Whole foods allegedly suspends two workers for speaking Spanish

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(flickr: bookglr) 

Two Whole Foods employees claim they were suspended over an English-only "safety" policy. 

So does Whole Foods call tortillas, flat bread? Whole Foods allegedly suspends two employee’s for speaking Spanish on the job in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Really in New Mexico?  A state whose constitution says is a bilingual state and 1 in 3 families speaks Spanish.  Where are we in the United States today when a person can have their job put at risk simply for speaking a language other than English?

###via Huffington Post

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two employees at a Whole Foods Market store in Albuquerque say they were suspended last month after complaining about being told they couldn’t speak Spanish to each other while on the job.

 Bryan Baldizan told The Associated Press he and a female employee were suspended for a day after they wrote a letter following a meeting with a manager who told them Spanish was not allowed during work hours.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Baldizan, who works in the store’s food preparation department. “All we did was say we didn’t believe the policy was fair. We only talk Spanish to each other about personal stuff, not work.”

He said Whole Foods officials told them about company policy and issued the suspensions.

READ MORE AT HUFF PO


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  • jeannelle ramirez
    commented 2013-06-07 07:27:44 -0700
    It is extremely ignorant to assume that “few Hispanics shop there.” I shop there occasionally, and know many other Hispanics who do the same. The economic status of Hispanics and Latinos in the US varies greatly, from very rich to very poor. Whole foods sells many products that are impossible to find elsewhere. I won’t opine on this story because we don’t know all the facts about what was said, but the policy itself, in New Mexico particularly, is ridiculous.