§ 28-9.7-2 - Statement of policy.
SECTION 28-9.7-2
§ 28-9.7-2 Statement of policy. – (a) The protection of the public health, safety and welfare demands that thefull-time correctional officers of the state of Rhode Island not be accordedthe right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. This necessaryprohibition does not, however, require the denial to such state employees ofother well recognized rights of labor, such as the right to organize, to berepresented by an organization of their choice, and the right to bargaincollectively concerning wages, rates of pay, and other terms and conditions ofemployment.
(b) It is hereby declared to be the public policy of thisstate to accord to the full-time correctional officers of the state all of therights of labor other than the right to strike or engage in any work stoppageor slowdown. To provide for the exercise of these rights, a method ofarbitration of disputes is hereby established.
(c) The establishment of this method of arbitration shallnot, however, in any way whatever, be deemed to be recognized by the state ofcompulsory arbitration as a superior method of settling labor disputes betweenemployees who possess the right to strike and their employers, but rather shallbe deemed to be a recognition solely of the necessity to provide somealternative mode of settling disputes where employees must as a matter ofpublic policy be denied the usual right to strike.