Workers walk out over troopers’ order

Four U.S. restaurant workers say they walked out after they were threatened with being fired for refusing to help fill an order for a law-enforcement agency that was policing nearby race protests.

The employees at a Columbus, Ohio, location of Condado Tacos, a regional Mexican chain, walked out this week over a catering order for 250 Ohio Highway Patrol officers who were working the protests of the Minnesota death of George Floyd.

Managers have since temporarily shuttered two locations of the rapidly expanding chain, after the walkout sparked a conversation about free expression in the workplace.

Jake Widdowson, 25, clocked in for work Monday to learn of an order for 500 tacos for the patrol. Widdowson opposed co-operating on the order in light of the Floyd protests and told the manager so.

Protests in Columbus this week have brought complaints of excessive force by law officers, including the use of tear gas and batons. “I have been participating in the protests in Columbus, and seeing the way that police have been treating peaceful protesters, it was immediately clear that it was against my principles to be complicit in that order,” Widdowson said.

Store managers were supportive, Widdowson and other staff members said. Things escalated, though, when a district manager who happened to be visiting got involved, Widdowson said. “Tell anyone refusing to work that they are fired,” Widdowson quoted the district manager as saying.

Widdowson and three other workers who also refused to help fill the order at the restaurant left. At that point, the district manager urged them to reconsider, Widdowson said.

The story made the rounds on social media as protests intensified. Managers closed the location the next day, along with a second store. Condado did not fire the workers, a spokesman said, but staff “must understand that Condado Tacos is an inclusive business and that we will continue to serve everyone, including law enforcement.”

The Highway Patrol was unaware of the walkout until a news report on it appeared the next day, said Lt. Craig Cvetan, an agency spokesman.

The patrol, he said, was “treated with nothing but kindness and respect” by the staffers who ended up filling their order. The company plans to reopen next week.