Editing Picketing (section)

==Legality==
[[Image:NLRB picketing 2007.jpg|thumb|[[Trade union|Union members]] picketing [[National Labor Relations Board]] rulings outside the agency's [[Washington, D.C.]], headquarters in November 2007.]]

Picketing, as long as it does not cause obstruction to a highway or intimidation, is legal in many countries and in line with [[freedom of assembly]] laws, but many countries have restrictions on the use of picketing.

Legally defined, recognitional picketing is a method of picketing that applies economic pressure to an employer with the specific goal to force the employer to recognise the issues facing employees and address them by bargaining with a union.<ref>52 ''Geo. L. J.'' 248 (1963–1964) "Federal Regulation of Recognition Picketing"; Shawe, Earle K.</ref> In the US, this type of picketing, under Section 8(b)(7)(A) of the [[National Labor Relations Act]], is typically illegal if representation is not relevant or is unquestionable.<ref>{{cite journal |title="Stale" Contract No Bar to Recognitional Picketing |journal=Labor Law Journal |date=June 1066 |volume=17 |issue=6 |page=384 1/2p |url=http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=104&sid=c104b213-f36a-45be-a48e-143c888ef5bd%40sessionmgr112}}</ref>

In the UK mass picketing was made illegal under the [[Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927]], moved by the leaders of what would soon be National Labour, after the [[1926 General Strike]]. Otherwise picketing was banned by the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]-tabled [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1871]] but is decriminalised by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]-tabled [[Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1850_1880.php|title= Timeline:1850–1880 |publisher= TUC history online, Professor Mary Davis, Centre for Trade Union Studies, London Metropolitan University}}</ref> The [[Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992]] gives protection, under civil law, for pickets who are acting in connection with an industrial dispute at or near their workplace who are using their picketing peacefully to obtain or communicate information or persuading any person to work or abstain from working. However, many employers seek specific [[injunction]]s to limit the effect of picketing by their door if they can evidence a high likelihood of intimidation or, in general, on non-peaceful behaviour and/or any that significant numbers of the picketers are or will in all likelihood be non-workers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yourrights.org.uk/your-rights/chapters/the-right-of-peaceful-protest/picketing/picketing.shtml|title=Picketing, The Liberty guide to human rights|date=11 January 2005|publisher=[[Liberty (pressure group)|Liberty]]|access-date=9 July 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060725125237/http://www.yourrights.org.uk/your-rights/chapters/the-right-of-peaceful-protest/picketing/picketing.shtml|archive-date=25 July 2006|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In the US, any strike activity was hard to organise in the early 1900s, but picketing became more common after the [[Norris–La Guardia Act]] of 1932, which limited the ability of employers to gain injunctions to stop strikes, and further legislation to support the right to organise for unions. Mass picketing and secondary picketing was outlawed by the 1947 [[Taft–Hartley Act]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/search/search.php?word=PICKETING&enc=37490 |title=PICKETING |encyclopedia=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia |publisher=Columbia University Press |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311023441/http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/search/search.php?word=PICKETING&enc=37490 |archive-date=2007-03-11}}</ref> Some kinds of pickets are [[freedom of speech in the United States|constitutionally]] protected.<ref>''[[Thornhill v. Alabama]]'' and other cases cited at [[Free speech zone#Notable incidents and court proceedings]]</ref>

Viewing laws against [[stalking]] as potentially inconsistent with labor rights of picketing, the first anti-stalking law of the industrial world, made by [[California|California's]] lawmakers, inserted provisions that disapply many of its protections from "normal labor picketing", which has survived subsequent amendments.<ref>Penal Code s. 646.1</ref>