44-818. Agricultural employment relations; declaration of public policy. Experience has demonstrated that the lack of orderly procedures to meet and confer has contributed to certain problems in the agriculture industry, including secondary boycotts and work discrepancies during critical periods, which promote strife and pose a threat to the public interest and the free flow of commerce. Recognizing the unique nature of the agricultural industry, including the public dependence upon its vital products, it is necessary to establish special provisions so that the right to organize and to be represented in meet and confer relationships with agricultural employers may be assured to agricultural employees without undue injury to the public interest.

It is further recognized that agricultural employers should be protected from certain practices engaged in by some labor organizations, their officers and members, which burden or obstruct commerce, thereby preventing the free flow of agricultural products.

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state of Kansas to eliminate the cause of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce by encouraging farmers and agricultural employees represented by employee organizations to resolve labor disputes through meeting and conferring in good faith and to protect the exercise by agricultural workers of full freedom of association, self-organization and designation of representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment.

History: L. 1972, ch. 193, § 1; July 1.