NJ Attorney General Zulima Farber supports Illegal Alien strike day.

So does NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Hans at CEI’s Open Market reports:

Advocates for illegal aliens have declared today the “National Day of Action for Immigrant Rights.” They have urged illegal aliens to boycott their jobs and American business to force companies to shut down for the day and thus make a statement about business’s reliance on illegal immigrant labor.

When an employee deliberately sabotages his employer by making it unable to function, that is a classic reason to fire him. No employer should be compelled to keep paying an employee who deserts him in his hour of need.

Yet, amazingly, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is threatening New York businesses that require their employees to show up for their scheduled shifts today, arguing that they generally cannot discipline those who boycott their jobs because attending rallies for illegal aliens is “protected” activity under federal labor law.

Spitzer’s claim is very misleading. First of all, in the Hoffman Plastics case, the Supreme Court held that the National Labor Relations Act does not allow illegal aliens to sue employers for backpay, since they have no legal entitlement to work in the United States.

Second, and more importantly, even if federal labor law defines attending a rally for illegal immigrants as a protected activity for “mutual aid and protection,” that only means that employees have license to attend such rallies on their own time. They cannot unilaterally take off work en masse and shut their employer down, since employers have a right to keep their businesses functioning.

Under Supreme Court precedent, even an employee’s participation in activity clearly protected by the federal labor laws, such as a strike, does not prevent the employer from hiring a permanent replacement to keep the business running. That is why employers are permitted to hire permanent replacements for union members who go on strike.

Employees have rights, but so too do business owners. Spitzer’s threats are reprehensible and an assault on freedom of contract.

What’s your state attorney general doing today?

Over at Hot Air, Allah points to this screenshot from Fox News that asks the wrong question:

“The right question: does America have the will?”

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