Jennifer Sey
© Jennifer Sey
Levi's President Jennifer Sey says she was forced out of her job for speaking out publicly against California's COVID-19 school closures — and gave up $1 million for refusing to keep her mouth shut about it.

The mom of four and longtime Levi's employee wrote in Bari Weiss's "Common Sense" Substack newsletter Monday that she turned down Levi's offer of a $1 million severance package because she didn't want to sign a nondisclosure agreement "about why I'd been pushed out."

Sey, who had been working her way up at Levi's since 1999, said she was told late last year by CEO Charles Bergh that she was en route to becoming the next leader of the company — as long as she would "stop talking about the school thing."

Sey said the saga first erupted when employees started complaining that she was publicly questioning whether schools had to be shut down in San Francisco at the beginning of the pandemic.

The 52-year-old said she organized rallies, spoke out in local media, attended meetings at the mayor's office and railed against the policies on her Twitter account.

"I was condemned for speaking out," she said.

Sey said she received a call from the head of Levi's corporate communications in the summer of 2020 urging her to "pipe down." She said the calls kept coming from the company's legal department, HR, a board member and Bergh.

"I refused to stop talking. I kept calling out hypocritical and unproven policies, I met with the mayor's office and eventually uprooted my entire life in California — I'd lived there for over 30 years — and moved my family to Denver so that my kindergartner could finally experience real school," Sey said.

The mother said the final straw for Levi's was when she appeared on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show about her decision to leave San Francisco.

Sey said the complaints from Levi's employees intensified as her co-workers accused her of being anti-science, anti-fat and anti-trans.

Sey, who has two black sons, said she was also accused of being racist "because San Francisco's public-school system was filled with black and brown kids, and, apparently, I didn't care if they died."

The executive said Levi's head of diversity, equity and inclusion division asked her to do an "apology tour" — but she refused.

"Every day, a dossier of my tweets and all of my online interactions were sent to the CEO by the head of corporate communications," Sey said.

"At one meeting of the executive leadership team, the CEO made an off-hand remark that I was 'acting like Donald Trump.' I felt embarrassed, and turned my camera off to collect myself."

Within the last month, Sey said the CEO told her it was "untenable" for her to stay at the company any longer.

Sey said Levi's has always been known for representing "freedom" and "individualism" — but she now claims the company is "trapped trying to please the mob.

"In this, it is like so many other American companies: held hostage by intolerant ideologues who do not believe in genuine inclusion or diversity," she said.