# Title 34 — Labor and Employment

## Chapter 34-08 — Labor Disputes and Court Proceedings Therein

### § 34-08-01. Definitions.

In this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:
1. A "case" must be held to involve or to grow out of a labor dispute when such case
involves persons who are engaged in the same industry, trade, craft, or occupation, or
who have a direct or indirect interest therein, or who are employees of the same
employer or who are members of the same or of an affiliated organization of
employers or employees, whether such dispute is:
a. Between one or more employers or associations of employers, and one or more
employees or associations of employees.
b. Between one or more employers or associations of employers, and one or more
employers or associations of employers.
c. Between one or more employees or associations of employees, and one or more
employees or associations of employees; or when such case involves any
conflicting or competing interests of persons participating or interested in a labor
dispute.
2. "Labor dispute" includes any controversy concerning terms or conditions of
employment or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating,
fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment
whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relationship of employer and
employee.
3. A "person" or "association" must be held to be a person or association participating or
interested in a labor dispute if relief is sought against the person or association and if
the person or association:
a. Is engaged in the same industry, trade, craft, or occupation in which such dispute
occurs;
b. Has a direct or indirect interest in such dispute; or
c. Is a member, officer, or agent of any association composed in whole or in part of
employers or employees engaged in the trade, industry, craft, or occupation in
which such dispute occurs.
4. "Strike" means the temporary stoppage of work by the concerted action of two or more
employees as a result of a labor dispute.
### § 34-08-02. Declaration of public policy.

For the purpose of the interpretation of the provisions of this chapter, the public policy of this
state is declared to be that a worker of this state must be free to decline to associate with the
worker's fellow workers, but that the worker also has full freedom of association,
self-organization, and designation of representatives of the worker's own choosing to negotiate
the terms and conditions of the worker's employment, and that the worker is free in such
matters, as well as in other concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other
mutual aid or protection, from interference, restraint, or coercion by employers of labor or their
agents.
### § 34-08-03. Restriction on granting of preventive relief by courts in labor disputes.

No court of this state may issue any restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction
in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute except in strict conformity with the
provisions of this chapter. No such restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction may
be issued contrary to the public policy declared in this chapter.
### § 34-08-04. Undertaking or promise to join or resign from labor organization not

enforceable.
Any undertaking or promise, whether written or oral, express or implied, constituting or
contained in any contract or agreement of hiring or employment between any individual, firm,

company, association, corporation, or limited liability company and any employee or prospective
employee of the same, whereby:
1. Either party to such contract or agreement undertakes or promises not to join,
become, or remain a member of any labor organization or of any employer
organization; or
2. Either party to such contract or agreement undertakes or promises that that party will
withdraw from an employment relationship in the event that that party joins, becomes,
or remains a member of any labor organization or of any employer organization, and
any other undertaking or promise which is in conflict with the public policy of this state
as declared in this chapter,
is not enforceable in any court of this state and does not afford any basis for the granting of
legal or equitable relief in any such court.
### § 34-08-05. Acts which may not be enjoined or restrained.

No court of this state may issue any restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction
in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute to prohibit any person or persons
participating or interested in such dispute from doing, whether singly or in concert, any of the
following acts:
1. Ceasing or refusing to perform any work or to remain in any employment relationship.
2. Becoming or remaining a member of any labor organization or of any employer
organization.
3. Paying or giving to, or withholding from, any person participating or interested in such
labor dispute, any strike or unemployment benefits or insurance or other moneys or
things of value.
4. By all lawful means, aiding any person participating or interested in any labor dispute
who is being proceeded against in, or who is prosecuting, any action or suit in any
court of the United States or of any state.
5. Giving publicity to the existence of, or the facts involved in, any labor dispute, whether
by advertising, speaking, patrolling, or by any other method not involving fraud or
violence.
6. Assembling peaceably to act or to organize to act, in promotion of their interests in a
labor dispute.
7. Advising or notifying any person of an intention to do any of the acts specified in this
section.
8. Agreeing with other persons to do, or not to do, any of the acts specified in this
section.
9. Advising, urging, or otherwise causing or inducing, without fraud or violence, any of the
acts specified in this section, regardless of the existence of any undertaking or
promise of the kind described in section 34-08-04.
### § 34-08-06. Labor dispute not an unlawful combination or conspiracy.

No court of this state may issue a restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction
upon the ground that any of the persons participating or interested in a labor dispute constitute,
or are engaged in, an unlawful combination or conspiracy because of the doing in concert of any
of the acts enumerated in section 34-08-05.
### § 34-08-07. Basis upon which restraining order or injunction may be issued.

No court of this state may issue a restraining order or a temporary or permanent injunction
in any case involving or growing out of a labor dispute except after hearing the testimony of
witnesses in open court in support of the allegations of a complaint made under oath and the
testimony offered in opposition thereto, and the granting to opposing parties of the right to
cross-examine such witnesses, and except after the court has made and filed with the records
in the case findings of fact to the effect that:
1. Unlawful acts have been threatened and will be committed, or have been committed
and will be continued, unless restrained;

2. Substantial irreparable injury to complainant's property will follow;
3. As to each item of relief granted, greater injury will be inflicted upon complainant by
the denial of relief than will be inflicted upon defendants by the granting of relief; and
4. Complainant has no adequate remedy at law.
No such restraining order or injunction may be issued on account of any threat or unlawful act
except against a person, association, or organization making the threat or committing the
unlawful act or authorizing or ratifying the same with actual knowledge thereof. Every restraining
order or injunction granted in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute must include
only a prohibition of such specific act or acts as may be expressly complained of in the
complaint filed in such case and as shall be expressly included in the findings of fact.
### § 34-08-08. Hearing required - Notice - When temporary order without notice may issue.

The hearing required under the provisions of section 34-08-07 must be held only after due
and personal notice thereof has been given, in such manner as the court shall direct, to all
known persons against whom relief is sought and also to the chief police officer of the county
and city within which the unlawful acts have been threatened or committed. If a complainant
alleges, however, that unless a temporary restraining order is issued without notice, a
substantial and irreparable injury to complainant's property will be unavoidable, such a
temporary restraining order may be issued upon testimony under oath, sufficient, if sustained, to
justify the court in issuing a temporary injunction upon a hearing after notice. Such a temporary
restraining order becomes void at the expiration of five days. No temporary restraining order or
injunction may be issued except on condition that complainant first shall file an undertaking with
adequate security in an amount to be fixed by the court sufficient to recompense those enjoined
for any loss, expense, or damage caused by the improvident or erroneous issuance of such
order or injunction, including all reasonable costs, expenses, and a reasonable attorney's fee,
incurred in the defense against the order or against the granting of any injunctive relief sought in
the same proceeding and subsequently denied by the court.
### § 34-08-09. Judgment may be entered on undertaking - Notice required.

The undertaking mentioned in section 34-08-08 constitutes an agreement entered into by
the complainant and the complainant's surety upon which a judgment may be rendered against
the complainant and the complainant's surety in the same proceeding in which such undertaking
is filed, and such complainant and surety, by filing the undertaking, submit themselves to the
jurisdiction of the court for such purpose. Such judgment shall be rendered only after a hearing
to assess damages, and the complainant and the complainant's surety must have reasonable
notice of such hearing. Nothing contained in this section precludes any party having a claim for
relief upon such undertaking from pursuing the party's ordinary remedy by suit at law.
### § 34-08-10. Review by supreme court of order granting or denying temporary

injunction.
Whenever any court of this state issues or denies a temporary injunction in a case involving
or growing out of a labor dispute, such court, upon the request of any party to the proceeding
and the filing by that party of a statutory cost bond, shall certify the record of the case to the
supreme court of this state as in other civil cases for review by such court. The appeal must be
heard by the supreme court and the temporary injunctive order must be affirmed, modified, or
set aside by such court with the greatest possible expedition, and such appeal must have
precedence over all other matters except older matters of the same character.
### § 34-08-11. Jury trial on contempt charge - Exceptions.

In all cases arising under this chapter in which a person is charged with contempt in a court
of this state, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury,
except when the contempt is alleged to have been committed in the presence of the court or so
near thereto as to interfere directly with the administration of justice, or when the alleged
contempt is the misbehavior, misconduct, or disobedience of any officer of the court in respect
to a writ, order, or process of the court.

### § 34-08-12. Change of judge to hear contempt charge - Demand required.

The defendant in any proceeding for contempt of court arising out of matters covered by the
provisions of this chapter may file with the court, prior to the hearing in such proceeding, a
demand for the retirement of the judge sitting in the proceeding if:
1. The contempt is alleged to have arisen from an attack upon the character or conduct
of such judge; and
2. The attack which is alleged to be the basis of such proceeding occurred elsewhere
than in the presence of the court or so near thereto as to interfere directly with the
administration of justice.
Upon the filing of such demand, the judge shall proceed no further in the matter and another
judge must be designated by the supreme court to hear the same.
### § 34-08-13. Member or officer of an organization or association not liable for agents'

acts - Exception.
No officer or member of any association or organization, and no association or organization,
participating or interested in a labor dispute, may be held responsible or liable in any court of
this state for the unlawful acts of individual officers, members, or agents except upon clear proof
of actual participation in, or actual authorization of, such acts, or of ratification of such acts, after
actual knowledge thereof.
### § 34-08-14. Mediators - Appointment - Functions - Compensation.

The state labor commissioner has power to act as mediator, or to appoint any competent,
impartial, disinterested person to act as mediator, in any labor dispute either upon the
commissioner's own initiative or upon the request of one of the parties to the dispute. It is the
function of such mediator to bring the parties together voluntarily under such favorable auspices
as will tend to effectuate settlement of the dispute, but neither the mediator nor the
commissioner has any power of compulsion in mediation proceedings. The commissioner shall
provide necessary expenses for such mediators, other than for the commissioner or the
commissioner's deputy, as the commissioner may appoint, under reasonable compensation plus
per diem expenses for each such mediator, and prescribe reasonable rules of procedure for
such mediators.
