KRS 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.