Chalk one up for Arizona’s workers and put another black mark up for state legislators obsessed with attacking workers and their unions for their corporate sponsors. A federal judge yesterday ruled 2011 laws on paycheck deception and restricting workers’ right to picket were unconstitutional.

Dozens of Georgia union members urged their state lawmakers to block several anti-worker bills now before the state House and Senate in the Georgia AFL-CIO’s annual Lobby Day Thursday. At the same time, they celebrated the passage of a resolution that honors Hurricane Sandy relief workers from Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 84 and Georgia Power who traveled to New Jersey and elsewhere to help repair and recovery efforts.

I spent so much time on picket lines as a kid that when I thought my dad’s rules were too strict, I would run to build a sign on a stick and try to talk the neighbor kids into marching around the house with me. I learned early on the power of a picket to protest unfair treatment.

That right is more important today than ever. As our economy has shifted toward a more contingent workforce, companies are increasingly hiring workers as part-time or temporary, or labeling them as independent contractors. This leaves workers more vulnerable to abuse while also shielding companies from accountability. When warehouse workers unpacking Walmart goods in a Walmart-owned warehouse were cheated out of their wages, the retail giant responded that those workers were hired through a temporary agency and are not the company’s responsibility.

"Why Picket Lines Matter," by Caitlin Vega, originally appeared on the California Labor Federation's blog Labor's Edge. 

Jennifer Kauffman is an AFL-CIO immigration policy and training associate. These are her thoughts on allies crossing the Hyatt picket line to attend the 2012 Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet (ONA).

Colleagues in the immigration advocacy and DREAM movement have wondered aloud whether journalist Jose Antonio Vargas crossing the picket line was such a bad thing, after all, since he drew the attention of more than 100 journalists to the plight of the Hyatt Hurts campaign workers.

The answer is simply this: Crossing a picket hurts EVERYONE.

Jim Galloway at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog takes a good look at Georgia's proposed law to criminalize picketing by unions and similar groups—in some select places:

Your state legislature is poised to protect the right of certain people to enjoy the peace and tranquility of their homes.

Probably not your home. Definitely not mine. But the homes of “certain” people—that’s the exact word used in the legislation. By which lawmakers mean the homes belonging to business executives, mostly. And only a few of those.

Read the story here.