{"id":1203106,"date":"2022-01-09T23:34:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T04:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1203106"},"modified":"2022-01-09T23:34:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T04:34:14","slug":"whole-foods-claims-employees-wearing-blm-masks-violates-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whole-foods-claims-employees-wearing-blm-masks-violates-first-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole Foods Claims Employees Wearing BLM Masks Violates First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhole-foods-claims-employees-wearing-blm-masks-violates-first-amendment%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1203106&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">The upscale grocery chain Whole Foods claims the National Labor Relations Board\u2019s (NLRB) order to allow its employees to wear \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d masks violates its constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2020, the Amazon-owned Whole Foods stoked controversy when it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/whole-foods-employees-frustrated-by-new-dress-code-2020-10\">announced<\/a> a new dress code policy that banned its employees from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/whole-foods-employees-frustrated-by-new-dress-code-2020-10\">wearing<\/a> \u201cbusy patterns on clothing or face coverings, buttons or pins on employee aprons, ripped jeans, athleisure, and t-shirts with visible logos, slogans, messages, or flags of any kind,\u201d according to Insider.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhen a lot of us started working at Whole Foods back in the day, it was a place where you could wholly be yourself and express your personality while still working your job,\u201d one employee said at the time. \u201cWe\u2019re worried that it\u2019s leaning toward a more super-corporate, you\u2019re-just-another-cog-in-the-machine kind of employee situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_7295123\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/whole-foods-store-AP.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7295123\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/whole-foods-store-AP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Customers shop at a Whole Foods Market, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017, in Tampa, FL. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Earlier that year, several employees&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/whole-foods-lawsuit-claims-retaliation-over-black-lives-matter-masks-2020-7\">sued<\/a> Whole Foods&nbsp;for allegedly threatening them with termination for wearing BLM masks while at work. Though a federal judge dismissed the case in February 2021, the prosecutors for the NLRB have claimed that Whole Foods \u201cviolated federal labor law by banning employees from wearing \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 insignia and <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/whole-foods-cites-constitution-disallowing-204631789.html\">punishing<\/a> staff around the country who did,\u201d according to Bloomberg. In mid-December of last year, Whole Foods fired back at the NLRB, claiming that its first amendment rights were being violated, citing Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Per Bloomberg:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The company\u2019s filing, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, accuses the labor board\u2019s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, of trying to unconstitutionally \u201ccompel\u201d speech by Whole Foods in violation of its First Amendment rights. The upscale grocer also accuses her of \u201cunlawfully infringing upon and\/or diluting WFM\u2019s protected trademarks\u201d by trying to mandate that it allow the display of a \u201cpolitical message in conjunction with\u201d its trademarked uniforms and logos.<\/p>\n<p>Whole Foods contends that Section 7 of the NLRA, which protects employees\u2019 right to take collective action related to working conditions, doesn\u2019t extend to workers\u2019 BLM messages, which it calls \u201cpolitical and\/or social justice speech.\u201d The company\u2019s filing argues that \u201cBLM\u201d and related phrases \u201care not objectively understood to relate to workplace issues or improving working conditions at WFM\u2019s retail grocery stores\u201d or employment terms and conditions in general. \u201cEmployees do not have a protected right under Section 7 of the Act to display the phrase \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 or \u2018BLM\u2019 in the workplace,\u201d the company\u2019s attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>President Biden-appointed&nbsp;Jennifer Abruzzo maintains that workers have a right to pursue \u201cracial justice advocacy\u201d and that it falls in line with the NLRA\u2019s allotment for \u201cgroup action to improve their lot as employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe employer certainly can control whether people of color get harassed and discriminated against at their workplace,\u201d she said last month. \u201cWe\u2019re about a broader movement. But that broader movement flows into our smaller workplace universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Whole Foods spokesperson defended the company\u2019s dress code policy, asserting it ensures that employees and customers are given \u201ca&nbsp;shopping experience focused entirely on excellent service and high-quality food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not believe we should compromise that experience by introducing any messages on uniforms, regardless of the content, that shift the focus away from our mission,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The upscale grocery chain Whole Foods claims the National Labor Relations Board\u2019s (NLRB) order to allow its employees to wear \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d masks violates its constitutional rights. In October &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1203106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1203106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1203106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1203106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1203106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}