Employers and voting

[hhiipp]

How far can an employer go when 'suggesting' you vote a certain way in a government held election? There is an issue on the November ballot that has been highly recommended that we vote against. It was 'suggested' in a somewhat threatening manner that if it passes jobs, specifically at our business, will be cut and possibly some benefits will be cut as well. If possible links would be great. I'm having problems finding the right words to search for when googling.

[Butter]

Vote coercion brings back some interesting articles.

[molson]

Sounds like Free Speech.

They can't really do anything, of course. You can promise them you'll vote one way and vote another, they'll never know.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I haven't found the specifics but I did find this snippet from a story involving Wal-Mart (http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/749132.html) & candidates. Companies are not permitted under federal election law to expressly advocate to hourly employees the election or defeat of specific candidates.

Where the line is drawn specifically I haven't run across.

[hhiipp]

True they can't technically force your hand to vote a certain way, but the power of persuasion is pretty strong.

[Commo_Soldier]

I personally do not see any problems with suggestions from employers because they are not able to see who I actually voted for.

[johneh]

How far can an employer go when 'suggesting' you vote a certain way in a government held election? There is an issue on the November ballot that has been highly recommended that we vote against. It was 'suggested' in a somewhat threatening manner that if it passes jobs, specifically at our business, will be cut and possibly some benefits will be cut as well. If possible links would be great. I'm having problems finding the right words to search for when googling.

I can guess exactly what bill your employer is talking about. We are trying to decide how to approach this where I work. The bill is a horrible bill and will kill jobs. We probably won't do a big push for our employees to vote against it, but we will be changing our vacation/sick day policy immediately if the bill passes to minimize the damage.

[finketr]

My employer encourages everyone to get out to vote.. even to the point of providing a bit of time off to go vote.

The second thing they do is recommend writing to your congresspeople for specific legislations. Particularly any free trade agreements that come up.


tim

[albionmoonlight]

What's the bill?

[stevew]

What's the bill?

It has to be this

Ohio Healthy Families Act (2008) - Ballotpedia (http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Ohio_Healthy_Families_Act_%282008%29)

[stevew]

On the surface that looks like really bad legislation.

[Tekneek]

How does guaranteeing days off require the elimination of jobs? It will be that much harder for them to cover the work that needs to be done, assuming they aren't sitting at 30 or something like that.