Ruling may flatten union rats - BY MONTY PHAN, New York Newsday
Use of the rat in New York goes back to the 1990s. Although the ruling means the rat can still be used during legal picketing, unions want to be able to drag out the big rodent when calling attention to businesses accused of unsafe working conditions or unfair wages.
Local 78 of the Asbestos, Lead, and Hazardous Waste Laborers union has a fleet of six inflatable rats in three sizes -- 15, 20 and 30 feet -- and may have been introduced the practice to New York, said union spokesman Richard Weiss.
Is a rat just a rat? Courts will decide - BY ALISON GRANT, NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
In Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge William Coyne decided a similar case in favor of the rat. Union carpenters had protested against Discount Drug Mart, which was expanding a warehouse with nonunion labor.
'One of the definitions for rat is 'B, a worker who is a scab,'' Coyne said. 'We all know that a scab is a common term by unions in their disputes with management.'