UES Shop Closes After Staff Walk Out Over BLM Sign Removal

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side butcher shop has been forced to temporarily close after staff walked out over the removal of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ signs from its windows, according to reports.

All four locations of the popular Fleisher's butcher shops — including on Third Avenue near East 76th Street on the Upper East Side — have closed their doors after three dozen workers walked out, protesting the CEO's decision to take down the signs, Forbes first reported.

The debacle started back on July 22 when one of the craft butcher's investors called Fleisher's CEO John Adams to complain about symbols supporting BLM in the windows at one of its Connecticut shops, according to the outlet.

Adams, who has only been CEO for two months, took the train to the Westport outlet to remove the signs, along with LGBTQ pride signage, and then did the same at its two New York City locations, Forbes said.

Adams eventually returned the signs within 24 hours, but not before three dozen staff walked out, forcing the temporary closure.

“You were trying to get our trust, and I don’t feel comfortable here," Ajani Thompson, the only Black employee at the Park Slope shop, told Forbes about what Adams did. "I don’t feel safe coming into work because you didn’t do that.”

At least half of Fleisher's 40 or so staff members identify as BIPOC, nonbinary or queer, according to Forbes.

A sign at the Upper East Side shop said it was closed through August, according to Forbes. All Fleisher's outlets were still marked as "temporarily closed" on the company's website on Wednesday.

The abrupt closures have evidently caused confusion. On Twitter, one concerned customer tweeted in late July that they visited the Upper East Side shop to pick up an order, only to find it was "closed up tight and nobody is answering the phone at any of their locations."

Patch writer Anna Quinn contributed to this report.