Whole Foods Staff BLM Gear Not Protected Speech, NLRB Judge Says

Whole Foods Market Inc. workers who insisted on wearing Black Lives Matter gear in 2020 were not shielded by workplace speech protections in their choice, a federal labor board judge has found.

These legal protections didn’t apply because the social movement wasn’t directly related to the workers’ employment conditions, National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge Ariel Sotolongo wrote in an opinion Wednesday. Those federal protections under the National Labor Relations Act give workers the right to join together speak out on workplace issues, but the boundaries have changed over time.

Plaintiffs at stores in several states, combined into one ...