Do you remember the good old days when the unions protected their workers and were a blessing to them? And have you noticed that the unions now practice extortion against businesses and are a curse to their members and the rest of the community?
Read more Questioning the independence of UN special rapporteurs
Today’s teachers’ unions have failed their members, parents, and students in unforgivable ways. They reject accountability and merit-based systems; block school choice and competition; promote bureaucratic inefficiencies; and have politicized the curriculum.
But their latest offense has been trying to blackmail the big-box store Target into continuing to practice the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that customers hated, and to denounce ICE operations.
It started with the DEI issue. Last. September, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (“AFT”), flexed her muscles against Target, making additional demands beyond DEI:
- Fulfilling its $2 billion pledge to the Black business community;
- Making a multimillion-dollar investment into 23 Black-owned banks;
- Establishing 10 retail training centers at historically Black colleges and universities; and
- Fully restoring and recommitting to DEI principles.
Weingarten demanded that AFT’s membership boycott Target, just before the back-to-school shopping period. By March 2026, Target had caved to her demands, but Weingarten made it clear these expectations were only the beginning. Moving forward, Target would need to condemn ICE and its operations, particularly in Minnesota:
AFT President Randi Weingarten sent a today to Target CEO Michael Fiddelke to demand the big-box retailer publicly call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s continued abuses and long-term harm to the Twin Cities—or the union will draft an official resolution urging its 1.8 million members to ‘shop local’ and buy billions of dollars’ worth of annual school supplies elsewhere.
It turns out, however, that the teachers’ unions have declining membership and are losing their ability to manipulate their members. In a new report from the Fordham Institute, the numbers are encouraging if you think it’s a good thing to reduce the union’s influence:
Read more Rep. LaMonica McIver is facing justice
Using 59 different measures—including budgets, membership, political wins and losses, and their perceived strength according to surveys—the authors find that unions are weakening in influence nationwide.
The report details several striking examples of declining power: the percentage of K–12 teachers who were union members fell in 45 states plus DC over the past decade; teachers unions’ share of contributions to state-level political parties has declined in 34 states; and the vast majority (69 percent) of survey participants did not list a teachers’ union as the most influential group in their state education politics.
Following the revelations during the Covid-19 pandemic about teachers’ performance, curriculum, methods, and treatment of students, people might have expected teachers to pull back and reassess their responsibilities to students and parents. Instead, they doubled down, demanding more restrictions on student masking and closing down classrooms. Now, with the attacks on Target and ICE, we have every reason to believe that their actions will become more extreme and damaging over time, due to the demands of the unions.
It’s really a shame. There was a time when unions were invaluable to protecting the health and well-being of workers. They fought for living wages, decent facilities, safe environments, and restrictions on child labor.
But they have outlived their usefulness; children are no longer a high priority for them.
Power is the name of the game, whatever the cost.
(For related reading, see, “Being ‘Target-ed’ for literally nothing” by M. Walter.)
Read more Catholic priest says he doesn’t like the word ‘God’
Image created using AI.