Brighton TRAs bullying female small business owner

[SapphosRock]

Urgh. This is happening in my home town and it’s shit.

Happy Maki is a small, vegan cafe and takeaway. It’s a very ethical business. All about sustainability and green energy. They plant a tree and feed a child for each wrap made. It’s a gift economy and the food is free with a suggested donation. All very hippy. You get the idea.

A FTM trans person approached the female owner of Happy Maki and asked for support in fundraising for their top surgery. I believe they wanted a poster in the window asking for money. The owner refused. When pressed the owner said it was against her religious beliefs - she is a follower of the Divine Truth which admittedly sounds a bit ‘out there’ but not entirely unexpected given the nature of her business.

Anyway the TRAs have really gone to town and are posting in every Brighton based Facebook group, Instagram and Twitter accusing the owner of Transphobia and calling for her to apologise:

twitter.com/makiunhappy/status/1314261939833446400?s=21

They seem to be getting a lot of support and gaining a lot of traction too with many saying they are now going to boycott the business.

I’m upset about this for a lot of reasons. Obviously the female owner being bullied and harassed in this way and them encouraging people to email her. The lovely takeaway losing business. It’s also pretty tone deaf to attack the hospitality sector in the midst of a global pandemic for not supporting one individual’s elective, life changing surgery.

Anyway, the reason I’m posting here is in solidarity with the owner Anna. And if any of you lovely lot are nearby then consider getting a Happy Maki takeaway. The food is delicious and I’m sure they could do with some support right now.

www.happymaki.co.uk

What’s on the wrap? I can see avocado (mmmm) - is there grain in there too?

Harry the Owl took the police to court for exactly the kind of petty attempts by police to control speech online that you seem to now support.

Yep, thought crime = online harassment, ruining a reputation and trying to close down a business.

As I said. It's not even gaslighting. It's just babble.

@SapphosRock

And speaking of food I popped back to Happy Maki today. No hardship, the wraps are truly delicious. There were also some lovely flowers in the window.

What I can read of that poster, it's a lovely sentiment.

And I have no doubt that it works.

That’s lovely SapphosRock and obviously the flowers were much appreciated. They will also give the staff a boost. That wrap looks gorgeous. I’m currently eating a crisp sandwich. Talk about being a bad example of a vegan. 😳

FairFriday no grain, everything on the menu is gluten free (obviously!) I think that's sesame seeds you're spying. Also red pepper and sweet potato.

That looks yummy. I'm definitely going in there next time I go to Brighton.

Datun unfortunately they weren't as busy as normal for a Saturday. Usually there's a huge queue outside.

Gluten free - wow that looks quite ‘substantial’ for no gluten. So the wrap is seaweed?

(Crisp sandwich - the anti gluten free 🤣)

@SapphosRock

Datun unfortunately they weren't as busy as normal for a Saturday. Usually there's a huge queue outside.

The weather is getting colder, so that might have a little to do with it. Once those listening to the bullies, find something else to be offended about and get bored making their own sandwiches, they’ll be back.

@FairFriday

Gluten free - wow that looks quite ‘substantial’ for no gluten. So the wrap is seaweed?

(Crisp sandwich - the anti gluten free 🤣)

🤣 That’s so true! It’s like a gluten weapon!

@SapphosRock

'Moral accountability' is an interesting one.

Morally, is it okay for a group of people to ambush a woman against her will and force her to hold a meeting with them?

Is it okay to share a woman's email address, religious faith and contents of a private email online?

Is it okay to incite harassment of a woman by encouraging strangers to email her and criticize her?

All food for thought.

She's not just any women she was their boss. So yes, if enough workers are unhappy they should be able to force a meeting with their employer, and if she didn't have sufficiently robust procedures in place to facilitate that then she was lax in her responsibilties. She was the boss after all.

It was a response from a business owner to a customer. Of course they have the right to share it if they feel they were insulted. And perhaps if she'd been less eager to share her beliefs with employees and customers then none of this would have happened. Surely you don't think it's fine for her to spout this nonsense about bisexual and trans people to her employees and customers but if they tell anyone about it it's harassment because they revealed her religion?

They have called for people to email her business email address. Perfectly standard, legal and legitimate. They haven't published her personal details which presumably are easy enough to find via companies house. Business owners are accountable, that's all that's happening. Or are you saying calling for people to complain to a business, like people do on here all the time, is harassment?

I'm really shocked @SapphosRock Back in my lurking days whilst I didn't always agree with you you always seemed one of the most balanced and insightful posters here. And now you're raging about a clearly biphobic and transphobic employer being fairly mildly campaigned against by former staff who found her views and working practices so difficult to tolerate they left their jobs in the middle of a pandemic. It's bonkers I'm sorry. As far as campaigns against former companies by disgruntled workers go this is one of the mildest I've ever seen and people seem to want them arrested and are accusing them of terrorism.

Yes all wrapped up in seaweed. Delicious, vegan, gluten free and very hearty. Nowt wrong with a crisp sandwich but these are a different league I'm afraid.

What’s biphobic? I can’t keep up with the new terminology.

I think it's important worker's know their rights and bosses follow proper grievance procedures because ten people are now without jobs and making claims of unfair treatment.

Shall we go through the grievance procedure that this group followed? I am sure it bares repeating and I am sure a tribunal would also find it very illustrative.

At a mediation session organized for the assistant manager (ie. That person only) that person invited the group who proceeded to harass the owner, in front of witnesses to ‘educate’ her it seems. this cannot be viewed as a professional action of their part.

After reminding these people that it was their right to not work for the company and giving them a day to think about it (ie NOT her terminating their employment ) some of those due to work that day, did not do their shift. This is not professional at all.

Seven of them chose to resign from the employment of the cafe. They have since carried out a harassment and hate campaign against the ex-employer. This is not professional either.

If they have been ‘cheated’ out of wages and furlough, they will have full recourse of the tribunal to get this. And it should be clear cut.

The groups lead in their social media posts talking about transphobia NOT about them not being paid properly. This claim seems to be about her denying the opportunity to put the poster up and her reason for doing so. An answer she felt coerced into giving because of the person's relationship with that specific group.

@FairFriday

What’s biphobic? I can’t keep up with the new terminology.

Whatever the TRAs say it is. That’s it. If you so much as shake your head at them, you’re biphobic, transphobic and a terf.

Also interested in definition of bisexuality/ biphobia.

@jj1968 I don't care how you dress it up. A vulnerable woman is being bullied and harassed and that's not okay.

She may not be a perfect employer. She certainly seems naive at best with that email response. Does she deserve to be publicly humiliated and vilified? No. Have her business go under? No.

Your stance seems to be she was asking for it which is often said about women. She's an easy target because she's naive and female. And it stinks.

This is precisely why bisexual people (and trans people) get pissed off. If she'd been making comments in the workplace about gay and lesbian people being not real, or traumatised, or possessed by malevolent spirits there'd be outrage, and rightly so. But when it happes to bi people it's all well its not really biphobic, what does biphobia even mean, and anyway they weren't really complaining about biphobia is was all about the trans and everyone knows being shitty to them is fine.

@jj1968

This is precisely why bisexual people (and trans people) get pissed off. If she'd been making comments in the workplace about gay and lesbian people being not real, or traumatised, or possessed by malevolent spirits there'd be outrage, and rightly so. But when it happes to bi people it's all well its not really biphobic, what does biphobia even mean, and anyway they weren't really complaining about biphobia is was all about the trans and everyone knows being shitty to them is fine.

Bisexual woman here. So t presume you speak for me.

"Don't

How is she any more vulnerable than her staff, some of whom are presumably women and now face unemployment with no benefits? Are you saying dubious employers shouldn't be campaigned against if the business is owned by a woman? That employees should just suck it up because they might upset their poor vulnerable boss. If she loses her business it will be because of her own actions, all these workers have done is make people aware of her very vocal beliefs. And if she loses her business she will merely be in the same state as the ten people who left, unemployed. But no-one seems to give a shit about them. The poor vulnerable capitalist bullied by the evil workers, it's like some kind of 1930's red scare propaganda.

I hope these vindictive, spiteful little idiots aren't hoping for a reference.
There is no case for wrongful dismissal, they refused to follow protocol and behaved in an appalling manner. They were guilty of gross misconduct and haven't got a leg to stand on.

Bore off JJ.