<HTML>This is one reason why union protection is so important in private workplaces. Union contracts establish the principle that firing and other disciplinary actions must be for cause, and that the cause must be sustained through due process. Without such protections, you can be fired at will. Union contracts are also important in the public sector, notwithstanding the limited protections provided by constitutional limits on government action which Michael notes. Witness all the attacks on 'tenure,' which simply establishes, as a matter of law, that firing must be for cause, and that must be sustained by a due process procedure. <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Unfortunately, in a private workplace, the Constitution does not apply and a worker can be fired for any reason at all that does not otherwise violate a statute.  This is called the doctrine of at-will employment. If the employer is a public entity, such as a public school, the workers do have some limited constitutional protection. Michael Yates Michael Pollak wrote: > > On Mon, 5 Mar 2001, hep wrote: > > > Michael Lopez-Calderon, until last week, taught at a Jewish school in > > Miami.  But after the school received, anonymously, reports that he > > had made "pro-Palestine" comments on an email list to which he was > > subscribed, he was fired. > > This has to be illegal, doesn't it?  If explicitly firing someone for > something they said outside their job -- way outside, such that it has to > be ferretted out -- isn't a violation of the first amendment, what is? > Especially when the speech is political. > > Michael </BLOCKQUOTE> Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869) Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass -- </HTML>