Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday signed legislation that eliminates exemptions in the law that
allowed those involved in labor disputes to engage in bullying acts
including stalking, harassment and threatening use of a weapon of mass
destruction.
"I believe it is important to allow men and women to
come together and have their voices heard," Wolf said in a news release.
"I also believe that any form of harassment by employees or employers is
unacceptable."
The so-called "union intimidation" law takes effect in 60
days.
Currently, a person involved in a labor dispute, whether
management or organized labor, has some protection from being charged with any
of those three offenses.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Lower Paxton
Twp., passed the House on a near-party line 107-91 vote last week and on a
party-line 30-18 vote in the Senate the week before. Marsico could not be
reached for comment by the time of this post.
Marsico said he was "gratified to see that Gov. Tom
Wolf agreed that removing these exemptions was the right thing to do. No
one should be able to lawfully use the tactics of harassment, stalking or
threatening. The public puts its faith in law enforcement and the
judiciary to apply our criminal laws equally. Labor disputes should not
be held to a different standard."
He said he saw this as a public safety issue, not a labor
issue.
"Peaceful labor activity is unaffected. But if
you call in a bomb threat from a picket line, that is no longer exempt.
Management is no longer exempt if they stalk an employee. And a union
organizer is no longer exempt from criminal prosecution if he or she harasses
workers or managers or their families," Marsico said.
Some saw this legislation as unnecessary and an attack on
labor unions. Others hailed it as a way to stop violence that can arise in
labor disputes.
Matt Brouillette, president of the conservative-leaning
Commonwealth Foundation, has been critical of positions or decisions that Wolf
has taken on a number of issues that he sees as favoring labor unions. But on
this bill, Brouillette suggests Wolf's common sense prevailed.
"Ending legalized union stalking, harassment, and
terrorist threats—behavior that would have landed the average Joe in the
slammer—makes so much sense that even Governor Wolf, the unions' strongest ally
and apologist, had to sign it," he said.
Marsico previously cited examples of union violence that
sparked his interest in introducing the legislation.
Among them was a 2012 incident in Philadelphia where
union members were convicted or pleaded guilty to racketeering charges for a
pattern of criminal behavior against companies that didn't use union labor.
Additionally, Marsico, who chairs the House Judiciary
Committee, cited testimony presented to his committee about a series of violent
incidents that occurred when a Philadelphia company chose not to agree to use
only union labor on a housing project.
Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber
of Business and Industry, acknowledged employers also have engaged in this type
of activity against labor unions and that too has to stop.
"The General Assembly and governor recognized what
this meant to Pennsylvania and the fact that the exceptions should not
exist," Barr said. "It's clearly something that needed to be done and
I applaud the governor and General Assembly for taking it on."
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, three other
states have this exception in their laws – California, Illinois and Nevada.
But not everyone was pleased by the enactment of this
law. Sen. Rob Teplitz, D-Harrisburg, who voted against its passage, called it
unnecessary and overly broad.
"Right now, crimes like stalking and harassment and
intimidation are already crimes but the way the law is written it goes beyond
that and only exempts constitutionally protected activities," he said.
"There are a number of state and federal civil rights and labor law
statutes that are not constitutional provisions and provide statutory
protections that would now be exempted under the reach of this law."
Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO,
called the time the Legislature spent on passing this law a waste especially at
a time when the state is operating without an enacted
budget.
"We have a constitutionally protected right to
strike," he said. "Obviously the motive behind this was here's
another way to have labor unions spend their money instead of educating their
members about legislation"
He envisions scenarios where an employer might say a
union member looked at them funny and considers that harassment so charges get
filed. Bloomingdale pledged to devote resources to fighting such claims but
said it's just unnecessary.
He said the union asked the governor not to sign the law
but "the governor has to make his own decisions .. Look, it ended up on
his desk. The real issue is the Legislature didn't even need to be pursuing
something like that other than to just get us to waste our money in
court."
*This post was updated to say which states still have
these labor dispute exemptions in their laws, according to the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and to include Rep. Ron Marsico's statement.
Source: PennLive
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