The support supervisor at Portland’s Laurelhurst store said he was sent home for violating the company’s dress code
Portland Whole Foods Market workers say they may stage another walkout after a floor support supervisor at the Laurelhurst Whole Foods store was reportedly asked to leave work and not come back for refusing to take off a button that read “racism has no place here.”
The employee, Dylan Woodruff, told Street Roots that employees at another Whole Foods Market (the Pearl District store) gave him several hand-made buttons after they had worn them to work in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement without facing disciplinary action.
The right to express support for marginalized communities and Black lives by wearing buttons, pins and flare without consequence was one of the demands front end employees at the Pearl District location had made when they staged a walkout of their own on July 3. They had also cited their store’s failure to prioritize the health and safety of staff following the death of one of their coworkers due to COVID-19 in April.
But on Monday, July 27, Woodruff said he was told he would not be welcomed back to work at the Laurelhurst store after refusing to remove the button.
The words on his button are also printed on banners that Whole Foods Market has hung in its stores and printed on its website, according to Woodruff. But, he said, when he wore the button and handed some out for coworkers to wear, “I got called in to talk to my store team leader.”
Woodruff, 23, had worked at Whole Foods stores in Portland since 2018. Recently, he put in a notice of resignation listing his last day at the Laurelhurst store as Aug. 9.
He’s planning to move back to his hometown of Ashland and said he gave several weeks notice in hopes that the store would be able to find someone to take his place due to understaffing issues.
Prior to his dismissal, Woodruff said he had two conversations with the Laurelhurst store team leader about the button, and he was told it violated dress code because the company had not supplied it.
“I brought up the point that if the only problem with the button I was wearing was that it wasn’t Whole Foods-made, I’d take it off if we could get some Whole Foods-made buttons,” Woodruff said.
Management at the Laurelhurst store declined to comment.
COMMENTARY: I work at Whole Foods, and I am calling out its hypocrisy
A spokesperson for Whole Foods Market, based in Texas, told Street Roots that the longstanding dress code prohibits employees from wearing clothing with slogans, messages, logos or advertising that aren’t company related.
The spokesperson did not address the fact that the slogan, “racism has no place here,” is featured on the company’s website homepage.
“If Team Members are not in compliance, we always offer them the opportunity to comply, including providing new face masks when necessary. Team Members are unable to work their shift until they comply with our company dress code policy,” stated the Whole Foods Market spokesperson.
The statement is nearly identical to another statement issued by Whole Foods in response to employees in Connecticut who were reprimanded for wearing T-Shirts sporting the same phrase earlier this month.
Woodruff said that he was asked to sign a “separation paper” but never received a write-up for violating the dress code prior to being asked to leave permanently.
Whole Foods maintains that Woodruff was not terminated and will remain on the payroll until his end date, but did not clarify whether the store had him sign an employee separation agreement.
“Even those conversations that I did have, Thursday and Saturday with the store team leader, weren’t necessarily disciplinary on Whole Foods’ end. There was no paperwork at all for either of those,” he said.
Whole Foods Market did not confirm what disciplinary actions are typical for dress code violations.
A copy of a Whole Foods exit survey sent to Woodruff on Wednesday reads, “Terminate: Dylan Woodruff” in the title.
One of Woodruff’s coworkers at the Laurelhurst store, who agreed to speak with Street Roots on the condition of anonymity, said she was working the day Woodruff was allegedly dismissed. She covered the floor for him, she said, while he spoke with management on Monday.
“I don’t remember much after that, mostly because I kind of couldn’t hold it together and was crying,” she said. “Everyone was kind of generally thinking that it was super messed up.”
She’s been wearing the same pin as Woodruff to her shifts at the store for about a week. According to her, all employees wearing the pins were asked to remove them, but she and Dylan never took theirs off.
“I can tell that I’m going to be next, because they already asked me to take it off,” she said. “So the next step would be writing me up and getting me in trouble.”
REPORT: Portland Whole Foods employee speaks out for those too fearful to come forward
Revolution Ribs (formerly Riot Ribs) — the free-food stand supporting the Black Lives Matter protests — has re-stationed itself outside a Whole Foods Market. It tweeted Wednesday evening that “Employees at the WF have been sent home for wearing BLM apparel the entire time we’ve been here today.”
The employee, who is a person of color, raised concerns over the fact that management at the store has bent corporate policy for people “all the time,” in the past and that leadership at the store is predominantly white.
“It’s up to the store team leader whether they want to enforce the dress code policy strictly or not,” she said.
Both Woodruff and his coworker said employees at the Laurelhurst location are considering a walkout in response to the dress code enforcement. It’s also likely, they said, that they will have the support of the Pearl District Whole Foods when they do.
Email Street Roots Staff Reporter Jessica Pollard at jessica@streetroots.org. Follow @JessicaJPollard on Twitter.
Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. It is an award-winning, weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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