§377-4.5  Religious exemption from labororganization membership.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to thecontrary, any employee who is a member of and adheres to established andtraditional tenets or teachings of a bona fide religion, body, or sect whichhas historically held conscientious objections to joining or financiallysupporting labor organizations shall not be required to join or financiallysupport any labor organization as a condition of employment; except that anemployee may be required in a contract between an employees' employer and alabor organization in lieu of periodic dues and initiation fees, to pay sumsequal to the dues and initiation fees to a nonreligious, nonlabor organizationcharitable fund exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the InternalRevenue Code, chosen by an employee from a list of at least three funds,designated in the contract or if the contract fails to designate any funds,then to any fund chosen by the employee.  If any employee who holds conscientiousobjections pursuant to this section requests the labor organization to use thegrievance-arbitration procedure on the employee's behalf, the labororganization is authorized to charge the employee for the reasonable cost ofusing the procedure. [L 1982, c 102, §2; am L 1983, c 124, §9]