Popular sandwich chain Jimmy John's said that employees at one of its franchise restaurants in Georgia had been fired after a now-viral video showed them pretend to hang an employee with bread dough shaped like a noose.
"The actions seen in the video are absolutely unacceptable and do not represent the Jimmy John's brand or the local franchise ownership team," Jimmy John's said in an official statement released on Monday. "As soon as we were alerted to the video, we notified our franchisee, who quickly investigated and terminated all employees involved."
The company added that it was meeting with the franchisee to "conduct training to help prevent anything like this from ever happening again."
The 16-second video was taken at a Jimmy John's location in Woodstock, Georgia, according to McClatchy News. In it, white employees can be seen and heard laughing as an employee twisted the dough into a circle and placed his head through it while another held it over his head.
During the clip, one employee told the coworker with his head in the dough that he's been "set to die" as the employee holding the dough above his head pulled the rope-like shape up in the air.
The video, which was originally shared on Snapchat, was set behind a "Happy 4th of July" filter.
On Sunday, Jimmy John's responded to a user who asked the fast-food sandwich chain about the video on Twitter saying, "We have zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in any form. The franchisee has taken immediate action and the employees have been terminated. The actions seen in this video are completely unacceptable and do not represent the Jimmy John's brand."
White woman who pointed gun at a Black mom and her teen daughter charged with assaultJimmy John's was founded in Illinois has been helmed by John Liautaud for 36 years and has over 2,800 locations in the U.S.