Picketing
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Picketing is a form of
protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of coopera ...
in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a
place of work A workplace is a location where someone works, for their employer or themselves, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of the ...
or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the picket line"), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause. Picketers normally endeavor to be
non-violent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
. It can have a number of aims, but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands or cease operations. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of customers and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers or customers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally. Picketing is a common tactic used by
trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
s during strikes, who will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and non-unionised workers from working. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known pejoratively as scabs.


Types of picket

Informational picketing is the legal name given to awareness-raising picketing. It, per Merriam-Webster's ''Dictionary of Law'', entails picketing by a group, typically a labour or trade union, which inform the public about a cause of its concern. In almost all cases this is a disliked policy or practice of the business or organisation. It is a popular picketing technique for nurses to use outside of healthcare facilities. For example, on April 5, 2006,
nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...
s of the UMass Memorial Medical Center (
UMMHC UMass Memorial Health (UMM Health) is the clinical partner of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the largest healthcare system in Central Massachusetts. It is a not-for-profit/ nonprofit healthcare network providing all levels of ...
) took part in two separate such events to protect the quality of their nursing program.Twarog, J. "Informational pickets, rallies, vigils and leafleting at health care facilities". ''Massachusetts Nurse'', April 2006, Vol. 77, Issue 3, p. 9 Informational picketing was used to gain public support and promote further bargaining with management. It may also be a spur or auxiliary to a petition to government to seek regulatory intervention, reliefs, dispensations or funds. A mass picket is an attempt to bring as many people as possible to a picket line to demonstrate support for the cause. It is primarily used when only one workplace is being picketed or for a symbolically or practically important workplace. Due to the numbers involved, and depending on behaviors, it may turn into an unlawful
blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are le ...
such as a right of way obstruction, or aggravated trespass (denial of access). Secondary picketing is of any external entity economically connected to the main business subject to the workers' action. Thus it includes against suppliers on which the picketed business relies, retailers who sell its products, physical premises with shared management or majority shareholders (sister/allied premises) and homes of any of the latter persons. In most jurisdictions, secondary pickets lack all or many of the civil law protections given to primary pickets. For example, at the
Battle of Saltley Gate The Battle of Saltley Gate was the mass picketing of a fuel storage depot in Birmingham, England, in February 1972 during a national miners' strike. When the strike began on 9 January 1972, it was generally considered that the miners "could not ...
in 1972 in England, striking miners picketed a coke works in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and were later joined by thousands of workers from industries locally. Secondary picketing has been illegal (in the sense that, unlike lawful picketing, it may give rise to a cause of action in
tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...
) in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
since the coming into force of section 17 of the
Employment Act 1980 The Employment Act 1980 (c 42) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed under the first term of Margaret Thatcher's premiership and mainly relating to trade unions. Overview It restricted the definition of lawful picketing 'str ...
, a law tabled and passed by the
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
government of
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
.
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
sought repeal of this via the party's 1987 manifesto; the party called for a debate on such issues in the next (1992) manifesto; and dropped this position under
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
and later leaders' manifestos from
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
onwards. Another tactic is to organise highly mobile pickets, who can turn up at any of a business's locations quickly. These flying pickets are particularly effective against multi-facility businesses that could otherwise pursue legal
prior restraint Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is censorship imposed, usually by a government or institution, on expression, that prohibits particular instances of expression. It is in contrast to censorship ...
and shift operations among facilities if the locations were known with certainty ahead of time. The first highly strategic use of such may have been the example of the 1969 miners' strike in Britain. Flying pickets are usually not legal in the United Kingdom; workers must only picket at their workplace. Picketing can interweave with
boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...
ing campaigns by
pressure group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...
s across the political and moral spectrum. In particular religious groups such as the
Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. Labeled a hate group, WBC is known for engaging in homophobic and anti-American pickets, ...
seek to picket local store fronts and events they consider sinful. Non-employee protesters are third parties to the business so counter-actions may lie in the courts (or out-of-court remedies) for disruption of trade, unlawful protest, defamation, and certain types of illegal advertising, trespass and nuisance, against which freedom of expression, of religion and/or a public interest defense vie. Different jurisdictions weigh these two competing sets of rights differently. The global result is the rules and outcomes are fact-sensitive (rest closely on the actions, form, subject-matter, duration and behaviors) and law-sensitive (divergently regulated or governed by case law).


Disruptive picketing

Disruptive picketing covers a wide variety of pickets: *Obstructive picketing which significantly physically narrows or stalls the flow of persons, goods or services into and out of the business. *Public order or highway offense picketing which due to behaviors, third-party supporters, or overspill meets with or is entitled to be met with police or local authority enforcement measures to limit its activities or street-side support. *Criminally violent or menacing picketing: use of force (battery and/or criminal damage), or reasonably perceptible and real threats of such (assault), to injure or sufficiently intimidate persons; **At several pickets at the height of the
UK miners' strike (1984–85) The miners' strike of 1984–1985 was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Boar ...
, picketers pelted strikebreakers with stones, paint and brake fluid, many of whom the police arrested for offences against the person. *Vexatious picketing which due to very high frequency causes severe loss of economic activity and/or reputation. It may be contrasted with non-obstructive picketing in which the impact on the business or organization is likely to be the presence nearby of a group of people close in number to the number of strikers on strike who have an informational picketing line, assembly or rally. It is possible, but rarely allowed in labor law globally, to have an informational picket in a public place by the business which has no simultaneous strike – a protest of workers outside of their shifts – in some sectors the immediate financial impact of a non-obstructive picket could be negligible and longer-term impact could be an HR policy or public-facing policy enhancement and a consumer relations uplift.


Legality

Picketing, as long as it does not cause obstruction to a highway or intimidation, is legal in many countries and in line with
freedom of assembly Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
laws, but many countries have restrictions on the use of picketing. Legally defined, recognitional picketing is a method of picketing that applies economic pressure to an employer with the specific goal to force the employer to recognise the issues facing employees and address them by bargaining with a union. In the US, this type of picketing, under Section 8(b)(7)(A) of the Labor Act, is typically illegal if representation is not relevant or is unquestionable. In the UK mass picketing was made illegal under the
Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 ( 17 and 18 Geo V c 22) was a British Act of Parliament passed in response to the General Strike of 1926, introduced by the Attorney General for England and Wales, Sir Douglas Hogg MP. Provisions R ...
, moved by the leaders of what would soon be National Labour, after the 1926 General Strike. Otherwise picketing was banned by the
Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
-tabled
Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871 The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871 (''34 & 35 Vict. c.32'') is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by W. E. Gladstone's Liberal Government. It was passed on the same day as the Trade Union Act 1871. William Edward Hartpole Le ...
but is decriminalised by the
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
-tabled
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict c 86) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom relating to labour relations, which together with the Employers and Workmen Act 1875, fully decriminalised the work of tra ...
. The
Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992c 52 is a UK Act of Parliament which regulates United Kingdom labour law. The Act applies in full in England and Wales and in Scotland, and partially in Northern Ireland. The law con ...
gives protection, under civil law, for pickets who are acting in connection with an industrial dispute at or near their workplace who are using their picketing peacefully to obtain or communicate information or persuading any person to work or abstain from working. However, many employers seek specific
injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
s to limit the effect of picketing by their door if they can evidence a high likelihood of intimidation or, in general, on non-peaceful behaviour and/or any that significant numbers of the picketers are or will in all likelihood be non-workers. In the US, any strike activity was hard to organise in the early 1900s, but picketing became more common after the Norris–La Guardia Act of 1932, which limited the ability of employers to gain injunctions to stop strikes, and further legislation to support the right to organise for unions. Mass picketing and secondary picketing was outlawed by the 1947
Taft–Hartley Act The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of Preside ...
. Some kinds of pickets are
constitutionally A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...
protected. Viewing laws against
stalking Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The ter ...
as potentially inconsistent with labor rights of picketing, the first anti-stalking law of the industrial world, made by
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
's lawmakers, inserted provisions that disapply many of its protections from "normal labor picketing", which has survived subsequent amendments.Penal Code s. 646.1


See also

*'' BCGEU v. British Columbia'' *
Bed-In The Bed-ins for Peace were two week-long nonviolent protests against wars, intended as experimental tests of new ways to promote peace. As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono held one protest at the Hilton Hotel in Ams ...
, peace campaigns by
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
and
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...
in 1969 *
Dharna A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to m ...
, fast undertaken at the door of an offender *
Die-in A die-in, sometimes known as a lie-in, is a form of protest in which participants simulate being dead. Die-ins are actions that have been used by a variety of protest groups on topics such as animal rights, anti-war, against traffic violence, hum ...
*
Human Be-In The Human Be-In was an event held in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Polo Fields on January 14, 1967. It was a prelude to San Francisco's Summer of Love, which made the Haight-Ashbury district a symbol of American counterculture a ...
* Lock-on *
Occupation (protest) As an act of protest, occupation is a strategy often used by social movements and other forms of collective social action in order to squat and hold public and symbolic spaces, buildings, critical infrastructure such as entrances to train station ...
*
Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
*
Raasta roko Traffic obstruction is a common tactic used during public protests and demonstrations. The transport users affected by such disruptions are sometimes unsympathetic to the cause. Legality Most jurisdictions consider the obstruction of traffic a ...
*
Sitdown strike A sit-down strike is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting do ...
*
Teach-in A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific time fr ...
*
Work-in A work-in is a form of direct action under which workers whose jobs are under threat resolve to remain in their place of employment and to continue producing, without pay. Their intention is usually to show that their place of work still has long ...


References


Further reading

* Ascione, Alfred M. "The Permissibility of Picketing in New York." ''St. John's Law Review'' 14.1 (2013): 25
online
* Corso, Joseph J. "The Protection Accorded Picketing by the First Amendment." ''Akron Law Review'' 2.2 (2015): 3
online


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Picketing (Protest) Community organizing Labor relations Protest tactics Signage