Over 2,000 Employers Sign Anti-Woke Pledge to Not Discriminate against Free Speech, Personal Beliefs of Workers
By Nick R. Hamilton
More than 2,000 employers across the country have signed an anti-woke pledge to promise that they will not discriminate against their workers’ free speech rights and personal beliefs.
The initiative is led by RedBalloon, a conservative-leaning job services company.
RedBalloon is promoting an “Employee Bill of Rights” that seeks to protect employees from “woke” ideology in the workplace.
The company hosts a job board that connects like-minded employees to companies across the country.
The firm aims to unite companies with workers that have a shared focus on productivity and innovation, rather than complying with the “correct” ideology of the moment.
Across the country, thousands of conservative Americans have reported work discrimination because of their privately held beliefs.
Some have even lost their jobs due to pressure from activist colleagues or politically correct employers.
A few months ago, RedBalloon released what it calls The Employee Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, a pledge to not discriminate against employees’ personal beliefs in the workplace.
Companies requesting access to RedBalloon’s job board are encouraged to pledge to not discriminate against employees over their private opinions, violate their constitutional rights, invade their medical privacy, or enforce vaccinations without their consent, Andrew Crapuchettes, the founder and CEO of Red Balloon, told PJMedia in a separate interview on September 29.
As of late October, at least 2,100 employers had signed the anti-woke pledge to protect their workers from retaliation.
The guide was written with the help of Harvard Law graduate Laura Baxter.
Baxter is a member of RedBalloon’s legal team and has been a labor lawyer in California for 20 years.
It is a free legal resource that provides American workers and companies with a clear definition of understanding employee rights and protections when dealing with “woke” discrimination in the workplace.
The RedBalloon CEO hopes to inspire employees who fear losing their jobs over their personal opinions to stand up for their rights at work.
“Knowledge is power, and if you don’t know what your rights are, it’s gonna be a lot harder to stand up for them,” Crapuchettes told The Epoch Times, referring to “woke” employers.
“If you know that actually you are legally protected on this one,” he said.
“And that you can stand up and say that if you do, the Constitution has your back.”
Workers are given advice on how to stand up for their freedom of expression, how to opt out of training sessions that violate their beliefs, and how to organize with co-workers to protect themselves from retaliation, among other things.
The 22-page Employee Bill of Rights puts forth five rights for employees and five responsibilities for employers.
“I think employers should be excited about it as well because employees and employers who know their responsibilities are going to have a better relationship at work,” said Crapuchettes.
He said that conservatives should know they should use some of the tools that have been used against them in the past by the Left, and use them for their own purposes.
Crapuchettes said some of the things that are suggested in the guide may be a little surprising to conservatives, such as the legally protected right of employees to form groups or organize.
“I know that sounds a lot like organized labor or unions, but the reality is that today, workers need to work together to push back against their local HR department, or else they’re going to lose their freedoms at work,” Crapuchettes explained.
Employee groups are legally able to present petitions to management, either in writing or in person, and even ask for pay raises while they are at it.
He said that non-woke employees should make clear that they cannot be forced to go through training or workplace celebrations that violate their personal consciences.
Other rights include the ability for groups of workers to request a repeal of vaccine mandates and other COVID restrictions not required by law or demand enhanced maternity and paternity leave, especially if their company pays for abortion travel.
He also recommended that conservative employees not use their knowledge to bludgeon their employers or create their own unions.
“We don’t encourage people to go create, you know a big union, with bosses and all the bad things that went along with that,” Crapuchettes said.
“We want conservatives to be brave and say ‘hey, if you get together after work and sign a petition that you don’t want a vaccine mandate or you just don’t want to mask mandate or [have] CRT training in the office, you are perfectly within your legal rights to do that.’”
The RedBalloon CEO said there needs to be a massive pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, due to the long-term destruction of businesses and the crushing effect it has on millions of American workers.
He is particularly critical of HR departments, which he accused of “sapping the joy out of work” and of being the prime instigators of wokeness and a breakdown in teamwork in the workplace.
“Courageous employees are actually the best kind of employees, but unfortunately, DEI training and CRT training—all of these inclusion measures—are making it so that people aren’t willing to be brave or courageous at work anymore, and so our document is hopefully there to push back against that,” he said.
Crapuchettes quoted a report this year by McKenzie, which said that $8 billion per year was being spent on DEI training in the United States and that only included the direct costs, such as diversity consultants and training materials.
He also said that those figures do not include the damage caused by workplace demoralization, the loss of productivity, or the fear of employees’ speaking honestly because of a hostile work climate.
Another report by McKenzie mentioned that Intel was setting aside about $300 million dollars to fund diversity efforts over the course of five years, which Crapuchettes labeled as wasteful and “absolutely ridiculous.”
He also cited a Gallup poll that noted that 60 percent of people reported being emotionally distracted at work, with 19 percent being miserable, while only 33 percent felt supported and engaged.
“Obviously, when you are telling people that they don’t have rights in the workplace and they’re not allowed to live their values out loud, and that’s true for probably 50 percent of people in a lot of these companies,” said Crapuchettes.
“Why would I put my best effort in for a company that’s trying to tell me that I’m evil because I’m white or that I’m evil because I’m a conservative?”
“That’s just going to produce bad workers who are disengaged and aren’t excited about what their company is doing.”
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