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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
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Daily News Editorial Board

Editorial: Save Scabby: The inflatable rat beloved by unions and reviled by management is suddenly under siege

Howyadoin? Name's Scabby. Don't look at me like that. I know, I know: I'm a rat. An inflatable rat.

So what? You should be used to my kind, even to rodents of unusual size like me. You see us often enough outside companies when workers on strike and their unions want to embarrass employers they think are up to labor-busting no-good.

You might think I'm ugly. But free speech can get ugly. For decades, courts have said I've got a First Amendment rights to stand where I like.

Now along comes the general counsel of President Trump's National Labor Relations Board, Peter Robb. He wants me to swallow some poison. Last month in legal papers, the board suddenly started arguing that the 30-year precedent that lets workers blow me up ought to be blown up.

Thankfully someone ratted Robb out. Now, don't let him scurry away.

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