Keeping us safe from picket lines

Curb Mass Picketing: Georgia Model Legislation

While we are all protective of the exercise of free speech, some limitations are often necessary to protect the health and safety of others. Some protests have escalated from peaceful demonstrations to efforts specifically designed to harm either a person or their business and have put in danger the welfare of the targets as well as unintended members of the public. As such, policy makers have begun to enact laws designed to protect citizens from the excesses of some protests and other street theater. A bill was recently introduced on Georgia to put some limited retractions on mass picketing to ensure the safety of innocent bystanders, neighbors and customers.

TheNation.com has discovered that Worker Center Watch was registered by the former head lobbyist for Walmart. Parquet Public Affairs, a Florida-based government relations and crisis management firm for retailers and fast food companies, registered the Worker Center Watch website.

The firm is led by Joseph Kefauver, formerly the president of public affairs for Walmart and government relations director for Darden Restaurants. Throughout the year, Parquet executives have toured the country, giving lectures to business groups on how to combat the rise of what has been called “alt-labor.” At a presentation in October for the National Retail Federation, a trade group for companies like Nordstrom and Nike, Kefauver’s presentation listed protections against wage theft, a good minimum wage and mandated paid time off as the type of legislative demands influenced by the worker center protesters.