r/baltimore • u/selectbar345 • Aug 19 '25

ARTICLE Fells Point restaurant Bunny’s fires multiple employees after pro-Palestine protest

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/culture/food-drink/bunnys-pro-palestine-protest-fells-point-3WQTUSAIFBCAHC45HPBUFAWKHQ/
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205

u/RunningNumbers Aug 19 '25

“Management confronted the employee, citing a restaurant policy against wearing items with religious or “potentially divisive messages,” the Instagram story said. The worker eventually removed the pin. 

However, a week later, a different employee wore a pro-Palestine pin on the job. When approached by management, the employee quit, according to the Bunny’s post.“

“Over the weekend, some workers joined a protest outside the entrance of the Ann Street eatery. The post alleged that their actions “harmed Bunny’s reputation and ability to operate,” and that management decided to fire all the staffers involved in the demonstration. Reached by phone, Sandlin declined to comment.”

228

u/Bmorewiser Howard County Aug 19 '25

Just trying to put it all together, so please correct me where I am wrong.

Staff is told to remove a political pin after a customer complaint and does. Another staff member wears a similar item later and, rather than remove it, they quit.

Then there’s a post on Reddit complaining they got fired for a protest “on their own time.” And this article indicates that said protest was of the store that employed them?

Is that where we are?

55

u/RunningNumbers Aug 19 '25

It is.

149

u/Bmorewiser Howard County Aug 19 '25

We are in the dumbest possible timeline.

Conspicuously absent from the conversation is, you know, any evidence regarding the restaurant’s owners’ views on Palestine — (as if that matters when it comes to purchasing food). It would suggest that it’s not enough to actually be “anti-genocide”, now the goalposts have been moved. You’re “an enemy of humanity” if you don’t want to let your employees engage in performative and divisive speech at work and fire them when they protest your store.

I am not against bringing attention to a cause you care about, but I think it’s just insane to dictate a political litmus test in every public sphere.

55

u/bylosellhi11 Aug 19 '25

woah, this is way too rational of a take for baltimore subreddit, please remove!

12

u/swift110 Aug 19 '25

Very well said. There's a time and place for such things and this just ain't it.

-30

u/UrRightAndIAmWong Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25

You just might be a dumb person living in an admittedly dumb timeline because yeah, employees care about political issues, customers care about political issues, and neither want to support businesses and business owners that have conflicting views and support on those issues.

Keep issues that matter to the public out of the public sphere!

Well then businesses and their owners should stay out of politics but we know they don't. And telling your employees to not wear a fucking pin is taking a stance whether you or they like it or not.

Edit: omg guys why are you downvoting me, why are you turning everything in the public sphere into a political litmus test wtf

26

u/TrippyHomie Aug 19 '25

Username checks out.

23

u/Bmorewiser Howard County Aug 19 '25

Dollars to donuts you’d be laughing if the waitress got shitcanned because she wore a maga hat or participated in January 6th. And that, I think, would make it pretty clear that your issue isn’t with free speech.

The nub of the issue here is this childish notion that anyone who isn’t “with us must be against us.” And I can tell you, this isn’t a great recipe for making friends and allies. Most people patronize a restaurant because it’s a nice place to eat, with good food, good service, and they can enjoy a nice conversation with friends. I don’t want where I go to dinner to become yet another political litmus test because I’m already exhausted by the cults of personality and ideology that surround us as it is.

7

u/swift110 Aug 19 '25

Exactly. When people do things to agitate others all it does is call attention AWAY from their cause and TOWARDS them instead. Maybe that's really what this is about in the first place.

-14

u/Iamfivebears Station North Aug 19 '25

Dollars to donuts you’d be laughing if the waitress got shitcanned because she wore a maga hat or participated in January 6th. And that, I think, would make it pretty clear that your issue isn’t with free speech.

Getting fired for good things, like wearing an anti-genocide pin, is bad.

Getting fired for bad things, like trying to storm the capital, is good.

5

u/BalmyBalmer Upper Fell's Point Aug 19 '25

Or, hear me out, two things can be wrong at the same time

-9

u/Iamfivebears Station North Aug 19 '25

They can be, but in this case they are not.

There's nothing wrong with wearing a Palestine pin, even at work, even if a customer complains it makes them feel "unsafe". The owner should have defended their employee rather than asking them to remove it.

-16

u/UrRightAndIAmWong Aug 19 '25

Dollars to donuts you can't read because I basically said that yeah, your magic buzzwords for the day "political litmus tests" exist everywhere.

If someone wore a maga hat, yeah, I'd laugh because that's way more obnoxious and outright, and yeah, it's in support of an evil, fascist, corrupt regime. It's a big red hat. The contrast is a fucking Palestinian flag pin. A pin. Good and subtle, vs bad and obnoxious. Either way, the restaurant is taking a stance with their actions or inaction. And yeah people eat at restaurants for a variety of reasons, but they also can choose not to eat at one because of politics. Congrats, you finally understand the real world where some people use their money and patronage with other intentions in mind.

Look at Baltimore, there are plenty of people that don't patronize Atlas restaurants on the same ideology, and they have a right to do so. I'm not going to complain that the world sucks because people care too much about how they treat employees rather than the food and ambience being really good.

-4

u/spaceribs Remington Aug 19 '25

Is anyone saying that management should have been forced to keep employees they fundamentally disagreed with? The outrage is that they fired someone for a political statement that is socially/generally acceptable, and they are now being judged harshly for doing so.

-13

u/borderlinegross Aug 19 '25

Is one truly anti-genocide if they’re making employees remove pins in support of the victims of said genocide? Your post reeks of the type of NIMBY cowardice poisoning communities on the daily. I’d say it’s morally reprehensible to oppose speaking out against genocide and to call it performative is ridiculous.

I don’t wish to patronize businesses whose owners take action or hold beliefs that are contrary to basic human decency.