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The AFT, whose members participate in pension funds with Target shares, warns Target CEO that Company’s Silence on ICE Operations in Minneapolis Jeopardizes Its Brand and Creates Shareholder Risk
Minneapolis—AFT President Randi Weingarten sent a letter to Michael Fiddelke on his first day as the new CEO of Target to demand that Target call for ICE to leave Minnesota.
“Our members are not only workers and consumers, they are long-term investors with a profound stake in Target’s future,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Our urgent request is that Mr. Fiddelke—for the sake of the company he now leads, its customers and the state where it is headquartered—clearly states that Target wants U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of Minnesota now. Moments of transition are also moments of opportunity, and this is an important one for Target.”
The 1.8 million AFT members—educators, nurses and health professionals, public employees and retirees—participate in public pension funds with at least $4 trillion in assets. Those funds directly own nearly 7 million shares of Target stock and have billions more in indirect exposure. AFT members also shop at Target for school supplies; teachers alone spend an estimated $3.4 billion on U.S. school supplies annually.
In her Feb. 1 letter to Fiddelke, Weingarten requests an in-person meeting to discuss Target’s silence on ICE’s continuing operations in Minneapolis following ICE and Border Patrol agents’ murders of two Minneapolis residents.
Weingarten writes that joining a letter of 60 businesses calling for de-escalation “falls short of showing real leadership to end ICE’s occupation in Minnesota” and that Target’s lack of a clear position may undermine its position with the $1.7 trillion immigrant consumer spending market, given ICE’s violence against immigrant communities as a whole.
“Target appears to be extremely vulnerable to extensive brand damage and human capital consequences as a result of its association with ICE and failure to clearly address the crisis caused by ICE’s presence in Minnesota, particularly in Minneapolis and St. Paul,” Weingarten writes in her letter. “I would like to meet as soon as possible to discuss how Target can effectively protect its brand and our members’ investments in this unacceptable situation.”
Weingarten notes that these issues are unfolding as Target has rolled back its commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, creating a significant backlash that has caused store traffic and the company’s share price to drop.
“The AFT executive council passed a resolution to recognize the concerns of the civil rights, faith and community activists who are trying to get Target to recommit to its diversity initiative,” she writes. “We would like to see Target’s incoming CEO address both issues.”