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Whole Foods argues it can ban BLM masks because the Supreme Court let a Christian business owner refuse same-sex couples (fortune.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 17 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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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It seems like this would hurt their brand to pick this fight, since moronic "conscientious" labor aristocrats are their target demo.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I'm hoping this will break liberal fantasies about trusting certain corporations, but it probably won't. It'll push more suburban white liberals into the maw of being reactionary.

Is it accelerationist of me to want comfortable suburban liberals to just become conservatives already? They're already most of the way there and it would help more properly delineate where the political divides really are.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (19 children)

I'm with Amazon on this, seems a reasonable ask for employees to not wear any political/cultural/social things at work with their official uniform.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (8 children)

So if they’re banning BLM as political, do they have to be even handed and ban all political iconography?

Is a rainbow political? Obviously anything with an American flag is political, so those need to be banned. Anything like a cross obviously would be forbidden - necklaces would have to be tucked in and invisible. Christianity is far more of a political thing in the US than BLM, as it’s being used to specifically and actively drive legislation. Would they then have to ban employees from other religious dress, like wearing a hijab or yarmulke? I don’t recall Muslims or Jews passing legislation in the name of their religion at the national level, but do activities in Dearborn or Williamsburg count?

Are wedding rings heteronormative? They’re certainly both a cultural and a social thing. Makeup is also both cultural and social, and additionally potentially has gendered implications. If we ban rainbows, do we ban anyone wearing makeup or require everyone to do so, since they’re potentially signaling gender identity?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm going to start using GOP rhetoric and replace rainbow flag with wedding rings.

Wedding rings is woke propaganda.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (7 children)

It seems to me like WF is trying to avoid a bud light situation. Employees wearing BLM stuff will certainly put off a lot of people in many areas. So it's about not alienating a big portion of their customers, which would be a significant hit to sales.

Anyway, I find it odd to some extent that a business was not allowed, possibly, to limit what employees wear, especially if they interact with customers. A key tenant of sales and customer service is to make the person feel respected and to take an interest (fake if nothing else) in the customer.