34-19-1. Declaration of policy.
In the interpretation and application of this chapter, the public policy of this state is
declared as follows:
(1) It shall not be unlawful for employees to organize themselves into or carry on labor
unions for the purpose of lessening hours of labor, increasing wages, bettering the conditions of
members, or carrying out the legitimate purposes of such organizations as freely as they could do
if acting singly.
(2) The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing
contained in the antitrust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor,
agricultural or horticultural organizations, instituted for the purpose of mutual help and not having
capital stock or conducted for profit, or to forbid or restrain individual members of such
organizations from lawfully carrying out the legitimate object thereof; nor shall such
organizations or membership in them be held to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in
restraint of trade under the antitrust laws.
(3) Negotiations of terms and conditions of labor should result from voluntary agreement
between employer and employee. Governmental authority has permitted and encouraged
employers to organize in the corporate and other forms of capital control. In dealing with such
employers the individual unorganized worker is helpless to exercise actual liberty of contract and
to protect his freedom of labor and thereby to obtain acceptable terms and conditions of
employment. Therefore, it is necessary that the individual employee have full freedom of
association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of his own choosing to negotiate
the terms and conditions of his employment, and that he shall be free from the interference,
restraint or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such
representatives or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective
bargaining or their mutual aid or protection.
Enacted by Chapter 85, 1969 General Session
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Last revised: Thursday, May 28, 2009