How A Beloved Giant Rat Won Free Speech Rights

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/06/ [login to see] /how-a-beloved-giant-rat-won-free-speech-rights
Acy Wartsbaugh, an organizer from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, and a couple of construction workers are protesting on a sidewalk in Chicago in late July. They're flanked by a 12-foot-tall inflatable rat named "Scabby." It has pointy teeth, red eyes and depictions of oozing, pus-filled scabs on its belly.

According to a recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board, this giant rat — and its brethren across the country — now have free speech rights, too. Giant inflatable rats have been used for decades as a widely recognized symbol of a labor dispute, but last year, the board signaled it could be persuaded to outlaw their use in certain situations.

Wartsbaugh's union, the Local 150, claims it invented Scabby to protest labor issues almost three decades ago. The term "scab" is slang used by unions to describe strikebreakers.

It started with a simple rat drawing on a protest sign. It elicited so many questions from passersby that the union started making rat costumes for members to scamper around in. The costumes were hot and impractical. So they commissioned giant inflatables, inspired by ones on used car lots surrounding the union hall.