Worker Freedom Act

 

Protect Employee Privacy

 

Increasing numbers of employers are using the workplace as a forum to promote their religious and political views, as well as views about joining a union.  Employees should not be forced to attend meetings or participate in communications on issues unrelated to their job performance.  They should not have to fear retaliation from an employer—such as being disciplined or discharged—for choosing not to attend such meetings. Under current law an employer can order an employee into an office or meeting room and force him or her to listen to almost anything, as long as the meeting occurs on work time. Employees have no protection for refusing to participate in workplace discussions that promote views or issues unrelated to the performance of their jobs.

 

Some employers use the workplace as a forum for partisan politics, especially during major elections, calling mandatory meetings to enlist employees to support or oppose certain issues or promote certain candidates. Some employees are pressured to share in the employer’s religious affiliation, to join in morning prayers or attend prayer breakfasts, and to receive unsolicited religious education. When workers try to form unions, 92 percent of employers force them to sit through mandatory meetings to hear one-sided, anti-union presentations, according to research done by Prof. Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University and others.*

 

For all these reasons, employees in Wisconsin need the protection offered by the Worker Freedom Act.  Senator Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Mike Sheridan (D-Janesville) are taking the lead in drafting and introducing this legislation.

 

What will the Worker Freedom Act do?  This bill will protect employee privacy by making it unlawful for an employer to require employees to attend a meeting where the employer pushes its religious or political beliefs, including its beliefs about unions.  The Worker Freedom Act does not ban the message, so the freedom of speech of employers is protected. The employer could still hold the meeting or communicate with employees, but could not retaliate against any employee who chooses not to attend a meeting or accept the communication.    

 

 

Talking Points

 

 

  • Privacy protection for employees is a growing issue.  Employers can force workers to

      attend meetings to listen to political and religious lectures—and fire those who refuse.

In the last national election, corporate associations like the National Association of Manufacturers urged employers to use the workplace as a forum for partisan politics.  Economic power over people’s livelihoods should not be used to control the political behavior of individual workers.  Marketplace Ministries and Corporate Chaplains of America are two companies that have been set up by evangelical Christians to reach out to promote a certain religious faith to workers on the job.

 

  • The Worker Freedom Act protects workers’ deeply personal beliefs.  Employees would have the freedom to walk away from political or religious indoctrination, including anti-union lectures, and the Worker Freedom Act would bar employers from retaliating against such employees.  Employees should have the right to the religious and political beliefs of their choosing, without fear of retaliation.

 

  • The Worker Freedom Act does not limit the employer’s free speech.  Employers are still free to conduct meetings, voice their opinions and distribute information. The employer can talk about anything at any time, but it prohibits employers from using their power to force employees to listen to topics and views not related to job performance. 

 

  • The legislation does not interfere with religious or political organizations.  The bill will include commonsense exceptions:  religious organizations are allowed to require their employees to attend meetings on religion; political organizations can require employees to attend meetings on politics; unions can require employees to attend meetings on union organizing.

 

  • Worker privacy and protections are a legitimate exercise of state authority.  The legislation does not conflict with federal labor law.  State law can be pre-empted only if federal law, such as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), prohibits the right of the state to legislate in a certain area.  There is no protected right under the NLRA for an employer to compel mandatory meetings of employees. States regulate many workplace protections, such as minimum wage, overtime rights, employment discrimination and child labor.  The Worker Freedom Act is a similar workplace protection.

 

Current Status:

 

State Senator Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Mike Sheridan (D-Janesville) will have Worker Freedom Act drafted. 

 

            * Kate Bronfenbrenner, Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages and      

Union Organizing, Cornell University, Sept. 6, 2000; Human Rights Watch, Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States Under International Human Rights Standards, 2000; Membership surveys for the AFL-CIO, Peter Hart Research, 1999 and 2001; Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers, What Workers Want, ILR Press, 2002

 

November 2007                                                                                                                                                                   JR/ls:opeiu#9,afl-cio