RETAILING

Kmart Campaigns Against Union Candidate: The nation’s second-largest retailer urged investors to reject union-backed Stephen Hester as a corporate director. Hester, 59, was nominated by a shareholder group comprising the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Teamsters. The unions’ proxy solicitation is an effort to pressure the board and management to give concessions on labor issues, Kmart Corp. Chairman Floyd Hall wrote in a letter to shareholders of the Troy, Mich.-based company. Such issues, he said, should be “addressed in other, more appropriate arenas.” Hester is a general counsel to American Capital Strategies Ltd., an investment banking firm specializing in corporate restructurings and employee ownership.