In "Gags and Grievance: The Labor Origins of Whistleblowing," historian Sarah Milov argues that the story of whistleblowing is bound up with the history of labor. Published in the Journal of Free Speech Law, the article is part of a Knight First Amendment Institute symposium on managing government employee speech in a democracy.
Milov's central contribution is to shift the origin story of whistleblower rules away from a narrow administrative or ethics frame and toward the workplace. Whistleblowing, in this view, grew out of workers' efforts to voice grievances against employers, and those labor roots left lasting marks on how governments regulate public employees who speak out.
The article appears alongside other symposium contributions, but with only this source available, no differing views are noted here. The larger significance is practical: when governments impose gag rules or punish whistleblowers, the legal and cultural assumptions at play have deep roots in labor conflict. Recognizing those origins may change how judges and policymakers evaluate government speech restrictions today.