Captive Audience Meetings: Employer Speech vs. Employee Choice

27 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2014

Date Written: 2010

Abstract

The piece takes an in-depth look at United States Supreme Court jurisprudence on captive audience meetings, and argues that the First Amendment should protect workers in their workplaces from unwanted communications. The article focuses on the constitutionality of the Model Worker Freedom Act, draft legislation created by the AFL-CIO, and introduced into state legislatures nationwide.

To date, no articles have specifically addressed the constitutionality of the Model Worker Freedom Act and its First Amendment implications. During election season, questions were raised about the legality of employers telling employees for which candidate to vote. As a new president has taken office and has appointed a new Secretary of Labor who promises to protect workers rights, this article is timely and relevant. It discusses a key issue facing the new administration, the extent to which employers may require their employees to listen to their views on political matters. As the Congressional debate surrounding the Employee Free Choice Act heats up, this paper is particularly timely as it addresses one of the primary ways in which employers infringe upon the rights of employees who attempt to organize a union.

This article seeks to refocus the debate over captive audience meetings in order to prioritize the free speech rights of employees, and demonstrate that the Model Worker Freedom Act fully comports with the Supreme Court’s first amendment captive audience jurisprudence. Requiring employees to attend captive audience meetings in which political matters are discussed is an unconstitutional violation of employees First Amendment right to be free from unwanted communication. In order to prevent this, states should adopt the Model Worker Freedom Act, and courts should uphold the act against all challenges.

Suggested Citation

Robbins, Allie, Captive Audience Meetings: Employer Speech vs. Employee Choice (2010). Ohio North University Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 591, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2541813

Allie Robbins (Contact Author)

CUNY School of Law ( email )

2 Court Square
Long Island City, NY 11101
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
50
Abstract Views
406
PlumX Metrics