u/sprucecassidy - originally from r/GenZhou
I’m a retail worker in California, and my workplace is unionized. Essentially, my coworkers and I had to watch a presentation about discrimination in the workplace; it included the stuff you would expect, such as racial prejudices and gender identity and such, but it also included a section about how your employer cannot fire you for political activities… unless you’re a member of the CPUSA or another “communist front organization.” I want to know if comrades getting fired for their politics is something that still happens today like it did during the Red Scare, or if employers today would even really care or even bother to look into their employees political activities to begin with. I am assuming that it’s a situation similar to how the CPUSA is technically banned but that ban was never really enforced, however I want to be cautious and not put myself into a perilous situation. And if I were to be fired, would my union be able to help me? (I don’t want to ask my union about this directly, because I don’t know what their specific politics and views on communists are.)

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    4 years ago

    u/Robbo666666 - originally from r/GenZhou
    Essentially, if a worker is deemed to be the focal point of a unionisation drive that is costing the employer serious bucks, the employer will have absolutely no problem terminating the worker, as even if the employer is sued for illegal dismissal they will have still saved money overall. Simple cost/benefit.

    IE. A successful union campaign for a new union agreement = approx 5 million in extra cost for the employer over 4 years, vs illegally firing the communist worker activist who is one of the main campaign drivers resulting in approx $100 000 payout, the capitalist company will illegally sack rather than allow the communist to continue organising everytime.

    A lot of the best communist worker activists do their work in a particular way which protects them mostly from victimisation: https://cpaml.org/post4.php?id=1602043799&catitem1=Marxism Today&catid1=3