Employees at Market of Choice grocery in Southeast Portland are speaking up after repeatedly being sent home from work for wearing “Black Lives Matter” pins.
In a letter sent to Market of Choice management Monday, employees at the SE Belmont store expressed their frustration with not being able to express their support of Black Lives Matter while working.
“We were told that the company wishes to maintain a ‘relaxing’ and comfortable environment, while the black and brown members of our community are subjected to violence in all forms every day,” the letter reads.
Conrad Ronk, who works as a pizza chef at the store, is one of the nine employees who signed the letter.
Ronk told the Mercury that on Thursday, June 25, six employees were sent home for wearing Black Lives Matter pins. “Since then, certain managers have been upholding the policy, sending people home each day,” said Ronk, who was sent home Monday for refusing to remove a BLM pin during his shift.
Ronk says the message employees are getting from management conflicts with the public-facing message that Market of Choice’s CEO Rick Wright has shared expressing support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Here’s the text of that message, shared on Market of Choice’s Facebook page:
Wright’s message rings hollow to some of the store’s employees.
“We believe that it’s not enough to simply make a performative public relations statement without a foundation of action or real solidarity,” their letter reads. “It’s also not nearly enough to simply wear buttons. All of us need to be having conversations and taking action right now, and a basic showing of solidarity in the workplace is merely the beginning.”
Employees were first informed of this dress code rule last week, when staff at one of the company’s Eugene stores were told to remove and replace masks with “Black Lives Matter” printed on them. Since then, Market of Choice employees have held protests outside of their employer’s Eugene locations, urging shoppers to boycott the high-end grocery store until the company changes its policy.
A Market of Choice spokesperson responded to the Mercury‘s request for comment with an emailed statement, which specifically addressed masks—not pins.
“Not allowing employees to wear a Black Lives Matter mask is simply a dress code issue, similar to most other retailers,” the statement reads. “Employees who don’t follow the dress code are asked to make necessary changes. Specifically, if a teammate’s mask doesn’t comply with the dress code, they are offered an alternative mask in order to remain in the work environment.”
This news coincides with a similar outcry from Portland Burgerville employees who have been barred from wearing their own Black Lives Matter buttons while at work. Workers are, however, allowed to wear Burgerville-produced Black Lives Matter pins. On Friday, members of the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) picketed outside of the chain’s Montavilla store to protest the company’s ban.
These corporate bans aren’t limited to Oregon. Employees at Whole Foods, Taco Bell, Publix, and Starbucks have been penalized, sent home, or fired for refusing to take off Black Lives Matter face masks or buttons, citing dress code violations. Starbucks reversed their ban a week after employees raised concerns.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with these businesses? Do they need attention so badly that even negative press is good for them? Market of Choice is an overpriced grocery store that obviously caters to white people. Fuck them and fuck their business. Everyone on the wrong side of history regarding this matter will feel it one way or the other.
Stadium Fred Meyer is not allowing anything BLM related either. I’ve worked for Fred Meyer for 10 years but I will be moving on when more things start to open up and I can find a different job that pays close to what I make now. Kroger has shown their ass through this whole pandemic and now this. It’s sad what Kroger has done to our once beloved local Fred Meyers.
Fuck. It’s a private business. They get to choose what is appropriate or not inside their business. They’ve opted to not have employees wear political emblems of any type while working. If employees can’t handle that, then they can fucking quit.
Black Lives Matter is not a “political emblem.”
Black Lives Matter is Love.
Black Lives Matter encompasses every subject matter that humanity must confront and understand. It is more than politics.
It is about demanding equality and equity; making up for the past wrongs enabled by actual laws.
Each state had their own laws- “Black Codes” that were created to prevent earlier African-Americans from generating wealth and maintaining health.
As it relates to our grocery stores- consider all the products on the shelves and especially (my area of expertise in) alcohol beverages.
In Jim Crow era South Carolina, free Black people were prohibited from selling and creating alcoholic beverages.
Alcohol has always been a money maker, and African-Americans were heavily involved in its creation (Look up Nearest Green teaching Jack Daniels, for a primer with the most documentation that has been compiled so far). Because of laws, they were denied or punished for any attempts to act on their success and skills with products, and forced only to recoup meager wages from “employers” who still had the right to violently punish and dock wages when quotas weren’t met.
There were many other areas in which Black people were prevented from enterprise until civil rights laws were strengthened.
For a quick glimpse at the oppressive laws of early South Carolina, you can look here: https://ushistoryscene.com/article/excerpts-south-carolina-black-codes-1865/
While a business would understandably not want many political issues (Like views on taxes, party affiliation) to be something interfering with employees working-relationships and customer relationships, it is past due for our country to understand the centuries of harm inflicted on Black citizens- and people in general.
And in the sphere of food and beverage, the participation of African-Americans in the food and beverage world have been covered up, and grossly under-compensated to the point that there was no chance for them to become a part of the legacy in the majority of staples that we put on our grocery store shelves.
Harm is way beyond politics. How can one even argue that someone should not be expressing that they are anti-harm in the workplace?
If anyone disagrees, then it is simply because they are unaware of history, and their position in upholding the systems of harm.
We all have been failed by our education systems, and history classes, which left out the details to connect the dots, such as those issues I mentioned above.
In conclusion, I looked forward to the day where I could apply to be the wine and beer buyer for one Market of Choice store. But now I have to cross the company off my list, as they will now cross my name off the list of highly eligible candidates, because I have voiced this.
I can not work for a company that is careless in understanding this matter, or any other humanitarian message in support of progress and harm reduction.
I hope MOC can pause and discuss this matter with an organization who can help them navigate these concerns and find knowledge and solutions that are fair and logical for their business.
Until this is addressed publicly, I will no longer shop at Market of Choice. Feel free to reach out if you have questions on my input.
Black lives matter. Is basically “Burn Loot and Murder”. If they cared about black lives then they would be protesting in chicago every day (yet crickets). Their own mission statement is filled with racism and anti family structure (the biggest problem blacks face). This bullsh!t blatant racism from the left has gotta stop. And BLM is a major instigator of it. I never buy from Fred Meyer but I will now. And just to be clear, I am black. And I came from the bullsh!t (compton. Born in norwalk).