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Inflatable Rat's Handlers Win in N.J. High Court

February 9, 2009

Free speech and grassroots trade unionism won an important round when the New Jersey Supreme Court on Feb. 5 knocked down a township’s zoning ordinance prohibiting the display of a large inflatable rat by protesting electricians.

The rat, which has been used by Trenton, N.J., Local 269 for six years, was the centerpiece of a 2005 protest against an out-of-area nonunion contractor in Lawrence Township. 

Several years before the protest, the township passed a law that bans banners, inflatable signs and streamers unless they are part of grand openings.

Wayne DeAngelo, the local’s assistant business manager, was fined $100 plus $33 court costs for violating the ordinance. The local appealed the fines, arguing that the township was wrong to consider use of the rat a form of commercial speech, with less constitution protection under the First Amendment.

The rat, says DeAngelo, is important in building community support to leverage businesses to employ union labor.  Sometimes picket signs can be read by motorists, he says.  But in high-speed traffic areas in the union-dense Trenton area, the rat has come to symbolize labor unrest. 

An appeals court panel upheld the fines in 2007, holding that the law protected the public’s health and safety and the community’s image.  The local union appealed to the state’s high court.

In February, the state Supreme Court rejected the township’s claim that the zoning ordinance was “neutral.”  The court asked the township if an inflatable rat, for example, could have been legally used to advertise the movie “Ratatouille,” says DeAngelo.  When the township said, “yes,” the court ruled in the union’s favor. 

DeAngelo has been besieged by reporters asking for comment on the Supreme Court ruling. Newspapers across the country and overseas reported on the case. “Most of the coverage has been favorable,” he says. Labor and community allies have congratulated the local, now facing 20 percent unemployment, on its successful challenge.

The rat is still showing up on picket lines. “We’ve had success applying public pressure on politicians to turn nonunion jobs into union jobs,” says DeAngelo, pointing to an ambulatory hospital facility in Bucks County, Pa., that went from “bad” to “good” after union picketing.

“We are very pleased that New Jersey’s high court has reaffirmed the right of workers to exercise their right to free speech in the fight for good, family-sustaining jobs. The leaders of cities and towns should support raising the wage and benefit standards of their communities, not stand in the way of citizens fighting for economic justice,” says International President Edwin D. Hill.