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The Florida Senate

2019 Florida Statutes

Title XXXI LABOR
Chapter 447 LABOR ORGANIZATIONS Entire Chapter
SECTION 09
Right of franchise preserved; penalties.
F.S. 447.09
447.09 Right of franchise preserved; penalties.—It shall be unlawful for any person:
(1) To interfere with or prevent the right of franchise of any member of a labor organization. The right of franchise shall include the right of an employee to make complaint, file charges, give information or testimony concerning the violations of this chapter, or the petitioning to the union regarding any grievance he or she may have concerning membership or employment, or the making known facts concerning such grievance or violations of law to any public officials, and the right of free petition, lawful assemblage and free speech.
(2) To prohibit or prevent any election of the officers of any labor organization.
(3) To participate in any strike, walkout, or cessation of work or continuation thereof without the same being authorized by a majority vote of the employees to be governed thereby; provided, that this shall not prohibit any person from terminating his or her employment of his or her own volition.
(4) To conduct any election referred to in subsection (3) of this section without a secret ballot.
(5) To charge, receive, or retain any dues, assessments or other charges in excess of, or not authorized by, the constitution or bylaws of any labor organization.
(6) To act as a business agent without having obtained and possessing a valid and subsisting license or permit.
(7) To solicit membership for or to act as a representative of an existing labor organization without authority of such labor organization to do so.
(8) To make any false statement in an application for a license.
(9) To seize or occupy property unlawfully during the existence of a labor dispute.
(10) To cause any cessation of work or interference with the progress of work by reason of any jurisdictional dispute, grievance or disagreement between or within labor organizations.
(11) To coerce or intimidate any employee in the enjoyment of legal rights, including those guaranteed in s. 447.03; to coerce or intimidate any elected or appointed public official; or to intimidate the family, picket the domicile, or injure the person or property of such employee or public official, or his or her family.
(12) To picket beyond the area of the industry or employment within which a labor dispute arises.
(13) To engage in picketing by force and violence, or to picket in such a manner as to prevent ingress and egress to and from any premises, or to picket other than in a reasonable and peaceable manner.
(14) To solicit advertising in the name of a labor organization without the written permission of such organization.
(15) To undertake through the medium of a card, circular, pamphlet, newspaper or any other medium whatsoever, or by any holding out to the public as officially representing a labor organization without the written authority or contract with such labor organization. Any publication claiming endorsement by a labor organization shall list in such publication the name and address of the organization or organizations endorsing same.
History.—s. 9, ch. 21968, 1943; s. 1, ch. 65-355; s. 2, ch. 77-343; s. 150, ch. 97-103.
Note.—Former s. 481.09.