Cinnabon Workers Strike to Protest Company's Pride Flag Ban
When a decision came down to ban Pride flags at 16 Cinnabon locations in California, all the workers at one location walked off the job, declaring they felt "singl[ed] out," "humiliated," and "unsafe."
The Los Angeles Times reports that the 14 workers on strike from the chain's Northridge Fashion Center location "said the dispute began June 16 with a series of messages from an executive at 13TH Floor/Pilot, the limited liability company that operates the Northridge store and 15 other locations, to more than 200 franchise employees."
In a complaint to the California Civil Rights Department, the striking workers alleged that the executive in question, Greg Reheis, sent out a directive in the middle of Pride Month that stated that company did "not discriminate or celebrate any particular race, ethnic group, gender specific group, religious group.
"If any store [is] displaying a Pride Flag, it is to be taken down IMMEDIATELY!" the complaint said Regeis ordered.
Reheis also put the kibosh on rainbow-themed pins in a group chat, NBC News relayed.
Neither Reheis, nor the location's manager, nor the district manager, commented for the Times' story, but employees who felt erased spoke out.
"I was saying, 'This is messed up, like why is he saying this?' " Delylah Rodriguez, a worker who identifies as queer, told the publication.
Another employee, Vero Aguilar, a queer woman, told the newspaper that she came out more than a decade ago and has seldom felt discriminated against — until now.
Saying that the directive ""made me feel like I had to hide myself again," Aguilar told NBC News, "I started to not feel comfortable in my own skin," she said. "It really lowered my self-esteem, and I was starting to not like myself when I looked in the mirror."
Aguilar told NBC News that at this moment in time, "people are being attacked just for how they look, their religious practices and who they love," and called it "a very dangerous world to be in."
"What happens if I or another LGBTQ member is attacked during our shift?" Aguilar asked. "We wonder, would Cinnabon have our back? Or would they just look the other way? We just want to feel safe."
In their complaint, the workers — whose Aug. 4 walkout is intended to last for three days — declared, "We identify as LGBTQ people and LGBTQ allies, and we are harmed by Cinnabon's new discriminatory policy forbidding expressions of Pride at work."
The complaint, which was submitted on Aug. 1, adds: "Singling out and banning symbols of Pride causes us to feel inferior, unwelcomed, attacked, hurt, humiliated and unsafe."
NBC News quoted from the complaint, which states, "We are fighting to defend our civil rights, including the right to express our identities and our solidarity with one another."
The complaint contends, "Cinnabon ought to be a place where we can come to work and feel good about ourselves, without being singled out and discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression."
The complaint also notes that despite the reasons given for the Pride flag ban, the company does celebrate specific groups as a matter of policy across the franchise natioanlly.
"The stores celebrate the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, and the gender-specific holidays of Mother's Day and Father's Day," NBC News summarized the complaint as detailing.
"The complaint adds that Cinnabon allows for-profit and not-for-profit groups, including religious groups, schools and sports teams, to host fundraisers, 'clearly associating Cinnabon with support for those groups'," the report added.
These facts, the complaint says, constitute "overwhelming evidence that the policy issued June 16th is, in fact, a homophobic and transphobic policy applied only to Pride," NBC News quoted the complaint as saying.