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.

  • Lifted_lowered@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • transigence@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • transigence@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They’re both reprehensible political extremist movements. BLM has the added stank of being a fraudulent money-laundering scam on top of it, too.
        I guess the Summer of Love didn’t happen.

        • holland@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Yes, both are extremist movements. One (BLM) doesn’t want black people to be murdered in the streets, while the other (KKK) want to murder black people in the streets. What is wrong with you?

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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
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      1 year ago

      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?

  • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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    1 year ago

    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
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • freeindv@monyet.cc
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        1 year ago

        Saying that black people exist and should remain alive is not a political statement

        It’s absolutely political because it sits on the false premise that others argue otherwise. Nobody does, it’s a false premise used to create racial divide and lower the moral of the black community

  • serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com
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    1 year ago

    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?

        • Blake [he/him]@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          Everyone knows they’re being sarcastic, but we also live in a world where it’s a crime punishable by death to be LGBTQ+, where mentioning the topic in public is a crime and there are US politicians who have literally called for genocide against LGBTQ+ people, so it’s just a shitty thing to say.

          • freeindv@monyet.cc
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            1 year ago

            we also live in a world where it’s a crime punishable by death to be LGBTQ+,

            Oh yeah, how many whole foods do they have?

            . there are US politicians who have literally called for genocide against LGBTQ+ people

            No they’re aren’t. You’re lying