
Ep. 397: Teachers Unions Target Target
From InfluenceWatch Podcast by Capital Research Center
February 24, 2026 · 28 min · Episode 397
About this episode
The episode discusses the political motivations of teachers' unions, focusing on Randi Weingarten's actions against Target and the influence of radical groups in Los Angeles's teachers union.
That teachers’ unions are more interested in radical leftist political power than student achievement is increasingly recognized, and today’s guest brings two new pieces of evidence to pile on the scales. First, AFT president Randi Weingarten, the under-recognized villain of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced to a videoconference of radical-left activists that she was leveraging teachers’ pensions against Target to get the company to denounce immigration enforcement. Then, we dive deeply into Union del Barrio, a radical anti-immigration-enforcement group that may take control of Los Angeles’s teachers union. Stu Smith of the Manhattan Institute, who surfaced the Weingarten clip and recently wrote on UdB, joins us to discuss. Meet the Radicals Running to Lead the Los Angeles Teachers’ Union Meet the radicals who ran to lead LA’s teachers union, Unión del Barrio and its offshoots. Randi Weingarten’s Fight With Target Isn’t Remotely About Education
People in this episode
Guest: Stu Smith
Topics covered
- teachers' unions
- political power
- student achievement
- immigration enforcement
Keywords
- AFT
- Randi Weingarten
- Union del Barrio
- Los Angeles teachers union
Mentioned in this episode
Products: Target
Places: LA, Los Angeles’s
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