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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[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 155 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

You can get mad at Amazon, but really it's the Supreme Court you should be mad at. Amazon is going to take advantage of whatever it thinks will make them more money. The government is the thing that is supposed to keep them in check.

Edit: A lot of people seem to be reading something different from what I wrote. I didn't say you shouldn't be mad at Amazon, or that Amazon isn't at fault for their own actions. What I did say is that you should expect this type of behavior from a business and should expect our government to do a better job at keeping this behavior in check.

[–] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 129 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m mad at both. Amazon is trash. The current court is trash. And all the ghouls that got us this shit ass court are trash, from Mcconnell to Trump to every dummy that votes for Trump to the stupid stupid Democrats who didn’t fight tooth and nail when Obama’s pick didn’t get a hearing and didn’t pack the courts at the 1st opportunity. Oh and fuck RGB who should have fucking retired at the start of Obama’s 1st term. Octogenarians who survived multiple bouts of cancer don’t have the luxury of hanging out so the 1st female president gets to appoint their successor. Democrats are so fucking inept it’s hard to believe that they aren’t sandbagging us on purpose

[–] Blake@feddit.uk 16 points 1 year ago

it’s hard to believe that they aren’t sandbagging us on purpose

It’s hard to believe that they’re not doing it on purpose exactly because they are doing it on purpose. The system isn’t broken, it’s doing exactly what it is designed to do. You cannot use the system against itself. Voting helps prevent the greater evil but that just gets you the lesser evil. If you want an answer that is not evil at all, we need to create that entirely separately, outside of the established system and politics.

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[–] mookulator@mander.xyz 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

When the corporations can fund the politicians there is no difference between them.

[–] alignedchaos@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

“Amazon is going to take advantage of whatever it thinks will make them more money.”

Yea I will in fact get mad at that kind of behavior. Lots of businesses doing it (and commenters like you normalizing it) doesn’t make them less responsible for their shitty behavior.

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[–] _number8_@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

what the fuck is this shit, on my lemmy? fuck them both is the only sane conclusion, not "it's a business so it's fine"

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[–] Grayox@lemmy.ml 107 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Fuck Wholefoods

None of my homies shop at Wholefoods

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

You don't shop at Whole Foods because of it's policies.

I don't shop at Whole Foods because I don't believe in paying $4 for a apple.

We are not the same.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 47 points 1 year ago

It’s $6, grandpa.

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[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 78 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 67 points 1 year ago (2 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 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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

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[–] pthaloblue@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's been like that about Whole Foods since the 80s. John Mackey is a libertarian fuckhead and it's been a series of people realizing it ever since.

They hired union busters all the time.

In the 10's he tried to sell his book "conscious capitalism" on the shelves. Surprise surprise, no one bought it.

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[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 49 points 1 year ago (4 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.

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[–] isthingoneventhis@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago (33 children)

Being tired and thinking Bureau of Land Management made this very confusing at glance.

Also fuck the courts for that BS.

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[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 35 points 1 year ago (35 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 27 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

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[–] Blake@feddit.uk 22 points 1 year ago (6 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 13 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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[–] chatokun@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So, we can ban crosses? I'm obviously going a bit far, but both somewhat touch on the way people believe rights should be secured, and both involve human rights (one to free expression of religion, another to life and fr33dom from unfair treatment in general). Both make statements to others that others may find uncomfortable, depending on their beliefs.

[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

…yes? Why shouldn’t a business have the right to ban their employees from wearing a cross? Go work somewhere else if wearing a cross is that important to you…

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[–] xantoxis@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago

Time to start wearing a mask that says Union

[–] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago (52 children)

Holy shit. So Amazon and Whole Foods are just openly racist now. Not even trying to hide it anymore.

Conservatives will be celebrating as soon as they have someone read this article to them.

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[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 34 points 1 year ago

What a wild hill to die on.

[–] dropped_the_chief@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

In that case, the workers should wear union masks instead.

[–] yip-bonk@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Exsqueeze me? What the amazon fuck, WholeFoods.

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[–] SankaraStone@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That Bill of Rights isn't for humans. It's for corporations.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Don't forget, Corporations are Peopleᵀᴹ

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[–] Lowered_lifted@beehaw.org 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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[–] grayman@lemmy.world 13 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.

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[–] trias10@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (9 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.

[–] money_loo@1337lemmy.com 23 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Guys is it Political to not want to get killed by the police or just get seen at the hospital when you’re having chest pains?

Interesting take you have there.

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[–] PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world 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?

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 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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[–] derin@lemmy.beru.co 11 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Time to go to Wegmans, y'all.

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