Ohio miners forced to attend Romney rally without pay...

[shoju]

I believe you entirely. But that seems to make my point, not yours. Isn't this threat extremely credible? They tell you the rally is mandatory. You don't show up. They notice. Then they fire your ass on some flimsy excuse, or no excuse at all - downsizing being very common. That's not an empty threat. That's the opposite of an empty threat.

What makes it any more credible of a threat than any "fear/threat" on the job? They make it mandatory, someone who they didn't like, and knew wasn't going to show up, doesn't.

So they fire him. When they do, they claim it was for something else.

Or, he throws a fit, and screams and draws attention.

So they fire him. When they do, they claim it was for something else.

The problem doesn't lie within the threat of being fired over a mandatory, partisan political rally.

The problem lies with the employment laws of the state.

When someone who they like, who is a "good worker", and does his job, says "Hey boss, I can't make it, I'm sorry. I need to either work, or be at home because I can't afford to go somewhere that isn't putting gas in the tank". The boss puts his arm around him, and says "Hey, I understand." And he doesn't get fired.

I guess I shouldn't say that it's not "Credible". It's that a threat like that was never meant to be credible to everyone.

I'm confused. You say it's terrible, but you don't care unless someone is fired? Part of the problem of crappy employment law is that it lets employers walk all over their employees, which they go along with out of fear of losing their job. That doesn't make it right. That actually seems to make it extra-wrong.

I don't care anymore about this than I do any other employment problem in Ohio. I care about the employment laws that allow this to happen. Caring, about this one case isn't going to fix the problem.

I'm not sure I understand your position. You're hard-boiled cynical about it, which seems very reasonable, and seem to think this is a travesty, which it is... and therefore, you don't care, doesn't matter, what's the big deal? I can't put those two things together. If you're telling me the system is screwed up, and employers can abuse it? I agree entirely. If you're telling me that it doesn't matter? I don't see why not.

I don't care about this one case. i care about the laws, that allow all the cases like this to happen in Ohio. I'm telling you the system is beyond screwed. It's in full meltdown, screw your empoylees, and bleed them dry, **** you and your mother who is having surgery, but I don't have to give you time off (let alone paid) unless she dies, or you qualify for FMLA. (even then, it doesn't have to be paid, it just means they can't fire you for not showing up)

I'm telling you that the "cases" of it happening don't matter. If you get hot and bothered at people who abide by the letter of the law (no matter how awful that lets them be), you are getting hot and bothered at the wrong thing.

Instead, you should be hot and bothered with a state laws, and legislative body who have put the laws forth that allow this type of terrible behavior to exist.