Temple nurses strike over "gag clause" and tuition perk

In Philadelphia, hundreds of Temple University Hospital nurses and other employees are currently on strike, in part due to a proposed "gag clause" that would restrict union members from publicly criticizing the hospital or its managers. Opponent of this clause say it would limit free speech. Further, the "gag clause" could prevent nurses from advocating for patients or from grumbling about a bad day on their Facebook pages, they argue. A hospital administration official who supports the clause states that there has been a history of "disparaging the hospital and its business practices" in union publications and to the media.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_bi_ge/pa_philadelphia_nurses_strike_1

While several other issues are of concern for the Philadelphia nurse picketers, including the elimination of a college tuition benefit for the children of nurses, it is clear that a number of employers resort to firing employees who publicly state opinions that employers view as disparaging or otherwise inappropriate. And the number of incidents can be expected to rise with the increase in social networking via the internet. For example, here, an Eagles game-day employee was fired for posting a comment on Facebook:
http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/2009/03/ex-eagles-employee-talks-about-facebook.html

And here, a former high school teacher is suing a north Georgia school district, alleging she was forced to resign over photos and expletives on her Facebook page. Her facebook photos and comments were not criticizing her employer; rather, they were deemed inappropriate because they showed her holding wine and beer and contained an expletive.
http://www.ajc.com/news/teacher-in-trouble-for-191943.html

Various internet postings have suggested that this an illegal restriction on free speech. However, the first amendment limits the ability of the government to restrict speech, not private employers, who are free to restrict speech as long as those restrictions don't violate other rights of employees. For the nurses in Philadelphia, losing their "freedom" to disparage the hospital and its business practices is a consequence of at will employment policy.