Weingarten’s Power Play Hits Teachers’ Wallets

Target store exterior with parking lot — Photo: Sam Aronov / Shutterstock

The nation’s second-largest teachers union is telling its 1.8 million members to skip Target this back-to-school season — not because of prices, but because the retailer won’t publicly attack federal immigration agents.

Story Snapshot

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), led by Randi Weingarten, passed resolutions urging members to boycott Target during back-to-school shopping.
The union wants Target to demand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leave Minneapolis and to restore rolled-back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Critics point out AFT-linked teacher pension funds hold millions of shares of Target stock, meaning the boycott could hurt the very teachers it claims to help.
Weingarten sent multiple letters to Target’s new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, threatening formal union action if he stayed silent on ICE.

Union Leader Turns School Supplies Into Political Weapon

Randi Weingarten announced the boycott on Labor Day alongside Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates and a Georgia pastor, framing it as a stand for “racial and economic justice.” The American Federation of Teachers formally resolved to urge members, affiliates, and partners to avoid shopping at Target or using its apps until the company “recommits” to diversity goals. That timing, right before families buy pencils and backpacks, was no accident.

By March 2026, the union expanded its target list. A new resolution claimed Target’s incoming CEO “failed to take a stand” against what the union called ICE’s “occupation” of Minneapolis, where Target is headquartered. Weingarten sent Fiddelke a letter on his very first day running the company, demanding he publicly call for ICE to leave Minnesota entirely.

Letters, Threats, and a Fast-Approaching Deadline

Weingarten didn’t stop at one letter. She followed up with another warning that the union would draft a formal boycott resolution unless Target spoke out against ICE’s “continued abuses” in the Twin Cities. Target’s own human resources chief responded by noting the company has no cooperation agreements with any immigration enforcement agency and said staff are told to “de-escalate” when agents show up at stores. That answer wasn’t good enough for the union boss.

The union’s own materials tie the campaign to two fatal shootings and detentions involving Target employees during immigration operations in Minneapolis. Whatever happened in those specific incidents, Weingarten used them to justify pressuring a private retailer to take a side against federal law enforcement doing its job under President Trump’s administration.

Teachers’ Own Retirement Money on the Line

Here’s the part Weingarten doesn’t advertise to rank-and-file teachers: their own pension funds own a big chunk of Target stock. The Wall Street Journal reported that teacher retirement funds hold millions of Target shares, meaning a successful boycott that tanks the stock price could shrink the very nest eggs those teachers are counting on. One watchdog group says AFT holds at least 7 percent of Target through pension holdings, and Weingarten’s letters explicitly tied that ownership stake to her political demands.

Consumers’ Research, a watchdog group, has asked regulators to investigate whether AFT is pressuring public pension trustees to abandon their duty to maximize returns in favor of “woke agendas”. That’s a fair question. Fiduciaries managing other people’s retirement savings are supposed to chase returns, not use members’ money as leverage in an immigration fight that has nothing to do with retail profits.

A Pattern of Politics Over Paychecks

This isn’t Weingarten’s first swing at Target. Back in September 2025, the union piled onto a separate boycott after Target rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs following pressure tied to Trump’s executive orders. Now the same union has bolted an ICE demand onto that older DEI fight, stretching the boycott’s justification even further from anything resembling classroom concerns.

Critics, including a Spectator writer, accused Weingarten of using “mafia tactics” to bully a private company over federal immigration enforcement. Parents heading into a new school year might reasonably wonder why their kids’ union president is spending political capital fighting ICE instead of fighting for better classrooms, higher test scores, or lower supply costs.