Following Goya CEO Robert Unanue’s praise for President Trump at a White House event, social media was alight with calls to boycott the food maker. Leading the fight was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Proving that Twitter isn’t real life, the boycott has already proven to be a failure and it took yet another hit today. The United Bodegas of America (UBA) said it will keep stocking Goya products.
Members gathered to reject the boycott in a public statement. According to UBA spokesman Fernando Mateo:
“Goya Foods employs over 5,000 people in the Tristate area, these are 5000 of our family members that Goya is supporting. Goya is not just a brand, they’re an institutional family member. We will never turn our backs on those that have been there for all Latin America. Let’s raise and commend Goya Foods for all the good they have done, let’s NOT allow anyone to tell us what we can or can’t buy, Si Es Goya Tiene Que Ser Bueno. Let’s leave it at that.”
The group also highlighted Goya’s record of social responsibility. As an example, the company is donating 2 million pounds of food to those in need during the pandemic.
Goya continues to work for the prosperity & education of our country! #GOYAGIVES two million pounds of food to food banks across the nation who are in desperate need of food for families impacted by COVID19. pic.twitter.com/ZUdxRUnpBl
— Goya Foods (@GoyaFoods) July 10, 2020
This story is wonderful for several reasons. First, Unanue rejected calls to apologize and infuriated the mob. The mob doubled down and ended up looking foolish as stores emptied of Goya products. A man based in Arlington, Va., ran a successful GoFundMe, which raised $200,000 to buy Goya products to donate to food pantries.
Now an entire business owners’ association is rejecting the mob. There is an important lesson here about community. Goya brings jobs and charitable giving to the communities it serves. As such, the community will support Goya when push comes to shove.
The position of the UBA could not be clearer. Not only will the business owners continue to stock Goya products. They will also advocate for people to purchase them. This is a kind of brand loyalty many companies can only dream of.
The UBA is also highlighting another important effect of boycotts. They have the potential to hurt frontline employees and their families. If the boycott had been successful, employees could have lost hours or even their jobs. AOC says she represents the working class, but she will actually hurt them to own Trump. Clearly, she is willing to place politics over people when it suits her resistance agenda.
And this is not the first time she has shown a lack of concern for the economic gain of a community. AOC was key to chasing Amazon out of a Queens, N.Y., location because she doesn’t understand how taxes work. Amazon eventually made plans to place 3,500 jobs in the city, but this was far less than the originally proposed 25,000.
In the age of cancel culture, the left is focused on high profile individuals. It seems leftists do not care about how this affects people downstream of their targets. Employees and their families are generally going to be hit much harder economically than a CEO or another prominent individual. And leftists want you to believe they are for the little guy.
It is impossible to tell whether Goya’s CEO is a supporter of President Trump or not. And it doesn’t matter at all. He has worked with this administration and the previous one on programs and policies that benefit the Hispanic community. He is using his position to help create positive change no matter who is in the White House.
To maintain this influential role, he treats the office with respect no matter who is in it. We could use more corporate and cultural leaders like Unanue. Leaders who are more interested in positive results than politics.
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