A bill to limit mass picketing outside private residences has garnered vocal opposition from community leaders, who issued a call Thursday to organize and defeat it.
Martin Luther King III joined with 20 labor and community organizations Thursday, including state AFL-CIO President Charlie Flemming and the Georgia ACLU, to ask lawmakers to drop the proposal. King said the law would have devastated the civil rights movement had it been enacted decades ago. Fulton County Sheriff Ted Jackson has also written the bill's sponsor to express concerns, saying it would waste taxpayer money and his officers' time.
Senate Bill 469 would fine individuals $1,000 a day -- and organizations as much as $10,000 as day -- if they ignore court orders to stop their protests. It would also require employees to put into writing every year that they want to pay union dues or organizational fees through paycheck deductions.
Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, sponsored the bill. He said the language was “content neutral” and would not infringe on people’s rights.
The bill, drafted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, passed unanimously through the Senate Insurance and Labor Committee on Tuesday despite nearly an hour of testimony -- mostly by union members, advocacy groups and individuals who opposed to the bill. Committee members made one change, making it a “high and aggravated” misdemeanor and not a felony for someone convicted of conspiring to commit criminal trespass.
Two of the bill’s opponents were escorted by police from the meeting after the vote, as shouting erupted in the standing-room-only crowd. Those who testified against the bill said it infringed on people’s rights to free speech and to assemble peaceably.
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