Got a giant rat outside? It's cool, NLRB says

Picture this: There’s been no talk of union organizing at your company. Yet a 16-foot inflatable rat has been placed outside your building to protest the fact that you’ve hired a non-union contractor. What do you do?
Turns out, there’s not much you can do — unless the union’s protest turns into a shouting match, disturbing customers and employees, according to a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The ruling expanded unions’ rights to hold protest activities at neutral work sites.
It dealt with a dispute a union had with a sheet metal contractor. The union staged a protest at a medical center, which was doing business with the non-union contractor.
In an attempt to persuade the medical center to stop doing business with the contractor, it positioned a 16-foot inflatable rat outside of the medical center, where patients and employees could see it.
The union also distributed leaflets calling the contractor a “rat employer.”
Hospital wants rat exterminated
The hospital then filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB in hopes of getting the rat — and the union protesters — removed from its premise.
However, the NLRB ruled that the use of the rat was OK. Its reasoning: It didn’t amount to “coercive conduct,” thus there was no violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
The Act generally prohibits picketing of a “secondary employer” — like the medical center — because the “confrontational” nature of picketing can be “coercive.”
Even though the rat balloon certainly drew attention to the union’s protest, it wasn’t likely to frighten those entering the medical center, disturb patients or interfere with business operations, said the NLRB. Therefore it wasn’t confrontational — and it was protected free speech.
This case follows a decision made last year in which the NLRB ruled that the display of large banners at a neutral employer’s work site was not confrontational — and therefore did not violate the National Labor Relations Act.
Cite: The NLRB’s decision in Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 15 and Galencare, Inc.
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