non-verbal communications

[Victor Steinbok]

http://goo.gl/uwjYZ
> One reason those giant inflatable rats are so popular at picket lines
> is that they are one way of getting around those antiquated labor laws.

 From Wiki:

> Inflatable rats, or union rats, are commonly used in the United States
> of America by protesting or striking trade unions against their
> employers or against nonunion contractors, serving as a sign of
> opposition and to call public attention to companies employing
> nonunion labor. Unions have been using them for years against
> companies that employ nonunion labor, and employers have filed
> lawsuits charging that the use of the giant inflatable rats
> constituted unlawful picketing, and some courts have agreed. Though in
> May 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that union
> use of an inflatable monster rat is not considered an unlawful
> activity when directed at a secondary employer. Also, in 2011 National
> Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Sheet Metal Workers Local 15, 356 NLRB
> No. 162 (2011) ruled that the inflatable rat did not constitute a
> signal picket, but instead, constituted symbolic speech which is not
> subject to secondary boycott rules. This holding allows the union not
> only to place the inflatable rats at neutral entrances, but also to
> place them at locations where the picketed company is absent. The
> practice of using inflatable rats in union protests may have something
> to do with the usage of the word "rat" to refer to nonunion contractors.

     VS-)

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