Federal judge won’t trap the union rat

It may only be New Yorkers who get that headline. I’m a New Yorker, so I smiled when I saw this, from the New York Law Journal:

Judge Declines to Stop Union’s Use of Rat in Protest

Eastern District Judge Joseph Bianco said federal law divested him of jurisdiction to impose an injunction, and that putting large inflatable rats at work sites…

A judge refused to ban a union from using inflatable rats to broadcast its alleged objections to an employer’s hiring of a supervisor who previously ran a non-union business.

After Microtech Contracting Corporation, an asbestos abatement contractor, hired a supervisor with a past of non-union work, Asbestos, Lead, and Hazardous Waste Laborers’ Local 78 began displaying the rat at work sites.

The contractor sued to stop the tactic, but Eastern District Judge Joseph Bianco…denied the contractor’s request for a preliminary injunction on Monday.

If you’ve never encountered the union rat, here, thanks to Wikipedia, are a series of pics. In person, they’re both intimidating (they are gigantic and teeter in a breeze) and endearing (for those of us who love unions), at the same time.

P.S. I’ve never seen the one with the cute pink belly. Makes me want to tickle it.

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