Rhode Island General Laws Title 28. Labor and Labor Relations § 28-9.5-2. Statement of policy

(a) The protection of the public health, safety, and welfare demands that the full-time state police officers of the state of Rhode Island not be accorded the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. This necessary prohibition does not require the denial to such state employees of other well recognized rights of labor, such as the right to organize, to be represented by an organization of their choice, and the right to bargain collectively concerning wages, rates of pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.

(b) It is declared to be the public policy of this state to accord to the full-time police officers of the state all of the rights of labor other than the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. To provide for the exercise of these rights, a method of arbitration of disputes is established.

(c) The establishment of this method of arbitration shall not in any way, be deemed to be recognition by the state of compulsory arbitration as a superior method of settling labor disputes between employees who possess the right to strike and their employers, but rather is a recognition solely of the necessity to provide some alternative mode of settling disputes where employees must as a matter of public policy be denied the usual right to strike.