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DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman,
I rise on a point of personal privilege, if
I might.
I have received three letters which are
from the Maryland Classified Employees
Association, Inc., Classified Municipal Em-
ployees Association of Baltimore and the
Baltimore County Classified Employees As-
sociation.
These came to me unsolicited and they
came in sufficient number to be distributed
to every member, not at the expense of the
Convention but of these organizations.
I would like to have these distributed at
this time, if I may, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do the pages have
them?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do they know what
they are?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Miller.
DELEGATE MILLER: Mr. Chairman,
I would question whether this is a personal
privilege or an attempt to lobby on the
floor at this point.
THE CHAIRMAN : Let me find out what
they are. Are these documents sent to you
as Chairman of the Committee?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Yes, sir. These
are all addressed to the Committee on Per-
sonal Rights and the Preamble.
THE CHAIRMAN : Have they been here-
tofore presented to the Committee?
DELEGATE KIEFER: No, sir, they
just arrived.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Just a second.
Delegate Kiefer, if these were documents
that had been heretofore considered by the
Committee, I think it would be proper to
distribute them. I do not think that we
can permit documents to be distributed in
the course of debate otherwise.
We have followed the practice that dele-
gates can distribute memoranda and can
incorporate in their memoranda statements
of others, but I think this would go beyond
that practice. I thought this was something
that had been heretofore considered by the
Committee, and I think anything considered
by the Committee could be considered by
all delegates.
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DELEGATE KIEFER: We have a re-
port and we had a hearing in which we
had received material from the Maryland
Classified Employees Association prior to
this, but these letters just arrived, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Under the circum-
stances, I do not think they should be
distributed at this time.
Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: I yield three
minutes to Delegate Hostetter.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hostetter.
DELEGATE HOSTETTER: Mr. Chair-
man and members of the Committee of the
Whole, first of all, let me state this: I do
not subscribe to Delegate Bothe's coffee
shop theory of organizing and collective
bargaining.
I submit this amendment of the minority,
viewed in the clear light of day, says em-
phatically, without spelling it out, that em-
ployees must join the union.
If this were not so, what would the
meaning of the words "organize and bar-
gain collectively" be?
It is quite apparent that organization
and collective bargaining cannot take place
in a vacuum. Three paragraphs of the
Minority Report refer to public employees,
and their need for this provision in Mary-
land's Constitution.
At this point I should like to quote from
a statement of the Maryland Classified Em-
ployees Association. I might add that these
Maryland employees are public employees,
and I quote from this statement.
"Although the Minority Report in its
presentation leaves the reader with the
impression that the Constitutions of
Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and
Missouri grant the right of collective
bargaining to public as well as private
employees, the above interpretation of
those states' constitutions by their re-
spective highest judicial tribunals clearly
state that the right of collective bargain-
ing is not granted to public employees.
"Therefore, it would be an exercise in
futility, and a lack of public responsi-
bility, for the Maryland Constitutional
Convention to write into Maryland's
basic organic law the provision advo-
cated for in the minority report.
"The Minority Report also has mis-
takenly stated the theory under which
public employees have been denied the
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