Yuppy-haven supermarket Whole Foods has always carefully maintained a public image of embracing diversity. That polished exterior was tarnished in August when the corporation caved to the Islamophobic rants of conservatives, and told all its U.S. stores not to promote Ramadan this year.
Now a former employee is suing Whole Foods, alleging that he was harassed and ultimately terminated because of his Islamic faith. Supervisors turned on him when they learned he was making the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, and the situation got so bad that 24-year-old Glenn Mack had to resort to praying by the dumpsters outside the store:
Mack said he had been well-respected at the Whole Foods store at 20th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Philadelphia.[…] Mack said his troubles started after his supervisors discovered that he was going to use his vacation time for the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage many Muslims make to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, birthplace of the prophet Muhammad.
He said he requested time for the vacation months in advance of the November 2010 trip, and received approval. But shortly before leaving, he said, his supervisors gave him a choice of keeping his job or going on the trip.
He went on the trip. When he returned, he didn’t lose his job immediately, but he said, attitudes toward him had changed. Supervisors would follow him on his breaks to a back corner of the supply room where he typically went to pray. For privacy, Mack said he resorted to praying outside next to the Dumpster.
After Mack took his vacation, he was downgraded from full-time to seasonal status — although he was returned to full-time status after he complained to the company’s human-relations department that he felt he discriminated against because of his religion. He continued to be heckled and followed by supervisors even after he was reinstated, and three months later, he was fired.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is representing Mack, and has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. CAIR-Philadelphia Civil Rights Director Amara Chaudhry. “We hope that a company eager to take the money of Muslim shoppers would also be similarly welcoming of Muslim employees,” Chaudhry said.
Whole Foods’ insistence that it strives to engage employees and support their rights is seriously undermined by its actions towards them. In 2009, a manager at a San Francisco store threatened employees that there would be retribution if they tried to form a union.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy