STATEMENT FROM ATTORNEY WILLIAM O. WAGSTAFF III REGARDING WAWA BARRING ANDRE LYNCH FROM WEARING BLM MASK

Mount Laurel, N.J. (June 24, 2020)  — Attorney William O. Wagstaff III issued the following statement this morning:

Wawa’s decision to terminate Andre Lynch for wearing a Black Lives Matter mask to work not only violates The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, but sends a resounding message that Black lives do not matter to WAWA. We will not allow Wawa to get away with yet another token response to blatant systemic racism. The way Wawa treated Mr. Lynch provides evidence of the insights that inform companywide decisions on recruitment, retention, and the promotion of Black men and women. More telling, it speaks volumes of how they feel about communities of color. It is going to take a systemic response to sufficiently address this crisis. We demand and expect Wawa to immediately come into compliance with the law and implement impactful changes to combat the systemic racism and oppression experienced by their Black employees while at work and in their communities.

I will continue to stand with Mr. Lynch as he continues to heal from this traumatic experience.

###

Jennifer Wolf,  External Public Relations Supervisor for Wawa, Inc., released the following statement in response:

“To be accurate and clear about the situation – the associate in question, Andre Lynch, was not fired or let go in any way. Senior Wawa representatives reached out to Mr. Lynch the day after he left work to confirm his job remained open and that we wished to have him back to work.

“The release in no way represents who we are and is counter to our values and long-standing commitment to our associates and communities. Wawa strongly believes Black lives matter. We have provided all associates with pins that say Black lives matter as a way to express their support within uniform guidelines, if they choose to. At the store level, we have also posted digital signage sharing the message that Black lives matter at all 900-plus Wawa stores.  We will continue to share more information about the additional actions we are taking in the future and direct you to wawa.com to read a letter from our CEO about the steps we’ve taken to date.”