News & Commentary January 27, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

By Julio Colby

Julio Colby is a student at Harvard Law School.

In today’s News & Commentary, a Massachusetts federal judge rules that the firing of three Whole Foods workers for wearing BLM masks was legal, a New York federal judge stands by his order requiring Starbucks Workers United to hand internal documents over to Starbucks, and a Fourth Circuit panel seems unlikely to allow a UPS worker’s ADA accommodation claim to move forward.

A Massachusetts federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Whole Foods workers did not have enough evidence to convince a jury that the company retaliated against them for wearing Black Lives Matter masks. Three former workers brought suit under Title VII claiming they had been fired for wearing the masks in 2020. Judge Burroughs granted summary judgment in favor of the company, concluding no reasonable jury could find that “Whole Foods’ reasons for plaintiffs’ terminations were pretextual and motivated by discriminatory animus.” The workers argued they had experienced harsher punishment than other employees for violating the company’s dress code policy barring the display of unbranded messages, but the judge said the increased enforcement of the policy had been uniform. The workers’ attorney said they expect to appeal the decision. A separate case involving the same workers is still pending before the NLRB, where the General Counsel is arguing that Whole Foods’ actions interfered with those workers’ right to organize.

FULL story: https://onlabor.org/january-27-2023/