KRS § 336.130 Employees may organize, bargain collectively, strike, picket -- Protection of employees -- Conduct prohibited -- Effect of violence or injury to person or property.

336.130 Employees may organize, bargain collectively, strike, picket -- Protection of employees -- Conduct prohibited -- Effect of violence or injury to person or property. (1) Employees may, free from restraint or coercion by the employers or their agents, associate collectively for self-organization and designate collectively representatives of their own choosing to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment to effectively promote their own rights and general welfare. Employees, collectively and individually, may strike, engage in peaceful picketing, and assemble collectively for peaceful purposes, except that no public employee, collectively or individually, may engage in a strike or a work stoppage. Nothing in this statute and KRS 65.015, 67A.6904, 67C.406, 70.262, 78.470, 78.480, 336.132, 336.134, 336.180, 336.990, and 345.050 shall be construed as altering, amending, granting, or removing the rights of public employees to associate collectively for self-organization and designate collectively representatives of their own choosing to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment to effectively promote their own rights and general welfare. (2) Neither employers or their agents nor employees or associations, organizations or groups of employees shall engage or be permitted to engage in unfair or illegal acts or practices or resort to violence, intimidation, threats or coercion. (3) (a) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section or any provision of the Kentucky Revised Statutes to the contrary, no employee shall be required, as a condition of employment or continuation of employment, to: 1. Become or remain a member of a labor organization; 2. Pay any dues, fees, assessments, or other similar charges of any kind or amount to a labor organization; or 3. Pay to any charity or other third party, in lieu of these payments, any amount equivalent to or pro rata portion of dues, fees, assessments, or other charges required of a labor organization. (b) As used in this subsection, the term "employee" means any person employed by or suffered or permitted to work for a public or private employer. (4) The secretary of the Education and Labor Cabinet or his or her representative shall investigate complaints of violations or threatened violations of subsection (3) of this section and may initiate enforcement of a criminal penalty by causing a complaint to be filed with the appropriate local prosecutor and ensure effective enforcement. (5) Except in instances where violence, personal injury, or damage to property have occurred and such occurrence is supported by an affidavit setting forth the facts and circumstances surrounding such incidents, the employees and their agents shall not be restrained or enjoined from exercising the rights granted them in subsection (1) of this section without a hearing first being held, unless the employees or their agents are engaged in a strike in violation of a "no strike" clause in their labor contract. (6) Submission of a false affidavit concerning violence, personal injury, or damage to property shall constitute a violation of KRS 523.030. In the absence of any such affidavit alleging violence, personal injury, or damage injunctions shall be issued only by a Circuit Judge or other justice or judge acting as a Circuit Judge pursuant to law. Effective:July 1, 2022 History: Amended 2022 Ky. Acts ch. 236, sec. 113, effective July 1, 2022. -- Amended 2017 Ky. Acts ch. 1, sec. 1, effective January 9, 2017. -- Amended 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 134, sec. 1, effective June 17, 1978. -- Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. Stat. sec. 1599c-28.