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I know of no policemen strikes. Perhaps
you do, but I do not. I understand that all
contracts reached with police contain no
strike clauses and this is true also of all
the essential fields.
There has been, as I think I stated ear-
lier, no instance where an organized public
employees group struck. The instances
where strikes occur is where they are
striking in order to get what this consti-
tutional provision would guarantee to them.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: Delegate
Bothe, I would like to go back over this
question a little further where you indi-
cated that the General Assembly may pass
any sort of legislation concerning em-
ployees and their right to organize, their
wage standards, and so on.
Now, is it not true throughout the whole
history of labor legislation that the courts
have been very conservative in their view
of legislation without some constitutional
provision?
For example, is it not true that the
workmen's compensation acts have been
struck down time after time because of
lack of some constitutional provision in the
state constitution? It occurred in Oregon,
it occurred in New York, it occurred in
half a dozen other states, did it not?
DELEGATE BOTHE: Delegate Ben-
nett, I do not know if this is true because
of a state constitution. I know of innu-
merable situations in which welfare legis-
lation, if you want to call it that, was dis-
covered to be unconstitutional, and this
goes back to the days between Dred Scott
and Jones and Laughlin.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: And the yel-
low dog concept. What I am trying to say
is I do not believe, nor is it true, that the
General Assembly does not have a blank
check to write legislation dealing with the
rights of employees to organize?
DELEGATE BOTHE: I understand the
point you are making and that is there
could possibly be a barrier to legislation
being enacted without constitutional au-
thorization.
One of the arguments in favor of plac-
ing this provision in the constitution would
certainly be that it would place beyond
any possible doubt the authority of the
General Assembly to pass this kind of
legislation.
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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: Thank you.
That is the point I wanted to bring out.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any other
questions?
Delegate Neilson.
DELEGATE NEILSON : Delegate Bothe,
you made a statement before that the right
to bargain collectively is a right that the
worker now has and that this particular
amendment does not necessarily have con-
stitutional reflection.
I think that is the word used in the
model statement. It did not appear to need
constitutional reflection, but the statement
you made was that perhaps the legislature
could take away the right to join or the
right to form for collective bargaining.
My question is this: In section 10 of this
same article, is it not an area which would
fall within reserve rights to prevent the
legislature from taking away something
that we have as a natural right?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: I am a little bit
confused by the various questions you have
posed. You want to know whether the Gen-
eral Assembly could take this right away?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Neilson?
DELEGATE NEILSON: You made a
statement as I understood it, to say that
the General Assembly could enact legisla-
tion that may take away this particular
right to reform or organize.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: I believe I did
say that.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Neilson.
DELEGATE NEILSON: Is there not a
reservation in item 10, section 10 of this
same article that we are discussing that
would preserve this right?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Neilson, if
you will permit the Chair to ask you, do
you mean your question to be directed to
the situation that exists if this amendment
were not made?
DELEGATE NEILSON: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: There is a rather
learned article on reserve rights by Dele-
gate Hardwicke attached to the report of
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