Dive Brief:
- Skanska USA executives in the Portland, OR, area and animal rights activists from No New Animal Lab have reached a tentative agreement after the contractor's employees — including Co-COO David Schmidt and Senior VP Tim Baugus — and their neighbors filed suit over protests in front of their homes, according to the Oregonian.
- Skanska is the contractor building an underground animal research lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, and protest target Schmidt was a signatory to the construction contract.
- The settlement identifies buffer zones and no-contact zones, as well as prohibited activities in which the protesters cannot engage, such as projecting images of suffering animals onto homes, writing chalk messages or using loudspeakers or any other sound amplification above normal conversation levels.
Dive Insight:
The agreement will be in effect until Skanska is done building the facility, which is scheduled to be completed by August 2017.
The protests have prompted the Beaverton City Council and Sherwood City Council, representing the hometowns of Schmidt and Baugus, respectively, to start the process of passing or modifying residential-picketing and noise ordinances, the Oregonian reported.
The first of at least 50 protests began about a year ago at Schmidt’s home in Beaverton and saw protestors yelling through bullhorns as late as 11 p.m., writing slogans on the sidewalk and street with chalk and projecting images onto the house.
The buffer zones around the Schmidt and Baugus homes include a nearly three-block radius, and in addition to the named protestors in the lawsuit not being able to protest or perform prohibited acts there, they can’t encourage others to do so either.
The picketing and protests represent an instance of contractors, hired to build something, caught in the crosshairs of a broader controversy.