Bill Text: PA SB1341 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Prohibiting employers from making employment conditional on certain labor organization status; and providing remedies and penalties.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 10-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-04-30 - Referred to LABOR AND INDUSTRY [SB1341 Detail]

Download: Pennsylvania-2009-SB1341-Introduced.html

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PRINTER'S NO. 1917
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE BILL
No. 1341 Session of2010
INTRODUCED BY M. WHITE, FOLMER, YAW, WAUGH, BRUBAKER, PICCOLA, VANCE, SMUCKER, EARLL AND EICHELBERGER, APRIL 30, 2010
REFERRED TO LABOR AND INDUSTRY, APRIL 30, 2010
AN ACT
Prohibiting employers from making employment conditional on
certain labor organization status; and providing remedies and
penalties.
The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:
(1) To require a person to be a member of or not to be a
member of a private organization as a compulsory condition of
work or employment is not in accord with fundamental
principles of individual liberty and freedom of choice.
(2) It is the public policy of this Commonwealth that:
(i) Membership or nonmembership in a labor union
should not be made a condition of the opportunity to work
or to be or remain in the employment of any employer.
(ii) Employees should have the right to form, join,
continue membership in or assist labor organizations and
should equally have the right to refrain from forming,
joining, continuing membership in or assisting labor
organizations.
(iii) Any agreement, express or implied, between
employers and labor organizations, or any practice
whatsoever, which directly or indirectly makes membership
or nonmembership in a labor organization or support or
nonsupport of a labor organization a condition of
employment or continued employment is a violation of
individual liberty and freedom and is against the public
policy of this Commonwealth.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Short title.
This act shall be known and may be cited as the Freedom of
Employment Act.
Section 2. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Labor organization." An organization, or an agency or
employee representation committee, plan or arrangement in which
employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole
or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances,
labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment or
conditions of work.
"Person." An individual or a corporation, association,
company, firm or labor organization.
Section 3. Prohibited conditions of employment.
(a) Membership.--No person shall be required to become or
remain a member of a labor organization as a condition of
employment or continuation of employment.
(b) Abstention from membership.--No person shall be required
to abstain or refrain from membership in a labor organization as
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a condition of employment or continuation of employment.
(c) Dues, fees and charges.--No person shall be required to
pay or refrain from paying any dues, fees or other charges of
any kind to a labor organization as a condition of employment or
continuation of employment.
Section 4. Penalty.
A person who directly or indirectly imposes on another person
any requirement or compulsion prohibited by this act, or who
makes any agreement, written or oral, express or implied, to do
so, or who engages in any lockout, layoff, strike, work
stoppage, slowdown, picketing, boycott or other action or
conduct, the purpose or effect of which is to impose on any
person directly or indirectly any requirement or compulsion
prohibited by this act commits a misdemeanor of the third
degree, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or a term
of imprisonment of not more than six months, or both. Each day
of continued violation shall constitute a separate offense.
Section 5. Injunctive relief.
Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a person
injured or threatened with injury by any action or conduct
prohibited by this act shall be entitled to injunctive relief
therefrom and to damages for any injuries sustained.
Section 6. Repeals.
All acts and parts of acts are repealed insofar as they are
inconsistent with this act.
Section 7. Effective date.
This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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