There were racist slurs, anti-Asian discrimination, Nazi symbols in Jewish Synagogues and anti-Black racism in Canada.”Ĭoca Cola Canada, said the Human Resources executive, wanted “to be very clear about what side of history we are on” and that “racism, intolerance, bigotry and hate will not be tolerated.” WORKER FIRED There was a lot going on in the world, and not just in the U.S.
The company’s chief people officer testified that in May, leadership decided that they “had to do something. Witnesses for Coca Cola Canada said the company had long strived to be a leading voice for equality and live by the words of the song in a famous 1971 commercial: “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…”Īt the time, Coca Cola’s CEO encouraged reluctant politicians and business leaders to attend the ceremony celebrating Martin Luther King’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize, stated company witnesses.
In between the Richmond and Coquitlam incidents, the murder of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer had sparked a global Black Lives Matter movement, rocking cities across North America and beyond with protests calling for meaningful change. The investigation into both incidents came at a time when many businesses around the world faced heightened scrutiny over their role in either upholding or dismantling systemic racism. was told “people may be scared to speak up” and that the symbols on the bandana were “not appropriate in the workplace.” INVESTIGATION ON THE HEELS OF GEORGE FLOYD’S MURDER According to notes from a meeting with a supervisor, D.D. When another worker told D.D.’s supervisor about the bandana, he Googled the Confederate flag, determined it was a racist symbol and told him to remove it, the decision said.ĭ.D. did so immediately. folded the bandana into a makeshift mask. Emblazoned with the Confederate flag on one section of the bandana, it also showed a Confederate soldier encircled in the words “The South Will Rise Again.” went out to his car to retrieve a bandana he said he got at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Masks were handed out to all employees, but according to D.D., he found them uncomfortable. The whole incident, said D.D., was overblown, according to the decision.Ī week after the interview, D.D. was working at a Coquitlam Coca Cola facility when a company-wide mandatory mask policy went into place to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Noonan in his decision.īut following an investigation in which 23 employees were interviewed, management was unable to identify who hung the noose and no evidence linked D.D. to the incident, outside of taking it down.Īccording to notes taken in a June 30 interview with D.D., he said the noose had no racist or discriminatory meaning and that it wasn’t meant as a threat against black employees because the person of colour hadn’t been working that day. The incident prompted managers to speak with the workers, later telling them “they thought the noose was a symbol of race, hate, and violence,” wrote arbitrator Randall J. When a fellow worker approached the forklift operator, D.D., to take it down - the colleague said he didn’t want to deal with it because his girlfriend had died by suicide by hanging - he did so. In the first incident on April 27, 2020, someone hung a noose from a supervisor's platform near an area where a person of colour usually worked at the company’s Nelson Road facility, says the decision. 4 but released this week, stems from two incidents last year at Coca Cola Canada warehouses in Richmond and Coquitlam. A Coquitlam forklift operator fired from a Coca Cola Canada facility after wearing a bandana emblazoned with a Confederate flag and the words “The South Will Rise Again” has won a labour dispute in a case that tests the limits of workplace anti-harassment and discrimination policies.
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