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majority of the people of our State would
accept, I would have voted as I did against
Amendment No. 21.
Our Committee had this matter before
it, we gave extensive hearings to it and
we had three choices. We had those who
wanted to include in our state constitution
the right-to-work law. If we had included
this without any say for labor, then we
would have had all the labor organizations
against the constitutional draft.
Our Committee wisely decided not to
include that in the constitution. On the
other hand, we had labor's bill of rights
and proposals before us. If we included
that, we knew we were tying the hands
of the legislature, we were crippling this
State in its operation, we were crippling
the municipalities in its operation and hos-
pitals and many other institutions which
should not have this right to organize, col-
lectively bargain, and walk out on strike.
On the other hand, we had the other
choice not to give to the people what they
sought and what labor sought. We had the
other choice which the majority made, to
say nothing in this field. That was our
committee's recommendation. That was un-
til you unwisely, in my opinion, voted in
Amendment No. 21.
The effect of Amendment No. 21, as I
mentioned, covers all employees. I asked
the question whether it covered all em-
ployees and they answered yes. They had
no alternative but to answer yes, because
the word "employees" is all-inclusive and
all-embracing and means employees wher-
ever they may be, state, municipal, and
subdivisional employees, as well as house-
hold and hospital and institutional em-
ployees, and so on down the line in areas
where you would not want labor organi-
zations walking in and making demands
and walking out the next day and striking.
I will point out one classic example.
What would happen in the State of Mary-
land if the employees of the comptroller's
office decided they wanted to have more
wages and they were allowed to organize
and there were no restrictive legislation?
If we put it in the constitution, the
legislature will be foreclosed, the door will
be shut in their face because they can
raise the point that if any restrictive legis-
lation is placed in it they will be able to
say that the Declaration of Rights was
acted on unconstitutionally.
What happens if the comptroller's of-
fice goes on strike? Where do you get your
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checks? Who collects the revenue for the
State of Maryland? Who pays all these
employees? The Employees' Association
that appeared before our Committee wrote
letters such as Delegate Kiefer got this
morning. They do not want this. They say
it would be a big mistake. Those letters
were not read, but the sentiment of their
organization is as strong as if the letters
were read to everyone of you. If you heard
these letters, you would not have voted for
Amendment No. 21.
Just think what might happen at any of
the mental institutions if those employees
decided they could not get their pay raise
out of the legislature and they could not
deal with the state offices. They could go
out on strike. Who is going to feed and
keep these poor insane people from
starving?
My friends, if that ever happened, I
know that a lot of you would get down on
your knees and pray that the Lord and
the rest of us would forgive you for the
sin committed this morning.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Weide-
meyer, you have left just three minutes,
including time for answering questions.
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: Thank
you, Mr. President. I do not want to an-
swer too many questions. I just want to
tell them the mistakes they make.
I want to say, in summary, you can cor-
rect this by adoption of Amendment No. 22
which I have offered. If you are going to
leave this concept in the constitution and
Bill of Rights, then you should at least be
fair about it and protect your State and
municipalities and leave an exception in
there where you do not give every em-
ployee in the State of Maryland the right
to go in as you have afforded under the
present Amendment No. 21.
I hope that you do think about what you
have done and adopt Amendment No. 22,
in some way clarifying and improving what
you have done this morning.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions of the sponsor of the amendment?
Delegate Lloyd Taylor.
DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: Delegate
Weiclemeyer —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Weide-
meyer, do you yield to a question?
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: I was
trying to yield to a private question while
Lloyd Taylor was talking. I will be glad
to yield to a question from him.
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