Picket Lines

INTRODUCTION

A great deal has been written about the notorious reluctance of workers to cross picket lines' and the fact that such a refusal is traditional in the American labor movement.3 There is, however, a relatively small number of judicial and administrative decisions delineating the rights of employees upon refusing to cross a picket line.4 The question of an employee's rights upon refusing to cross a picket line turns on the type of picket line involved.5 Where an employee refuses to cross a legal picket line around his own employer's installation, there is little dispute that he is engaging in activity protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act,' whether or not he is a member of the picketing union or the bargaining unit it represents. The more difficult question arises where an employee, while performing his assigned duties, refuses to cross a legal picket line at an installation of another employer. Employee rights in this situation is the topic of this note....