133.08 Working people may organize; injunction not to restrain certain acts.

(1) Working people may organize themselves into or carry on labor unions and other associations or organizations to aid their members to become more skillful and efficient workers, the promotion of their general intelligence, the elevation of their character, the regulation of their wages and their hours and conditions of labor, the protection of their individual rights in the prosecution of their trade or trades, the raising of funds for the benefit of sick, disabled, or unemployed members, or the families of deceased members, or for such other object or objects for which working people may lawfully combine, having in view their mutual protection or benefit.

(2) No restraining order or injunction may be granted by any court of this state, in any case between an employer and employees, between employers and employees, between employees or between persons employed and persons seeking employment, involving or growing out of any dispute whatsoever concerning employment, unless necessary to prevent irreparable injury to property or to a property right of the party making the application, for which injury there is no adequate remedy at law, and the property or property right must be described with particularity in the application, which must be in writing and sworn to by the applicant, or by the applicant's agent or attorney. No such restraining order or injunction may be granted except by the circuit court, and then only upon such reasonable notice of application therefor as the court directs by order to show cause, but in no case less than 48 hours, which shall be served upon the party or parties sought to be restrained or enjoined as shall be specified in the order to show cause.

(3) No such restraining order or injunction may prohibit any person or persons, whether singly or in concert, from terminating any relation of employment, or from ceasing to perform any work or labor, or from recommending, advising, or persuading others by peaceful means so to do; or from attending at any place where any such person or persons may lawfully be, for the purpose of peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or from peacefully persuading any person to work or to abstain from working; or from ceasing to patronize or to employ any party to such dispute, or from recommending, advising, or persuading others by peaceful and lawful means so to do; or from paying or giving to, or withholding from, any person engaged in such dispute, any strike benefits or other moneys or things of value; or from peaceably assembling in a lawful manner, and for lawful purposes; or from doing any act or thing which might lawfully be done in the absence of such dispute by any party thereto. Any of the acts specified in this paragraph shall not be considered or held to be violations of any laws of this state.

(4) Whenever in any matter relating to the violation of any such restraining order or injunction an issue of fact shall arise, such issue, whether presented in a civil or a criminal proceeding, shall be tried by a jury, in the same manner as provided for the trial of other cases. All contempt proceedings brought for the alleged violation of any such restraining order or injunction, are independent, original and special proceedings, and shall require a unanimous finding of the jury. The requirement for trial by jury shall not apply to direct contempts committed in the immediate presence of the court.

History: 1977 c. 449; 1979 c. 209, 355.