McDonald’s Workers Are Told Whom to Vote for

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by tater

So no employer is allowed to publicly state a political opinion? Business magnate gets on TV and says party A needs to win or his many businesses will face losses and layoffs. Send him to jail?

That's practical, and not a massive attack on liberty?

Personally, I'll strongly encourage employers, should they feel the need to express a political opinion, to do so in an appropriate forum, such as with their own peers at dinner parties. Or at least mixing in a Net forum where all are anonymous.

The intent of free speech is to allow the free flow of information and ideas. However, when a person in power speaks, his words inevitably become a crimp on further flow of expression. This is why a smart boss at a meeting tactfully does his best to hide his opinion till all arguments have been heard, at least if he actually WANTS to hear an exchange of ideas.

Thus, for the same reason that governmental officials have their rights restricted on this point, so should bosses. As far as the proletariat are concerned, they are not very different.

As for this particular incident, I must say I see you and August blubbering to cover and minimize something that you know is wrong but for some reason do not want to admit.

Even though you are right that in theory the boss can't know what is voted, that's not the same as saying this will have no chilling effect on the freedom of expression which you claim to value so much. At the very least, I'll bet that no employee will dare advocate for the Democrats after such a stunt. They'll even have to be very careful on forums or Facebook, lest the boss or some informer see it.

Correct moves for the boss, in descending order of favorability:
a) Allow the Republicans already in the mob to carry the banner for him. The correct use of intermediaries is a basic boss skill.
b) Should there be no Republicans in the mob, well, who knows maybe his employees are right so he should shut his trap.
c) Should he feel very compelled to express his opinion, he might quietly use some bulletin board and anonymously put up some suitable article supporting his opinion.
d) If he cannot express his opinion anonymously, he must realize whatever he does will have a de facto chilling effect, but the decision to express his opinion in someone's paycheck is pretty much rock bottom.