Unions Allowed to Stalk, Harrass, Threaten with WMDs

In August we told you about a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report that was pretty embarrassing for Pennsylvania. The report highlighted special protection for labor unions on activities that would be criminal if anyone else were doing them, such as stalking.

It turns out, stalking isn’t the only crime labor unions get a pass on. Pennsylvania’s criminal code, Title 18, also exempts organized labor from responsibility for harrassment and…threatening to use weapons of mass destruction.

In the statute, a weapon of mass destruction counts as any “bomb, biological agent, chemical agent or nuclear agent.”  It is illegal to call in a bomb threat, or suggest you have a nuclear warhead, or like Marvin the Martian, threaten to destroy the earth with your space modulator.  That is, unless you are in a labor dispute—in which case, that behavior is perfectly acceptable.

In light of the U.S. Chamber report, Rep. Ron Miller (R-York) is introducing reforms to the Pennsylvania criminal code that would get rid of these needless protections. There’s no reason a “party to a labor dispute” should be exempt from laws meant to protect Pennsylvanians—and especially workers—from threatening behavior or even injury.