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) (15 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

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[–] mookulator@mander.xyz 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] 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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[–] Grayox@lemmy.ml 131 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Fuck Wholefoods

None of my homies shop at Wholefoods

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 56 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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[–] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 79 points 1 year ago (3 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 48 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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

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[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 22 points 1 year ago

It was shitty and ruled by a worker abusing chud before Lord Bezos bought it, too.

[–] 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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[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 78 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 50 points 1 year ago (5 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.

[–] silent_water@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

imagine realizing this and going "they should ban queer people" instead of "banning politics is impossible because there's no such thing as an apolitical stance"

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

Time to start wearing a mask that says Union

[–] serial_crusher@lemmy.basedcount.com 35 points 1 year ago (40 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 (10 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?

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[–] 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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[–] uralsolo@hexbear.net 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

AFAIK the ruling about serving same sex couples specifically relates to "compelled speech", which means it definitely doesn't apply in this context and Amazon is hoping that right wing courts will expand the ruling (they might).

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

What a wild hill to die on.

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 32 points 1 year ago

Companies have no rights unlimited genocide on corporate personhood

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

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

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 28 points 1 year ago (11 children)

After reading this, why am I getting a feeling in my stomach that reminds me of being on a roller coaster right before a big drop? Why do I feel like all of America is going to be like that very soon?

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[–] GarfieldYaoi@hexbear.net 23 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Free speech for me but not for thee.

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Very simple fix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Land_Management

Now Amazon is an anti-governmental organization

[–] 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 (5 children)

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

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