Unionistas are all aflutter over a bill working its way through the Georgia legislature that would ban protests in front of private residences. Georgia Senate Bill 469 would amend existing Georgia code that already prohibits mass picketing to specifically outlaw the picketing of private residences that “has or intends the effect of interfering with the resident’s right to quiet enjoyment, or when such targeted picketing has or intends the effect of violence or intimidation.” The bill would fine individuals $1000 a day – and organizations that sponsor such protests $10,000 a day – if a court order to stop is ignored. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce drafted the bill as a response to unions’ increased use of disruptive demonstrations outside the homes of corporate executives. (The Atlanta area is home to fourteen Fortune 500 companies, second only to New York City and Houston, and thirty-two members of the Fortune 1000.) Although unions are posturing around the free speech issue, another provision tucked in the bill is no doubt what’s costing the state’s union bosses the most lost sleep. The bill would also require all Georgia union members put in writing every year their desire to continue to pay union dues, circumventing the sleazy “annual auto-renewal” mechanism built into most dues check-off cards. After hours of hyperbolic union testimony last week, Georgia lawmakers did strike the provision that made it a felony to “conspire to commit criminal trespass” reducing violation of the new statute to a “high and aggravated misdemeanor.” However opponents like Martin Luther King III are still arguing that the bill infringes “on the people’s right to free speech and assemble peaceably.” (In front of your house while scaring the daylights out of your spouse, neighbors, dog and kids…but hey, that’s what ya’ll get for being rich.) Ironically, two opponents of the bill had to be led by police from committee chambers last week after they refused to stop shouting down legislators.
