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April 24, 2007

I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

Can someone please explain to me how a bill that would allow employees to skip prayer breakfasts and political pep rallies is the equivalent of banning prayer in the workplace? Because that's the claim of the religious right nutcases in Oregon. A group calling itself "Restore America" is carrying on an email campaign trying to convince legislators that HB 2893 is an assault on Christians in the workplace and "will prevent employers and employees from praying or worshiping together - even if it's their own choice!"

It's just another example of the persecution complex in the Christian community. Rep. Bruce Hanna of Roseburg is even distributing an action alert saying the bill "specifically targets Christians in the workplace, whether they are employers or employees." The truth is the bill is simply protecting the rights of workers to not be coerced into listening to things they don't agree with.

The bill says an employer cannot require an employee to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or to participate in any communication with the employer if the purpose is to "communicate the employer's opinion about religious or political matters." The bill also prohibits employers from firing or otherwise penalizing workers to force their participation.

But Hanna is completely paranoid, saying that employers would be so fearful of being sued by employees who willingly attended that they won't even have such meetings anymore.

Here's what I suspect is really going on. The bill was introduced by a labor union. It might be because it's a workers' rights issue, but I think it's more realistic to believe a union would only introduce a bill if it had something to gain organizationally by doing so. I'm betting that this bill is actually intended to ban mandatory meetings in which the employer tries to convince employees not to unionize, or to vote or take some other action contrary to what their union wants them to do. And I think the right-wing is very upset about this. The only thing they could come up with on short notice was this ridiculous nonsense being peddled by Rep. Hanna and "Restore America." And why not? Bring up Christian persecution and you have a huge constituency ready to speak out loudly on your behalf.

If you ask me whether employees should be forced to go hear their employer's religious or political views, the answer is a resounding, obvious "no." But if the issue is whether an employer with a stake in an employment dispute should be able to force employees to sit down and listen to his or her views relating to the dispute, then we have something reasonable and interesting to debate. The real question in my mind, then, is why the union that introduced the bill and the Republicans who oppose it aren't debating that issue, but instead are resorting to a sham debate that capitalizes on the persecution paranoia of the Christian right.

Posted by Becky at April 24, 2007 11:18 AM