UFCW 3000 Press Release

For Immediate Release: May 3, 2023

Contact: Tom Geiger, 206-604-3421

Workers Win Case for Wearing Black Lives Matter Buttons on the Job –

Fred Meyer and QFC (both Kroger-owned stores) Must Allow Workers to Wear Their Buttons

In a clear statement of the rights of workers to wear buttons and other materials such as masks at work, as part of collective, concerted activity, the Administrative Law Judge, from the National Labor Relations Board Division of Judges in San Francisco today ruled in favor of UFCW 3000’s case for workers wearing Black Lives Matter buttons and ruled against Fred Meyer’s attempts to curtail that right.

Finding in favor of the Union’s core argument that the workers’ actions were protected under Federal labor law because racism is a workplace issue, Administrative Law Judge Mara-Louise Anzalone wrote in their decision that, “by collectively displaying the ‘Black Lives Matter’ message on their work uniforms, the employees in this case acted to advance their interest—as employees—to an affirmatively anti-racist, pro-civil rights, and pro-justice workplace.”

The judge’s ruling also struck down the Employers’ overly broad dress codes.

The ALJ’s decision essentially agreed with earlier findings in this case going back to the September of 2022 finding of Region 19 of the National Relations Labor Board (NLRB) that Fred Meyer and QFC violated federal labor law when they prohibited workers from wearing union-sponsored Black Lives Matter buttons. There was a lengthy trial before the ALJ when Kroger refused to reach a settlement agreement. The decision by the ALJ was issued today and is subject to appeal to the NLRB in Washington DC.

“It feels good to win again! When we as workers speak out through these buttons and collectively say Black Lives Matter and then QFC and Fred Meyer said to take the buttons off, that was insulting and a violation of the law. We knew all along we had the right to call out social and racial injustice in the workplace and in our neighborhoods and this judge’s decision reiterates that right,” said Sam Dancy a Front End Supervisor at the Westwood Village QFC in West Seattle, WA who has worked for QFC for over 30 years. 

UFCW 3000 President Faye Guenther concluded, “It is important that workers’ rights and legal standards be protected. Kroger, the owner QFC and Fred Meyer continues to be a problem and needs to do a better job of hiring and promoting workers who are Black at every level of the company and making it clear that it will not tolerate racism from customers or employees.”

Background

After Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on May 25, 2020, many UFCW 21 members working in grocery and retail stores chose to express their opposition to racism at work and in the community by wearing face masks (otherwise worn for protection from COVID) or other items bearing the Black Lives Matter slogan.

Although Kroger issued public statements expressing sympathy with the Black Lives Matter movement, managers at Kroger-owned stores in Western Washington started ordering UFCW 21 members to remove Black Lives Matter masks in August 2020.

UFCW 21 responded to the company’s Black Lives Matter ban by collaborating with Fred Meyer and QFC workers to distribute union-sponsored Black Lives Matter buttons with the UFCW 21 logo. When managers banned the Union buttons, UFCW 21 filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Kroger’s ban and the Union response received widespread local and national attention. In September of 2021, Region 19 of the NLRB ruled in favor of the UFCW 3000 grocery store workers. The case was unable to reach a settlement and therefore went to trial in April of 2022 before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who today ruled in the favor of the workers and found Kroger’s Fred Meyer and QFC were in the wrong and had violated the workers’ rights. As a result of the ruling, the workers will be allowed to wear the buttons.

UFCW 3000 represents over 50,000 workers at grocery stores, retail, healthcare, and other industry jobs.