Picketing (protest)

Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called picketers) [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=picketer] congregate outside a place of work 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. Pickets normally endeavor to be non-violent. It can have a number of aims, but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of customers and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally.

Picketing is a common tactic used by trade unions during strikes, who will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and ununionised workers from working. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known pejoratively as scabs.

Types of picket

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Secondary picketing is where people picket locations that are not directly connected to the issue of protest. This would include retail stores that sell products by the company being picketed against, and the private homes of the company's management. Secondary pickets often do not have the same civil law protection as primary pickets.

Another tactic is to organize highly mobile pickets who can turn up at any of a company's locations on short notice. These flying pickets are particularly effective against multifacility businesses which could otherwise pursue legal prior restraint and shift operations among facilities if the location of the picket were known with certainty ahead of time.

Picketing is also used by pressure groups across the political spectrum. Picketing has also been employed for religious purposes such as the Westboro Baptist Church who picket a variety of stores or events that they consider to be sinful.

Disruptive picketing

Disruptive picketing is where pickets use force, or the threat of force, or physical obstruction, to injure or intimidate or otherwise interfere with either staff, service users, or customers. [ [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0012-7086(198111)2%3A1981%3A5%3C853%3ALVKATI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F Leedom v. Kyne and the Implementation of a National Labor Policy] , James F. Wyatt III, Duke Law Journal, Vol. 1981, No. 5 (Nov., 1981), pp. 853-877]

In the United States, picketing of abortion providers is a common form of pro-life protest; over eleven thousand incidents were either reported to, or obtained by, the National Abortion Federation in 2007. [cite web | title = NAF Violence and Disruption Statistics | publisher = National Abortion Federation | url = http://www.prochoice.org/pubs_research/publications/downloads/about_abortion/violence_statistics.pdf
accessdate=2008-07-28]

Picketing and the law

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 laws, though many countries do have restrictions on the use of picketing.

In the UK the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 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 to peacefully obtain or communicate information or peacefully persuading any person to work or abstain from working. However, many employers have recently taken to gaining injunctions to limit the effect of picketing outside their work place. The granting of injunctions tends to be based on the accusation of intimidation or in general on non-peaceful behaviour and the claim that numbers of the pickers are not from the affected work place. [ [http://www.yourrights.org.uk/your-rights/chapters/the-right-of-peaceful-protest/picketing/picketing.shtml Picketing] , The Liberty guide to human rights, 11 January 2005, Liberty] Historically, picketing was banned by a Liberal government in the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871 but then decriminalised by a Conservative government with the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875. [ [http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1850_1880.php Timeline:1850-1880] , TUC history online, Professor Mary Davis, Centre for Trade Union Studies, London Metropolitan University]

In the US any strike activity was hard to organise in the early 1900s, however picketing became more common after the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932, which limited the ability of employers to gain injunctions to stop strikes, and further legislation which supported the right to organise for the unions. Mass picketing and secondary picketing was however outlawed by the The Taft-Hartley Labor Act (1947). [ [http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/search/search.php?word=PICKETING&enc=37490 PICKETING] , The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press.] Some kinds of pickets are constitutionally protected. [Thornhill v. Alabama] [Other cases cited at Free speech zone#Notable incidents and court proceedings]

Notes and references