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Worker Freedom from Mandatory Meetings

A growing number of employers use mandatory meetings to force their religious and political beliefs on workers.
It is entirely legal for a supervisor or business owner to order an employee into an office or meeting room and force him or her to listen to almost anything. It is also legal to fire an employee who refuses to attend, does not listen, or tries to respond. Commonly, these meetings fall into one of three categories:
  • Political campaigning—During the last presidential election, the National Association of Manufacturers and other politically-charged business groups made a concerted effort to get employers to use the workplace for partisan politics. Employers responded by urging workers to “help” by opposing candidates deemed “unacceptable” to the company. As the Legal Times reported, “People need their jobs, and many will sacrifice their rights as citizens to continue to provide for themselves and their families. Consequently, an employer that tries to use its financial muscle to control employees’ political behavior will often succeed.”1
  • Religious proselytizing—In more and more workplaces, employees are expected to attend prayer breakfasts, forced to undergo unsolicited faith-based “training and education,” and “encouraged” to share their employer’s religious affiliation. A number of evangelical organizations now offer to businesses Christian ministry services for employees during work hours. For example, Marketplace Ministries Inc., of Dallas, Texas employs more than 1,700 chaplains who make on-site visits to 300 companies in 38 states.2
  • Anti-Union propagandizing—It is common for employers to compel workers to sit through mandatory anti-union presentations during labor organizing campaigns. A report for the federal government, based on a study of more than 400 union representation election campaigns, found that during 92 percent of union organizing drives, employers forced their employees to attend closed door anti-union meetings. In addition, 78 percent of employers directed supervisors to deliver anti-union messages to employees in one-on-one meetings. On average, employers held 11 captive audience meetings during every union organizing campaign.3
Intimidation and coercion at the workplace is un-American.
At-will employees can be fired for any reason, even for refusing to adopt an employer’s religious or political views. For example, an Alabama woman was fired because she refused to remove a John Kerry bumper sticker from her car during the 2004 campaign. A Maryland worker was fired after he attempted to question President Bush about Iraq at a campaign rally. In Wisconsin, a man was fired for declining to make a political contribution to the party favored by his boss.4 Yet, in every case these employees were exercising their rights as Americans to hold their own personal beliefs. Unfortunately, without additional legislation, workers’ First Amendment rights are held hostage to their jobs.
The Worker Freedom Act would protect Americans from having to attend coercive meetings that are unrelated to how employees perform their jobs.
The Worker Freedom Act would make it illegal for an employer to require workers to sit through meetings while the employer lectures on religious or political beliefs, including beliefs about joining a union. The Act also prohibits employers from firing or disciplining workers who report coercive meetings.
The Worker Freedom Act does not limit employers’ First Amendment rights.
Under the Act, employers remain free to hold meetings, voice their opinions, and distribute information, but it allows workers to decline to participate without fear of being fired or suffering other penalties. Meetings about political or religious beliefs must be voluntary.
The Worker Freedom Act is not preempted by the federal National Labor Relations Act.
The National Labor Relations Act neither protects nor prohibits mandatory meetings of workers. Section 8(c) of the Act says that an employer’s non-coercive expression of views “shall not constitute or be evidence of an unfair labor practice,” but nothing in the Act gives employers the right to compel workers to listen. The Worker Freedom Act addresses only the coercive expression of political and religious views, something that is entirely within states’ rights to legislate.

This policy brief relies in large part on information from AFL-CIO.

Endnotes
  1. Lewis Maltby, “Office Politics: Civic speech shouldn’t get employees fired,” Legal Times, August 29, 2005.
  2. Stephan Singer, “Conn. Considers Bill to Prevent Proselytism in the Workplace,” Associated Press, March 11, 2006.
  3. Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner, “Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages and Union Organizing,” U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, 2000.
  4. “Office Politics: Civic speech shouldn’t get employees fired.”
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