The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #22: The Targeting of Trader Joe’s
Type of Censorship: Direct Action
Agencies Involved:
- National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Summary:
The Biden administration’s demands that private businesses silence dissent on the government’s COVID-19 policies were not limited to tech firms. Even Trader Joe’s was expected to uphold the Biden speech codes.
In the spring of 2021, many businesses began to drop the strict social distancing and masking rules they (often at the government’s direction) had imposed on customers. The Biden administration was aggressively opposed to these efforts.
An employee at a Trader Joe’s in Houston became incensed that her employer stopped imposing mask mandates and distancing requirements on its customers. She began to scream at her managers in front of customers “why don’t you fire me.” When the manager expressed disapproval at such conduct, she began to skip shifts. After being disciplined, the employee wrote to Trader Joe’s corporate office further complaining that her workplace was not imposing mask mandates on customers. She was later fired for being “toxic” and “aggressive” in the workplace.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that Trader Joe’s disciplining and eventual firing of the employee was an “unfair labor practice,” claiming that doing so stifled employees’ ability to report safety concerns. Companies that did not require customers to engage in masking, which Biden’s Director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease (NIAID) referred to as a “symbol,” were thereby blocked from preventing — or even verbally discouraging — their own employees from behaving abusively towards other staff and guests who disagreed with Biden’s COVID-19 policies.
Key Individuals:
- Jennifer Abruzzo, NLRB General Counsel
- Lauren McFerran, NLRB Chair
- David Prouty, NLRB Member
