Cambridge Mayor and Vice Mayor, both Emerge Alumnae, join Whole Foods Black Lives Matter protests

Marking the 18th day that the Cambridgeport Whole Foods Market grocery store has sent employees home rather than allow them to wear masks that say “Black Lives Matter,” 11 workers walked out Saturday at about 5:30 p.m. and were joined by a crowd of protesters in front of the store for their now-daily rally. The Whole Foods managers maintain that the masks violate the store’s dress code.

“This is the largest crowd I think I’ve seen here,” said city councillor Marc McGovern of the more than 100 protesters, among them several members of the Honk! band playing from a safe distance. “It’s great that [Whole Foods and Amazon owner] Mr. Bezos gave $10 million to [organizations supporting] Black Lives Matter, but let’s face it, he made that money back before signing the check,” he said of Bezos’ June 3 announcement.

McGovern was joined by vice mayor Alanna Mallon and Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, who thanked the workers repeatedly for staging the daily protests. “This is all about meaning what you say,” she said of Whole Foods, which posts on prominently on its website that “Racism has no place here … We support the Black community and meaningful change in the world.”

“We have talked to the regional [office],” Siddiqui said, “we’ve reached out to these managers here, and until we get an answer we will keep trying.” Referring to fellow city councillors who have attended over the past two weeks, she added, “we will keep doing this until there’s change.”

Employee Savannah Kinzer, who spearheaded the actions and was visibly moved by the support from the growing crowd, announced the employees’ five demands: freedom for all Whole Foods employees to specifically support black and marginalized lives; back pay for the lost time for protests; the revoking of all demerits for wearing the BLM masks; reinstating hazard pay, which was revoked on June 24 – “because I don’t think the pandemic is over” – with the ability to raise such issues at work without repercussion; and to make the racial demographics of Whole Foods employment accessible to the public and to make management more diverse.

First walkout

On June 24, managers at the 240 River St. store told workers wearing BLM masks that they had to take them off or leave work. For each offense, a worker gets a demerit. Several workers chose to leave, and several took to Twitter to explain why they had walked out.

Since then, each day several workers put on Black Lives Matter masks, go to work – and leave for the day rather than remove the masks at management’s request.

Some are getting close to being fired, triggered by reaching a predetermined maximum of demerits for each walkout. Kinzer said Saturday that she is three infractions away from being fired.

But she and the young employees who are taking these daily actions are fighting for all of their colleagues, Kinzer said. Many of them have children, she said, and don’t have the luxury of walking away from their pay. “Out of this, we are building a stronger community,” she said. She thanked the protesters for the moral support, the art and music, and for bringing them food. She said a GoFundMe page has raised $8,000 so far to support lost wages.

Dress code and values

Whole Foods managers have released statements saying that all team members “have to comply with our long-standing company dress code, which prohibits clothing with visible slogans, messages, logos or advertising that are not company related.”

Employee Kinzer had worn a “Soup is Good” mask earlier that week before she was first asked to leave because of the BLM mask, and it passed unnoticed by managers. Employees regularly wear shirts, hats and pins that have non-Whole Foods messages, including various sports team logos, many staff said.

“They say it is all about the dress code,” said employee Suverino Frith at the Saturday rally, “that they are simply defending their dress code. But it has been very relaxed.” In addition to sports paraphernalia, staff have been able to wear LGBTQ pins, he pointed out. “They will donate to BLM,” he said, “but if the first thing walking into the store you see is ‘Black Lives Matter,’ they say, ‘No, that’s bad for business.’”