The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in collaboration with the AFL-CIO, has launched a nationwide campaign calling on teachers, parents, and communities to boycott Target for back-to-school shopping.
The union cited Target’s refusal to condemn ICE for its illegal assaults on communities across the country over the past year, particularly in Minneapolis, where January’s “Operation Metro Surge” led to the murders of two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents.
“We gave Target ample time to stand with the communities in which they operate and help their neighbors,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten, “but its silence about federal immigration abuses has been deafening. We wrote letters, passed resolutions, and reached out to management in good faith but have yet to see any meaningful movement.”
Instead of shopping at Target, teachers are urging shoppers to take their dollars elsewhere and support local businesses and retailers whenever possible. To help consumers locate alternatives, they’ve launched a website at shopsmart.aft.org, which lists more than 5,000 unionized stores.
According to the AFT, its 1.875 million members individually spend an average of $895 of their own money on school supplies each year. Together, they also hold billions in Target stock via their pension accounts, giving the ongoing Target boycott significant leverage.
The “Shop Smart, Support Working Families” campaign comes a year after the AFT passed a resolution to boycott Target in support of African-American faith and community leaders who were responding to Target’s rollback of its DEI commitments in the wake of President Donald Trump’s return to office.
Target has half-heartedly attempted to restore trust with the Black community after meeting with leaders of the boycott last March, by partnering with HBCUs, and fulfilling its previously unfinished community investment commitment.
But the company remains on shaky ground with consumers. Just this week Target came under scrutiny yet again from the Black community after it marketed a Halloween costume that resembled minstrelsy. Perhaps if Target had remained committed to equal opportunity for African-Americans at every level of its staffing, critics say, racist blunders like this wouldn’t have happened.
The Washington Post recently reported on the growing labor coalition building around the boycott, hinting that the labor unions’ interests lie in the fact that Target is not organized. The Post, under the influence of notorious union-buster Jeff Bezos, warns the ruling class that, “AFL-CIO’s involvement might be intended as a subtle reminder that a nationwide drive to unionize stores could make the situation for management much worse.”
Organizing efforts have been undertaken by Target workers in the past, but the retailer’s union-busting tactics prevailed. After an organizing attempt at their Valley Stream, N.Y., location in 2011, Target was found to have violated labor law by the National Labor Relations Board, which noted that Target’s employee handbook had “unlawful rules.”
Target has a history of unfair play, facing scrutiny for its leaked anti-union employee training video and directing its management to prevent union development with training documents that state: “We don’t believe that a union or any other third-party representative would improve anything—not for our team members, our guests, or the company.…”
It’s clear that as community and labor coalitions come together to direct people away from Target, the ruling class will do everything it can to block the boycott’s growing power and protect their profits. The boycott has made a significant impact, which has been downplayed and brushed off by the business press. Since the start of the nationwide campaign in early 2025, Target had to replace its CEO, and its public image has increasingly become stained with corruption and cowardice.
While in the past Target may have been generally viewed as a progressive “woke” corporation with Pride merchandise and aisles for Black hair care products, its failure to support the will of local communities and its capitulation to the Trump administration have resulted in its public image becoming more associated with the policies and perspectives of the far right.
Just when Target thought it could convince the public the boycott was over, the labor movement stepped in as a powerful force to let everyone know that back to school means back to the boycott.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UBxCjQ-3E8M
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views expressed here are those of the author.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
