Blow-up Rats Face Extermination - By Darren Dahl, Inc. Magazine
Business owners may finally be winning the war against rats--giant inflatable rats, that is. For years, union members have inflated glowering pests--some as tall as 30 feet--in front of businesses and construction sites where nonunion labor is employed. But an administrative law judge in New York recently ruled that displaying a blow-up rat violates labor law.
Here's the explanation: Picketing is legal when members of a union are protesting safety standards or wages; so is distributing handbills. But intimidating workers, delivery people, or customers from entering a place of business where no job action has been declared is illegal. In his decision, Judge Steven Davis wrote that the rat did send 'a signal to those who approached the entrance that a labor dispute was occurring'--and that the signal constituted unlawful intimidation.