternoon, they had consolidated outside Global Arts Plus school, where they were joined by parents, students and other community supporters.

Together, they formed a sea of red as they marched into West 7th Street and toward the district’s headquarters, where the presidents of both major U.S. teachers’ unions led a fiery rally calling on district officials to start listening to its educators.

“You give whatever it takes for your students to succeed, but you have a superintendent who tells you what you’re asking is too much,” National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia told union members. “Has that man ever told you you should hold back from your kids? Absolutely not.”

The teacher-led #RedForEd movement, fighting to reverse decades of disinvestment in public schools and the people who staff them, has sparked strikes across the country in recent years. Last year alone, some 237,400 educators joined strikes in North Carolina, West Virginia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Kentucky and Oregon, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

And now educators are striking in St. Paul, fighting for their student-centered contract demands. The union wants mental-health supports in every SPPS school, more support for multilingual families and special-ed teachers, and additional investments in restorative practices.

“I know all of you would rather be in school with your kids,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said at today’s rally. “But we are in the streets … and we’ve been in the streets for the last two years.

“Teachers, educators want what children need. You wouldn’t be fighting if you didn’t believe that.”

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Teachers will be back in the streets tomorrow, when the district plans to cancel classes for a second consecutive day. After picketing at school sites in the morning, SPFE will hold a rally and march beginning in Rice Park at 1 p.m. The union welcomes all supporters to attend.

“Tomorrow we’re going to be back on the picket line,” SPFE President Nick Faber said. “We’re going to be out there until we get … a contract that gives our students the support they need.”

Additionally, union leaders are asking supporters to email members of the school board and urge them to work with educators to reach a settlement.

 

The union also has put together a list of resources for parents and families impacted by the school closures, and is updating the list regularly.

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