Jennifer Sey says she was compelled out of Levi's for talking out towards California's COVID-19 faculty closures.
Courtesy Jennifer Sey
Levi’s President Jennifer Sey says she was compelled out of her job for talking out publicly towards California’s COVID-19 faculty closures — and gave up $1 million for refusing to maintain her mouth shut about it.
The mother of 4 and longtime Levi’s worker wrote in Bari Weiss’s “Widespread Sense” Substack publication Monday that she turned down Levi’s provide of a $1 million severance bundle as a result of she didn’t wish to signal a nondisclosure settlement “about why I’d been pushed out.”
Sey, who had been working her manner up at Levi’s since 1999, mentioned she was advised late final yr by CEO Charles Bergh that she was en path to turning into the following chief of the corporate — so long as she would “cease speaking concerning the faculty factor.”
Sey mentioned the saga first erupted when workers began complaining that she was publicly questioning whether or not faculties needed to be shut down in San Francisco firstly of the pandemic.
The 52-year-old mentioned she organized rallies, spoke out in native media, attended conferences on the mayor’s workplace and railed towards the insurance policies on her Twitter account.
“I used to be condemned for talking out,” she mentioned.
Sey mentioned she acquired a name from the top of Levi’s company communications in the summertime of 2020 urging her to “pipe down.” She mentioned the calls stored coming from the corporate’s authorized division, HR, a board member and Bergh.
“I refused to cease speaking. I stored calling out hypocritical and unproven insurance policies, I met with the mayor’s workplace and ultimately uprooted my whole life in California — I’d lived there for over 30 years — and moved my household to Denver in order that my kindergartner may lastly expertise actual faculty,” Sey mentioned.
The mom mentioned the ultimate straw for Levi’s was when she appeared on Laura Ingraham’s Fox Information present about her choice to depart San Francisco.
Sey mentioned the complaints from Levi’s workers intensified as her co-workers accused her of being anti-science, anti-fat and anti-trans.
Sey, who has two black sons, mentioned she was additionally accused of being racist “as a result of San Francisco’s public-school system was full of black and brown children, and, apparently, I didn’t care in the event that they died.”
The chief mentioned Levi’s head of range, fairness and inclusion division requested her to do an “apology tour” — however she refused.
“On daily basis, a file of my tweets and all of my on-line interactions had been despatched to the CEO by the top of company communications,” Sey mentioned.
“At one assembly of the chief management crew, the CEO made an off-hand comment that I used to be ‘appearing like Donald Trump.’ I felt embarrassed, and turned my digicam off to gather myself.”
Throughout the final month, Sey mentioned the CEO advised her it was “untenable” for her to remain on the firm any longer.
Sey mentioned Levi’s has at all times been identified for representing “freedom” and “individualism” — however she now claims the corporate is “trapped attempting to please the mob.
“On this, it's like so many different American corporations: held hostage by illiberal ideologues who don't consider in real inclusion or range,” she mentioned.
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