So let me get this straight, an employer can FORCE you to be subjected to the National

[louis c]

34. OK. I have some experience in this

If you are an employee at will, meaning an employee without a contract, your employer can discipline or terminate you "without cause" (meaning for any reason or no reason or explanation).

The exceptions are that an employer can not fire you exclusively for gender, age, race, sexual preference (not all states, but in my state of Mass.), disability, religion or being in any other "protected class". The burden of proof is on the employee to prove that they got fired illegally. Speech is not protected.

If you work in a union, you have a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or, in other words, a contract. In that contract is a management rights clause which entitles the company to discipline or discharge only for "just cause". Most (If not all) CBA's give the company the right to make "reasonable work rules". Unless it is stated that the employee must stand at attention for the national anthem, the company must make that a work rule, with the consultation with the union (and in some cases of a strong CBA, the approval of the union).

I worked at a race track which started the day with the National Anthem. We had no such rule. Later, we added simulcasting racing from as many as 25 other tracks in a 6 hour day. The National Anthem was playing all the time. We had to work right through it, otherwise people couldn't get their bets in from tracks already active.