Increase In Rat Population Predicted

These days, a union protest or picket that doesn't include a 16-foot inflatable rat, well, just isn't really a protest. Expect to see more of them after the Board's decision yesterday in Brandon Regional Medical Center (pdf). (For an enormous compilation of rat photos, see this link). The Board held that the ubiquitous rat may be used not only to protest at a site of the employer with whom the union has a labor dispute, but also at those of "secondary" employers who do business with the primary employer.

In this case, the union had a dispute with Massey Metals and its temp firm WTS, which was providing nonunion employees to do sheet metal work at the Brandon Regional Medical Center, where Massey was constructing an addition. The union inflated the rat and positioned it 100 feet from the front door of the hospital, and union members handed out leaflets. One union member stood near the hospital's vehicle entrance and held out the leaflet with both hands to