Kai Ryssdal, Call Me!
Employer intimidation of voters is really breaking into the mainstream media. Yesterday, Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace profiled the story. Here are some of the questions he posed to University of Florida emeritus professor Joseph Little:
Is this legal? Can companies actually fire you if you don’t vote the right way? I mean I’ll be honest with you. This kind of floored me when I first read about this.
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What’s the recourse? I mean I suppose you could always just try to find another job. But unemployment is almost 8 percent.
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I imagine this is rare, right? I mean we’re talking the rare instance here.
We’ve been talking about this topic forever around here, of course. Mr. Ryssdal, if you’re reading, check these links out:
1. My Crooked Timber overview (written with Chris Bertram and Alex Gourevitch) of all the ways in which employers can dominate employees, which also addresses Ryssdal’s second question.
2. On bathroom breaks at the workplace.
3. AT&T prohibits workers from reading newspapers on their lunch breaks.
4. In 49 states, you can be fired for good reasons, bad reasons, or no reason at all.
5. Nine “really weird” things that can get you fired.
6. More states protect your right to smoke off the job than they do your right to engage in political activity.
7. Your rights at work.
8. Towards a general theory of workplace tyranny and American politics:
c. Fear: The History of a Political Idea (part 2).