Reggio’s Pizza at O’Hare Airport may get a big break from President Trump’s administration after being sued by a former transgender employee in 2024 for discrimination and retaliation.
The suit says the Black-owned pizza chain employed an unnamed transgender employee who accused a manager of “outing” her. According to the complaint, that alleged incident set in motion a barrage of insults and harassment from other employees and even a customer. The transgender employee filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which held mediation talks with Reggio’s Pizza.
Those talks ended when Reggio’s Pizza called the EEOC’s demands “unreasonable,” prompting the federal agency to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division in Chicago.
On February 14, the EEOC reversed course and asked a judge to dismiss the case, citing President Trump’s executive order that stripped transgender individuals of gender identity rights in the workplace.
Before Judge Andrea Wood, the EEOC said, “In response to the change in administration and federal guidance, the EEOC moved to voluntarily dismiss this case, arguing that discrimination based on gender identity did not constitute sex-based discrimination in violation of Title VII.”
The case is one of many complaints the EEOC seeks to dismiss since Trump appointed Andrea Lucas to head the agency charged with protecting employees’ civil rights in the workplace.
It’s a dramatic shift to the right for the EEOC, which filed numerous discrimination cases under President Joe Biden, who sought to protect the rights of transgender individuals.
On January 28, the EEOC issued a press release titled “Removing Gender Ideology and Restoring the EEOC’s Role of Protecting Women in the Workplace,” indicating how the agency would implement Trump’s Executive Order 14201. Trump signed the order hours after taking office on January 20.
The order seeks to address key gender identity issues, including keeping men out of women’s sports and protecting children from sex change operations.
The federal case against Reggio’s Pizza is ongoing, and Judge Wood has yet to rule on the EEOC’s motion to dismiss it.
According to the suit, Reggio’s Pizza, which operates restaurants and sells ready-made pizza throughout Chicago, allegedly fired an employee at its O’Hare Airport location because she complained about harassment.
The employee, who is transgender, reported to the company that she believed a manager had “outed” her to other employees. As a result, coworkers misgendered her, prompting a customer to make an offensive comment using both an LGBTQ+ slur and a racial slur.
According to the EEOC lawsuit, when the employee reported these additional incidents to a manager, he took her badge, which was tantamount to firing her, as it prevented her from returning to work.
The EEOC said the employee’s alleged treatment violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting retaliation against employees who object to discrimination.
The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on September 25 after attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The suit seeks monetary relief for the employee harmed by the alleged unlawful practices and injunctive relief to prevent Reggio’s Pizza from retaliating in the future.
“Retaliation in the restaurant industry remains a serious problem,” said Greg Gochanour, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District Office. “Complaints of harassment must be taken seriously and investigated promptly. Federal law makes it illegal to fire an employee for making a good-faith complaint of unlawful harassment.”
According to its website, Reggio’s opened the first of four locations at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 1998. Today, Reggio’s has three locations at the airport.
The company also manufactures ready-made pizzas. The idea surfaced after out-of-state customers asked how they could get the pizza at home.
According to a report in the Chicago Defender, Reggio’s Pizza lost a $2.2 million contract with Chicago Public Schools in 2010 after it was dropped as a subcontractor with Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality, a North Carolina-based joint venture. CPS sold the pizza by the slice for $2.10 to students who did not receive free or reduced-price lunch. The school district received it from Reggio’s for about 61 cents a slice.
At the time, Reggios’ Pizza employed 200 employees, and its frozen pizzas were sold in various stores, such as Jewel, Dominick’s, Aldi, Food 4 Less, Save-A-Lot, Moo & Oink, Ultra Foods, and Walgreens, according to the Defender.
In 2018, businesswo-man Shari Wilson acquired Reggio’s Pizza. She became the first Black woman to own, manufacture, and distribute a frozen pizza line in the United States.
Reggio’s Pizza products are available in multiple grocery stores across the country.