Menu Close

What is a picket line?

What is a picket line?

A picket line is the description given to those who gather outside or near the entrance of the workplace. These include striking workers, workers locked out by their employer and trade union representatives.

What is it called when you cross a picket line?

A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. “Strikebreakers” may also refer to workers (union members or not) who cross picket lines to work.

What does never cross a picket line mean?

Your decision is a matter of ethics and loyalty. Honoring a picket line shows your support for the picketing workers, their union, and the labor movement as a whole. Refusing to cross a picket line tells the employer that unless they end their dispute with the employees there will be no business as usual.

What happens if someone crosses the picket line?

Someone who crosses a picket line could face “appropriate charges” by the CTU executive board and then go through a judicial process akin to a trial. If found guilty, scabs could be fined, or even expelled.

What do you do on a picket line?

Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (“crossing the picket line”), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause.

What happens if someone crosses a picket line?

What happens if a teacher crosses the picket line?

A “scab,” as CTU defines it, is anyone who crosses picket lines to go to work. “The action of scabs undermines our strength and solidarity,” the union states on its website. If the accused is found guilty, they may be suspended or expelled from the union.

Is it bad to cross a picket line?

Crossing or not crossing a picket line can be a highly personal decision for an employee. Crossing the line can result in harassment from picketing co-workers and, in some cases, threats of violence. But honoring the picket line can leave employees feeling vulnerable about financial and job security.

Is it legal for the workers to picket?

It’s legal to do pickets. Workers who belong to the trade union and who have a trade dispute with their employer have the right to picket at or near their place of work. The purpose of picketing is to publicize the worker’s dispute with their employer who are not directly involved and to the public.

What does picket line mean in American English?

The van drivers refused to cross the picket line (= to go past the pickets). “picket line” in American English. › a group of people holding signs to show that they are not working and are having a disagreement with their employer: Truck drivers refused to cross the picket line.

What do you call a person who crosses the picket line?

Anyone who does this literally has to cross the picket lines, and they usually are called scabs. Scabs can be union members who decide to work instead of striking, or they can be non-union workers specially hired by the employer to fill the positions of the striking workers.

What does it mean to picket at work?

A picket line is where workers and union reps (‘picketers’ or ‘pickets’) stand outside a workplace to tell other people why they are striking. Pickets may also ask people not to: Pickets must not prevent people from going to work or doing their usual work if they want to do so.

What’s the difference between going on strike and picketing?

Going on strike and picketing. A picket line is where workers and union reps (‘picketers’ or ‘pickets’) stand outside a workplace to tell other people why they are striking. Pickets may also ask people not to: Pickets must not prevent people from going to work or doing their usual work if they want to do so.