Picketing verses Rallying

It is often important to discuss between picketing and non-picketing. Under 8(g) of the Act, in the health care industry a union must give 10 days notice of picketing or loose protection under the Act. California Nurses Association, Advice Memo (June 26, 2008), does a nice job of summarizing the line between picketing and non-picketing. As the NLRB Division of Advice explained:

Here, we conclude that the rally did not constitute
picketing because it did not occur at the entrance to the
hospital and did not involve confrontation or blocking the
entrance. The rally took place far from the hospital
entrance (70 feet away) on a public sidewalk at the
intersection of two streets, with a parking lot separating
the rally participants from the hospital entrance. There
is no evidence that participants blocked the entrance or
otherwise confronted individuals trying to enter the
facility. While the participants here held signs, like in
the Board decision in Kaiser Foundation described above,
the presence of signs is only one indicium of picketing.
It is not determinative where the event takes place far
from the entrance and the participants do not confront
patrons or employees.12 Like the protest in the Advice
decision in Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the
rally here was not in any way confrontational, was located
far from the entrance, and sought to keep the hospital
open. For these reasons, the rally did not constitute
picketing.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein