I think at least these days, usage of the term can include customers. For example, this from the University of Maine's Bureau of Labor Education: "Customers may refuse to cross a picket line and picketers have the right to ask customers to honor their picket but should not intimidate, block customer access, disparage a company’s product, or say anything that is untrue or casts the product in a false or misleading light."
Or this, from the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee: "Lastly, customers also have the right to honor the picket line and arguably have the most important role in influencing employers’ decisions, outside of the workers themselves."
Or this, from NYT writer: "Having walked a picket line before, I try not to cross anyone else’s. The W and its parent company, Marriott, know there are lots of people like me. So why hadn’t they disclosed in advance what would greet me upon arrival?"
[1] https://umaine.edu/ble/wp-content/uploads/sites/181/2014/11/...
[2] https://workerorganizing.org/how-to-honor-the-picket-line-an...
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/your-money/should-hotels-...
Or this, from the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee: "Lastly, customers also have the right to honor the picket line and arguably have the most important role in influencing employers’ decisions, outside of the workers themselves."
Or this, from NYT writer: "Having walked a picket line before, I try not to cross anyone else’s. The W and its parent company, Marriott, know there are lots of people like me. So why hadn’t they disclosed in advance what would greet me upon arrival?"
[1] https://umaine.edu/ble/wp-content/uploads/sites/181/2014/11/...
[2] https://workerorganizing.org/how-to-honor-the-picket-line-an...
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/your-money/should-hotels-...