Funny how we talk about "cancel culture" all the time but not "at-will employment."

This is the energy we should all aspire to. https://twitter.com/BuddyYakov/status/1280630737679429632?s=20

UPDATE: So I guess Zaid Jilani also had this take, but... I mean, c’mon.

The reason at-will employment has gotta go is because workers can be fired for ANY REASON at ANY TIME, not because of free-speech martyrdom. https://twitter.com/AndrewMLeber/status/1280688414225059840?s=20

Literally everybody in America has been fired or knows somebody who has been fired for bullshit reasons.

It’s a critical part of the labor system in this country!

The irony is that Zaid, in his article, thinks having a union contract would prevent people like him from getting fired for saying racist/sexist/transphobic bullshit.

(Which, I have been informed, is exactly what happened to Zaid back in the day!)

But here’s the thing:

As @alex_shephard pointed out, James Bennet got “due process.” (And presumably enjoyed labor protections far in excess of anything most people have in their lives.)

Unions are not inherently anti-discriminatory. Hell, all you have to do is crack open a labor history written anytime in the past forty years—or, better yet, talk to anybody in a trade union—to find that out.

But it somewhat strains credulity to think that a union in, say, a liberal newspaper in 2020 with a young and diverse membership is gonna go to the mattresses to defend racist “I’m just asking questions!”-style trolling...

...especially when the whole reason people like Zaid need to worry about getting fired for that crap in the first place is because of pressure from the rank-and-file!

We should end at-will employment, but that’s not gonna to save your “rights” to do a racism.

Also, for a bit of context, I’ve been an “at-will” employee for my entire working life.

I’ve been fortunate enough to never have been fired, but the uncertainty of being in that position is always, always there.

And yes, I’m including grad school in that category.

Graduate students are essentially at-will workers. People get forced out of their programs more often than you’d think, often for incredibly petty reasons.

I’ve seen this happen a number of times.

I don’t want to get into specifics, but there’s often a discriminatory element to these terminations.

And the only times I’ve ever seen them effectively overturned is through robust organization and mobilization on the part of their coworkers. And even then it’s not a guarantee.

This is why it’s incredibly important to have a *contract.*

If you’re under a contract, then by definition you’re not an “at will” employee.