PICKLE

Definition

In labor law, PICKLE (also rendered as PICKEL or, in modern usage, PICKET) refers to the stationing of persons at or near the approaches to an employer's place of business during a labor dispute for the purposes of (1) observing and reporting on workers entering or leaving the premises, and (2) exercising such influence as may be available to discourage workers from accepting employment at the struck establishment. The Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) entry for this term is best understood as a variant spelling or typographical rendering of PICKETING, the broader legal concept governing the conduct of workers and labor organizations in placing observers at employer premises during strikes or labor disputes.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A cucumber or other vegetable preserved in brine or vinegar; also, colloquially, a difficult situation or predicament; a mildly mischievous person; a penis (vulgar slang); a children's rundown game. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 does not carry a standalone definition for "pickle" in this sense, directing the reader to "picle," reflecting contemporaneous spelling variation. The gap between common and legal meaning is substantial. In ordinary English, "pickle" carries no labor-law connotation whatsoever. The legal usage found in Black's 2nd Ed. is a product of period spelling inconsistency, not a term of art distinct from "picket." Researchers encountering "pickle" in historical legal sources should treat it as an archaic or variant orthographic form of PICKET or PICKETING rather than as an independent legal concept.

Common Confusion

PICKLE / PICKET / PICKETING: The entry in Black's 2nd Ed. appears under a spelling that reflects late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century orthographic instability in legal printing. Modern labor law uses PICKET (noun) and PICKETING (gerund/noun) exclusively. A researcher finding "pickle" in an early labor-dispute opinion or pleading should not treat it as a distinct legal act or status — it is the same conduct governed by picketing doctrine.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus on early labor law materials should be alert to spelling variants. Black's 2nd Ed. (published 1910) was compiled at a moment when American labor law was in rapid formation and legal vocabulary had not fully stabilized. The entry as it appears in the source material is fragmentary — the definition trails into case citations mid-sentence — suggesting the digitized or transcribed text is a partial capture of a longer PICKETING entry rather than a freestanding PICKLE entry. The case citations embedded in the source text (Beck v. Railway Teamsters' Protective Union, 118 Mich. 497; Cumberland Glass Mfg. Co. v. Glass Bottle Blowers) are real early labor injunction cases and represent the doctrinal universe in which this term operated: a period when courts treated most picketing as tortious or potentially criminal interference with employment, and injunctions against pickets were routine. Those cases, not the dictionary entry itself, are the substantive research resource. If your research touches early-twentieth-century labor disputes, strike injunctions, or the legal status of union activity before the Norris-LaGuardia Act (1932) and the National Labor Relations Act (1935), the vocabulary in primary sources will differ markedly from modern usage. Terms like "pickle," "pickel," and variant forms of "picket" may appear in pleadings, equity decrees, and judicial opinions without consistent spelling.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's 2nd Ed. is the sole historical dictionary source here, and the entry is incomplete as captured. What survives confirms that the term was used to describe surveillance and persuasion activity at employer premises — the two-part function (observation plus influence) that remains central to picketing doctrine today. The case citations point toward a line of authority treating such activity with judicial suspicion, consistent with the era's general hostility to organized labor action in equity courts. No other shelf sources in the historical dictionary corpus carry this spelling variant as a legal term. Bouvier's Law Dictionary and earlier editions do not appear to treat "pickle" as a legal entry. This reinforces the reading that Black's 2nd Ed. entry is a variant transcription of PICKETING rather than an independent headword.

Jurisdictional Note

Early picketing law was almost entirely a creature of state equity jurisdiction. Federal constitutional protection for picketing as a form of expression was not established until the mid-twentieth century. Researchers should not assume that legal standards applicable in one state during the 1890–1935 period transfer to another.

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