Price of illegal gag order on staff: $3 million.

The National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to engage in "concerted activities aimed at improving working conditions."

That means employers can't interfere with (or punish) employees for complaining about safety, talking to co-workers about their salary or, as in this case, discipline workers for talking to the media about company working conditions.

Recent case: Technicians at a TV satellite company were angry when the company told them their pay would be tied to convincing customers to buy expensive installation options.

The technicians thought the strategy was fraudulent. So they contacted a local news station, who interviewed several techs and did a story.

The company then fired all 26 techs, citing a handbook rule prohibiting...