Victoriano v.

Elizalde Rope Workers Union, 59 SCRA

Facts:
Plaintiff is a member of the Elizalde Rope Workers Union who later resigned
from his affiliation to the said union by reason of the prohibition of his religion for its
members to become affiliated with any labor organization. The union has subsisting
closed shop agreement in their collective bargaining agreement with their employer
that all permanent employees of the company must be a member of the union and
later was amended by Republic Act No. 3350 with the provision stating "but such
agreement shall not cover members of any religious sects which prohibit affiliation of
their members in any such labor organization". Upon his resignation, the union wrote
a letter to the company to separate the plaintiff from the service after which he was
informed by the company that unless he makes a satisfactory arrangement with the
union he will be dismissed from the service. The union contends that RA 3350
impairs obligation of contract stipulated in their CBA and discriminatorily favors
religious sects in providing exemption to be affiliated with any labor unions.

Issue:
Whether or not Republic Act 3350 impairs the right to form association.

Ruling:
No. RA No. 3350 does not impair the rights to form association. The court
held that what the Constitution and the Industrial Peace Act recognize and guarantee
is the "right" to form or join associations which involves two broad notions, first,
liberty or freedom, i.e., the absence of legal restraint, whereby an employee may act
for himself without being prevented by law; and second, power, whereby an
employee may join or refrain from joining an association.

Principle:
The right to join a union includes the right to abstain from joining any union.
The exceptions provided by the assailed Republic Act is that members of said
religious sects cannot be compelled or coerced to join labor unions even when said
unions have closed shop agreements with the employers; that in spite of any closed
shop agreement, members of said religious sects cannot be refused employment or
dismissed from their jobs on the sole ground that they are not members of the
collective bargaining union. Thus this exception does not infringe upon the
constitutional provision on freedom of association but instead reinforces it.