this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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Amazon.com’s Whole Foods Market doesn’t want to be forced to let workers wear “Black Lives Matter” masks and is pointing to the recent US Supreme Court ruling permitting a business owner to refuse services to same-sex couples to get federal regulators to back off.

National Labor Relations Board prosecutors have accused the grocer of stifling worker rights by banning staff from wearing BLM masks or pins on the job. The company countered in a filing that its own rights are being violated if it’s forced to allow BLM slogans to be worn with Whole Foods uniforms.

Amazon is the most prominent company to use the high court’s June ruling that a Christian web designer was free to refuse to design sites for gay weddings, saying the case “provides a clear roadmap” to throw out the NLRB’s complaint.

The dispute is one of several in which labor board officials are considering what counts as legally-protected, work-related communication and activism on the job.

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[–] Grayox@lemmy.ml 76 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fuck Wholefoods

None of my homies shop at Wholefoods

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[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago
[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 48 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Why does anybody think it’s a good idea to wear political statements into work? Just do your job.

Imagine if you ran a business and one of your customer-facing employees showed up in a MAGA hat. You’d probably want them to leave it at home right?

[–] Metal_Zealot@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You think equal rights and fair treatment for all is “politics”?

[–] Kittenstix 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They aren't banning masks that say "equal rights and fair treatment for ALL" , they are banning BLM masks, BLM is a political movement/organization.

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[–] Blake@feddit.uk 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Either employees should be allowed to wear personal accessories to express themselves, or they should not. How do you define what is and is not political?

[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Also, this article’s vague, but “no slogans, logos, or advertising except for Whole Foods branding” is Whole Foods’s official dress code. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/whole-foods-black-lives-matter-mask.aspx

The plaintiffs were told they had to remove their Black Lives Matter face masks because they violated the dress code, but the workers refused and were sent home. After being sent home several times, they were fired for violating the company's attendance policy.

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[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Agreed, if I ran a grocery store chain I’d just have the employees wear uniforms with no personal expression.

At the end of the day it’s the business’s right to set whatever policy they want though. If the government decides employees have a constitutionally protected right to wear whatever they want to wear to work, we’re gonna see a lot of crazy bullshit.

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[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would agree with you, but this is pretty blatant far-right bias and with the genocidal turn that camp has taken, it's vitally important to take sides.

Otherwise, I agree with you.

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[–] bear@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Imagine if you ran a business and one of your customer-facing employees showed up in a MAGA hat. You’d probably want them to leave it at home right?

I think it's good when people support good things and bad when people support bad things. Amorally applying the rules for their own sake is actually not a virtue; the rules should be oriented to promote good outcomes and discourage bad outcomes. Otherwise, what's the point?

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[–] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not "Whole Foods" it's Amazon. Whole Foods died when Amazon bought them.

source: I'm from Austin and know several people that work there from employees to management. They killed everything that was whole foods.

[–] mookulator@mander.xyz 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Pretty sure Whole Foods had shitty conservative executives back then too didn’t they?

[–] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

You can't escape those fucks living in Texas. They're everywhere.

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[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

iiuc, wf is not saying that customers can't wear BLM masks. They don't want to show a political stance and, as a result, don't want BLM masks worn by their employees, because that could be misconstrued as wf or Amazon taking a political stance. I can understand that. However, they, then, must ban ALL shows of politics in their store by them and their employees, and that includes LGBTQIA+ stuff. Otherwise, they're just banning BLM stuff, which will be ~~mis~~construed (notice the crossed out 'mis') as them taking a political stance against black folks.

[–] apotheotic 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On one hand, I agree with you

On the other hand, how do we live in such a fucking hellscape that "black lives matter" is a politically charged statement and not an obvious fact. Same for LGBTQIA+ folks deserving equality. (frustration not pointed at you, but at the social climate)

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[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago

What a wild hill to die on.

[–] yip-bonk@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Exsqueeze me? What the amazon fuck, WholeFoods.

[–] SpookyUnderwear@eviltoast.org 6 points 1 year ago

You can't seriously be surprised by this. When you work for a company, especially one that interacts with customers, you're almost guaranteed to have to follow uniform requirements. This isn't new.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Reason 9,000,975 for not shipping Amazon/Whole Foods.

[–] Lowered_lifted 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

When I worked at a big box store for years I wasn't allowed to wear my BLM shirt or anything "political" but my Trumper coworkers got away with wearing their Trump shirts or Let's Go Brandon shirts, and they even put Let's Go Brandon stickers up all aroubd the employee facing areas. If you told managers about it they addressed it as a dress code violation and regarded you as a snitch.

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[–] transigence@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Obviously, no business wants to be associated with BLM any more than they want to be associated with the KKK. Every company I've ever worked for has had dress codes that prohibited divisive political slogans and offensive language.

[–] mookulator@mander.xyz 30 points 1 year ago (35 children)

That’s quite the false equivalence you’ve made there

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[–] innermachine@lemmy.one 12 points 1 year ago

Uniform is uniform, no politics in work is how every job I've had was. Can I wear a Spanish flag pin cuz it's my heritage? No it violates dress code

[–] Grayox@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

How is the statement Black Lives Matter a divisive political slogan? Take all the time you need.

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[–] jasondj@ttrpg.network 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Honesty, imo, shame on Amazon for not barring anything but solid-colored, patterned, or Bezos-Empire-Branded masks, explicitly, in their dress code.

I’m a (mostly) vegan, liberal AF, solidly middle-class, homeowner married millenial parent (i.e the portrait of a Whole Foods customer), and I agree with BLM, but I would be put off by any political or politicalized messaging in a supplier/customer relationship. I’m here for your general tao seitan and a TTLA…not for your influence.

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Saying that black people exist and should remain alive is not a political statement. Do you want to ban hats that say "veteran" too? Or maybe charity and cancer awareness logos?

Being a live black person is not a political act. Think about that when ordering some seitan and being "liberal AF", whatever that means.

[–] Lowbird 5 points 1 year ago

This feels very similar to me to businesses freaking out and trying to prevent their employees from wearing rainbow flag or pronoun pins. Or rainbow masks, for that matter.

I think employee uniform requirements should be just enough to make employees identifiable so they can do their jobs (e.g. answer customer questions about where the lettuce is or whatever). Just a mandatory hat or shirt is enough to do that. Beyond that, they're humans. Let them be fucking humans.

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[–] quinnly@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

So you don't agree with BLM then

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago
  1. Politicize the idea the that an ethnicity shouldn't be arbitrarily beaten by police.
  2. Ban that idea because it's "politicized"
  3. Everyone is ok with it because despite politicize is a verb we're supposed to pretend this isn't being done by someone that thinks it's ok for police arbitrarily beat the shit out of minorities.

It's almost like this a system of some kind. And maybe racist? A racist system? So not only aren't we doing enough to take on systemic racism, corporations like Amazon are creating new forms of systemic racism.

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[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago (18 children)

Welp, just cancelled Amazon Prime. Never shopped at Whole Foods, so can't do any more there.

Kinda the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Probably should've done it a long time ago with all the union busting and general shittiness they are towards employees. But FFS if you're gonna pay people the bare minimum, treat them like cogs, at least allow them to have something they care about on their person while they're doing that shitty job.

Saying that black people are humans and their lives matter as much as any other human should be the least controversial thing ever. But a bunch of racists made it controversial and Amazon is just going along with that.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

A company not wanting it's employees to wear politicized materials while at work is what makes you mad? I suppose you also want them to be able to wear rebel flag or SS masks? A Trump facemask with MAGA on it? Maybe you just read the title?

[–] michaelrose@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Black Lives Matter is a unambiguously good stance.

The rebel flag signifies support for people who fought a war against their fellows for the right to hold others in chains. SS signifies support for a mass murder's campaign to subjugate the world and drag the world into darkness. Support for Trump is support for an autocrat who would replace Democracy with a cult of personality.

The fact that you cannot distinguish these beyond lumping them together as political stances doesn't speak well for your analytical skills. How about you can support your fellow man but you can't support evil?

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[–] Lowered_lifted 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not actually a problematic political stance to state that Black Lives Matter, it's unambiguously good, whereas the other things you mention are hate speech, hope that helps.

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[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 year ago

Another example of a company with street cred giving it up. If employees felt safe wearing BLM masks to work that meana the company's image as is consistent, even internally.

And they just threw it away.

[–] derin@lemmy.beru.co 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Time to go to Wegmans, y'all.

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[–] 011011@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Another reason to avoid Whole Foods.

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[–] NaoPb@eviltoast.org 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If they have a dress code for their employess, it's their right to prevent their employees from wearing anything not up to code. No matter if it's making a statement or not.

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[–] lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Im ok with this. While BLM is a good thing, having to wear uniforms that promote any organization other than your employer is a problem. Imagine being forced to wear a pro-Trump t-shirt. Or an anti-union vest. Or some anti-gay, pro-religion hat while flipping burgers.

[–] Sidyctism@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

Huh? This isnt about wholefoods not wanting to force their workers to wear blm masks, this is about wholefoods wanting to forbid their workers from wearing them

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[–] Lemmywhat@monyet.cc 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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