Business Has Rare Defeat of Scabby the Rat

Ever since 1989, when unions first started temporarily installing a giant inflated black rat with a scabby belly near companies the unions were targeting for protest, the afflicted companies have tried to get rid of it, usually without success, as the NLRB and courts have long held that the rat is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. Thousands of employers have had to put up with all the negative attention they get when one of the rats, most often 12 feet tall, although they may be as small as six feet or as tall as 20 feet, appears near their premises protesting some labor practice.