Extortionate Picketing (29 U.S.C. § 522)

LMRDA Section 602 (29 U.S.C. § 522) prohibits any person from unlawfully and willfully carrying on, or agreeing to carry on, picketing on or about the premises of an employer for the purpose of the personal profit or enrichment of any individual by taking or obtaining any money or other thing of value from such employer against his will or with his consent unless such profit or enrichment comes within the statutory exception for a "bona fide increase in wages or other employee benefits."

The legislative history of this statute explained that it would ". . . make it a criminal offense for a labor organization to conduct 'shakedown' picketing, i.e., picketing with no legitimate purpose but which is to force an employer to 'buy off' the union official involved. The subsection bans picketing to exact from the employer a payment for the enrichment of an individual as distinguished from bona fide picketing, the purpose of which is improvement in wages and working conditions of employees." S. Rep. No. 187, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. (1959) 43, reprinted at 1959 U.S. Code & Admin. News 2360. Accordingly, the statute reaches conduct also punished by the Hobbs Act (18 U.S.C. § 1951) as extortion by the wrongful use of actual or threatened fear of economic harm consisting of picketing.

Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Labor have investigative jurisdiction in regard to this statute pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding dated January 18, 2005, between the Secretary of Labor and the Attorney General.

[updated January 2020]