This is actually a surprising move for the company as they are not exactly against BLM. But they are refusing to be strong-armed into allowing their employees to wear their slogans. And now the National Labor Relations boards is coming after them for enforcing their dress code.
“Whole Foods is defending itself amid an effort from National Labor Relations Board prosecutors to force the Amazon-owned grocery chain to allow its employees to wear “Black Lives Matter” attire while they are at work, despite the company’s longstanding policy forbidding all slogans in its dress code.
NLRB prosecutors accused Whole Foods last month of violating U.S. labor law by allegedly punishing workers who wore BLM masks in 2020. The prosecutors are pursuing labor charges on the basis that workers have the right under federal labor laws to engage in collective action related to workplace issues.
Whole Foods fired back, arguing that BLM has nothing to do with collective action in the workplace, and that NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is actually trying to violate the retailer’s own constitutional rights under the First Amendment by trying to “compel employer speech.”
“The Amazon-owned grocery chain denied any wrongdoing in response to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint that it had infringed on federal law by enforcing a workplace dress code barring the apparel.
In the Dec. 17 legal filing, Whole Foods accused NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo of an effort to “compel” speech in violation of the First Amendment.
The grocery chain also accused Abruzzo of “unlawfully infringing upon and/or diluting WFM’s protected trademarks” through her legal action by forcing Whole Foods to allow “political message in conjunction with” its uniforms, Bloomberg reported.
In the filing, Whole Foods argued that the protections offered by the National Labor Relations Act do not extend to “political and/or social justice speech.”
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It serves them right for donating to causes like this in the first place. But I do feel it is messed up that they are being attacked just for enforcing their dress code. I mean it’s no slogans whatsoever. They are being fair across the board. It’s just that some entitled employees and the Labor Board feels they should make an exception for BLM because they are supporters.
