If you happen to be in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles this weekend and you’re jonesing for some cinnamon rolls, you may be out of luck. All of the workers at the local Cinnabon store walked off the job on Friday, declaring a strike and filing a civil rights complaint against their employer. The employer in question, Greg Reheis, who owns sixteen Cinnabon outlets apparently angered his workers with a new policy that was announced on June 16th. He sent out a group message to the staff informing them that any pride flags or other related displays inside of the stores needed to be taken down “immediately.” In protest, the workers walked out of the shop and filed a protest with the California Civil Rights Department. The other fifteen outlets apparently did not join them in the walkout. (NBC News)
The entire staff of a Cinnabon store in Los Angeles walked off the job Friday after filing a civil rights complaint against their employer over a recent policy that they say bans all Pride decor.
The 14 employees from the Northridge store allege in their complaint that Greg Reheis, the vice president of operations at 13th Floor Capitol/Pilot LLC — which owns this and 15 other Cinnabon stores — sent out a message in a company group chat on June 16 saying that any Pride flags displayed in any of the stores had “to be taken down IMMEDIATELY!,” according to their complaint, which was filed Monday with the California Civil Rights Department.
The workers are portraying this as some sort of anti-gay, homophobic policy. But when you read the text of the actual message that Greg Reheis sent out, that’s not really what he was saying. He informed the workers that the company does not “discriminate or celebrate any particular race, ethnic group, gender-specific group, religious group, or anything else.” Also, Reheis has openly gay workers at that specific Cinnabon, so he doesn’t seem to be doing much discriminating.
When one employee sent a message seeking clarification, he may have gone a step further than needed, however. The worker asked if a rainbow pin on her uniform would be okay. Reheis responded by saying that “generic” pins such as smiley faces would be fine, but a rainbow pin would be prohibited. He told the group that “sports team, group, school pins, etc.” would not be allowed and that a rainbow pin is “specific to a group.”
That’s yet another reminder of why all of this annoys me, and I’m not referring to Cinnabon here. The gay pride movement has so completely coopted the basic, happy image of a rainbow (God’s promise not to destroy the world in a flood again), that the two are now apparently inseparable. But I digress.
I definitely have some sympathy for Greg Reheis in this situation. He’s being depicted as some sort of homophobe when all he was really trying to do was prevent his business operations from getting the Bud Light treatment. If you allow pride flags to go up in your business, some people will cheer you on but others may be put off. The same applies to putting up a crucifix which used to be harmless enough, but you may drive away Jews, Muslims, or atheists. Heck, if you own a shop in New York City and put up a Jets banner, you’ll probably drive away the Giants fans in the neighborhood.
The point is, business owners want to attract the largest, broadest customer base possible. Displaying politically divisive symbols is one way to do the opposite. And for better or worse, the gay pride rainbow flag has become such a symbol. Reheis attempted to make his policy generic, but choosing to call out the rainbow flag specifically and doing so during pride month put his workers up in arms and now he has a civil rights complaint to deal with as well as a strike closing down one of his outlets. It’s sad.
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