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A tangential example is given by this incident (see Newsroom):

Two more arrests at fracking protest | Environment | theguardian.com

Police at an anti-fracking protest in Balcombe, West Sussex, pushed back demonstrators on Wednesday afternoon to allow the entry of an articulated lorry carrying pipes. It was the first successful delivery of equipment to the site since the protest began last week.

Earlier in the day two people were arrested over the ongoing protests against plans to drill for oil at a site a few miles outside the village.

The pair - a man and a woman - had glued themselves together at the gates of the site in an attempt to prevent machinery from being brought through the gates. Sussex police said the pair had been arrested under section 241 of the Trade Union Labour Relations Act.

Section 241:

Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992

241 Intimidation or annoyance by violence or otherwise.E+W+S

(1)A person commits an offence who, with a view to compelling another person to abstain from doing or to do any act which that person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and without legal authority--

(a)uses violence to or intimidates that person or his [F1spouse or civil partner]F1 or children, or injures his property,

(b)persistently follows that person about from place to place,

(c)hides any tools, clothes or other property owned or used by that person, or deprives him of or hinders him in the use thereof,

(d)watches or besets the house or other place where that person resides, works, carries on business or happens to be, or the approach to any such house or place, or

(e)follows that person with two or more other persons in a disorderly manner in or through any street or road.

(2)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or both.

As far as I can see, no trade unions are involved, but the "right to work" is being invoked to quash any kind of determined protest or picketing.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 02:12:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Nothing in that law as written prevents an ordinary picket line.

And of course, unknown parties with no provable affiliation to the union, who take some measure of care to not get caught have much wider latitude in their methods.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 01:05:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
An "ordinary picket line", that the law pretends to protect (sic), is one that has no effect.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 02:10:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It gathers attention and permits a platform for disseminating propaganda. And if you're a little smart about it, it also gathers intelligence. For customer-facing locations, they can directly impact the topline without ever resulting in work stoppages.

Finally, one should not forget that showing up and simply standing around in union colors sends a message to prospective recruits: "We are here, and we are many." Same principle as is behind election posters and sticker campaigns.

It won't stop work, but picket lines are not a good tool for stopping work unless you are willing to go full 19th century. And, to be blunt, there aren't enough starving people in our cities to make that particular part of the 19th century playbook politically viable.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 03:42:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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