Howard Weyer, Commie of the Month

CEO of Weyco, Inc., Howard Weyer gets our vote for Commie of the Month.

Why?: For his policy of terminating employees for legal activities partaken off the company clock, and company premises. CNN

Why "Commie?": The worst of communism is the authoritarian reach into personal freedom.

In question: The U.S. Bill of Rights.

The question: If rights and protections "guaranteed" by the Bill of Rights can be over-ridden by employers, by enforcing company rules into the private, personal lives of employees, into their personal time, what meaning does The Bill of Rights have?

The particular issue: Smoking tobacco cigarettes in one's own home.

The argument: Nobody's forcing you to work here. And, cigarettes are bad for you.

This issue goes beyond cigarette smoking, in that an employer, Weyco, Inc., has dictated its company rules over employee's personal activities beyond the perview of the employment. Weyco went as far as requiring blood-testing of employees to find out who smokes and who doesn't. Blood testing has been categorized as a "search," as defined by Ammendment IV of the Bill of Rights. If agents of the government have to conform to a minimum standard of "articulable suspicion" in administering a blood test, or breathalyzer test, but an employer does not, doesn't that place employers above the government? Doesn't that render the protections "guaranteed" by the Bill of Rights irrelevant?

"Nobody's forcing you to work here." No, but the vast, overhelming majority of us are "forced" to work somewhere. If any and all employers are above the Laws governed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and are free impose laws of their own, which deny the rights and protections "guaranteed" by the C&BoR to the individual, then the C&BoR's rights and protections are rendered meaningless.

That employers may enforce rules nullifying the C&BoR on their premises is legally and morally questionable in itself, but that they can enforce any rules which extend to an employee's "free time," is beyond "questionable," into "reprehensible," and profoundly anti-Constitutional. If America stands for freedom, it is unquestionably un-American. It's the worst of Communism, repackaged and bundled into Capitalism.

Enforcing company rules over smoking during an employee's non-company time is precident-setting, in that smoking remains a legal activity. If a corporation can exercise control over an employee's personal, legal activities/behaviors, then it may exercise control over any employee's personal, legal activities as it sees fit. Ergo, sports activities are dangerous, consumpion of alcohol can be harmful, watching television is unproductive and conducive to a sedentary life-style, which is not healthy, motorcycle riding is potentially dangerous, over-exposure to sunlight can cause strokes, certain viewpoints are counter to the company's interests, the risk of exposure to such ideas is increased by internet viewing, etc. All of the above could be construed as counter to the employer's interests, and by the standard set by Weyco, subject to regulation by the employer.

For making the bold, precident-setting move forward in advancing the feifdoms of employers, and furthering the rendering of the C&BoR meaningless, Howard Weyer, and his personal feifdom, Weyco, Inc., are most worthy of VV's "Commie of the Month."