The union representing Burgerville employees in the Portland area on Friday blasted the company's move to ban buttons on their uniforms, a decision handed down as some workers continue to wear pins proclaiming "Abolish ICE" and other political statements.

The Burgerville Workers Union in a tersely worded statement called the new policy, announced Thursday and effective Sept. 13, "disgusting" and "deeply disturbing."

The group also accused the company of caving to pressure generated by those angered over the buttons, whom the union appeared to uniformly cast as a horde of right-wing bigots.

"Within twenty-four hours of the swell of right wing outrage, Burgerville corporate capitulated to the demands of internet racists," the statement said. "Burgerville's motto is 'serve with love.' The union asks who do they serve — white supremacists or its anti-racist workers?"

A Burgerville spokeswoman on Friday said the company had received a flood of phone calls, emails and online comments from people threatening to boycott the regional fast-food chain, including some who read the news coverage — first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive — from out of state.

But the reaction this week did not prompt the rollout of the policy, which the company said it began working to formalize in recent weeks.

The mounting friction comes as Burgerville attempts to negotiate a contract with workers at two of the chain's 42 locations who made history this spring when they voted to form a federally recognized union.

The use of political buttons by employees became a bargaining chip after 10 workers at the Burgerville on Northeast Glisan Street and 82nd Avenue were sent home in August for wearing pro-immigration pins.

The employees returned to work the next day, received back pay and continued to wear the buttons, according to the union and company.

Liz Graham, Burgerville's human resources director, said in a statement Thursday that the company already had a verbal policy forbidding employees from wearing personal buttons on uniforms.

The updated policy is common among businesses that regularly deal with the general public, she said.

That position does not sit well with the Burgerville Workers Union.

"Everything we believe and everything we do — at work and outside of work — affects the people around us," the union said in its statement. "We must choose sides."

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh

skavanaugh@oregonian.com

503-294-7632 || @shanedkavanaugh