Portland, Ore. — Burgerville workers here went on strike and held a picket line on Sept. 18, International Cheeseburger Day, to protest the company’s bad faith bargaining. They were also reminding Portland that a boycott was still on at all 42 of the burger chain’s locations in Oregon and Washington state.

The “cheeseburger” date was strategically chosen to apply maximum economic pressure on a day that would usually see extremely high sales.

In August, Burgerville bosses targeted workers who were Black Lives Matter supporters with a change in dress code policy that prohibited workers from wearing buttons displaying any personal or political message. The company implemented the change while the Burgerville Workers Union was in the collective bargaining process.

Making such changes during bargaining is an unfair labor practice, illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. So this is a shout-out to the entire Northwest: Support the BVWU! Boycott Burgerville!