Menards will now allow employees to display their pronouns on their work-issued name tags after facing a complaint from a left-wing legal group.
Gender Justice filed a complaint against the company with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after two transgender employees who were “repeatedly misgendered” by customers were prevented from wearing “pronoun pins.”
Local management approved of the pins, but Menards’ corporate office objected to the practice, according to a press release.
The two employees eventually quit their jobs with the Wisconsin-based home improvement company, which has hundreds of locations throughout the Midwest and Minnesota.
According to Gender Justice, the NLRB determined Menards was violating employee rights to “organize to improve their working conditions.” The company agreed to settle the complaint and will now allow all employees across the country to display their pronouns on their name badges.
Christy Hall, an attorney with Gender Justice, called the settlement a “huge victory” because it “confirms that displaying pronouns next to store-issued identification is protected speech” under the National Labor Relations Act.
“Menards’s policy change will improve the working conditions of all trans, non-binary and gender fluid workers among the company’s 42,000 workers in 15 states, and it sends a message to other companies that acknowledging and respecting their employees’ gender identities is not only protected under the NLRA–it’s good for business,” Hall said.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
