the.com/picket line
A sidewalk that turns coworkers into a wall employers can't walk through.
means A line of striking workers stationed outside a workplace to protest, publicize their cause, and discourage others from entering.
from From 'picket,' a pointed wooden stake driven into the ground — first used for military outposts where soldiers stood sentry duty, watching for the enemy. Labor borrowed the word in the 1800s: strikers became human stakes planted outside a workplace, standing guard not against invaders but against replacement workers and business as usual.
- origin
- military term for a guard outpost
- legal shield
- peaceful picketing is protected US labor law
- crossing it
- the ultimate workplace betrayal, literally and symbolically
- leverage
- costs employers money and public image, not just morale