LABOR: Yelling Is All Right

The National Labor Relations Board this week told U.S. labor unions some of the things they can & cannot do on a picket line. In general they cannot try to prevent those who want to work from working. The unanimous rulings were the first of their kind under the Taft-Hartley law. Some of the new rules of etiquette:

¶ No chasing in autos after non-strikers.

¶ No blocking of driveways to the plant’s parking lots.

¶ No blocking by mobs of entrances to plants.

One old and favorite practice of pickets was still all right. Under the Taft-Hartley guarantee of free speech, pickets could still vilify strikebreakers, yell “scab” to their heart’s content.