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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: Let me confer
with my co-sponsor.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: Mr. Chairman,
after further considering it, I think there
is a difference, in that implementation
probably means, and is subject to the in-
terpretation, that the legislature could
really do something in furtherance of the
right of representation so that it would
not really get at the thing that I am talk-
ing about, to wit, fractionalization of
unions within the straight structure.
Now, I am not saying it should neces-
sarily be one big union because this might
very well be unfair to certain areas but
it seems to me that the governor and the
legislature should have the power to recog-
nize either all of the state employees in one
large union or to say that there should be
a special type of representation in certain
specified areas for fractional parts of the
state organization.
I think it would be clearer if we stuck to
the original language.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any fur-
ther questions of the sponsor of the
amendment?
Delegate Sickles.
DELEGATE SICKLES: Delegate
James —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James has
only one minute remaining.
DELEGATE SICKLES: Delegate James,
I think the legislative history is sufficiently
clear to warrant not including this lan-
guage. When I started off the questioning
of Delegate Bothe, I pretty much estab-
lished the fact that the legislature would
have the authority to modify this right.
The duty to bargain normally will involve
appropriate bargaining units, the method
of determining the majority, and the right
itself.
The concept in Amendment No. 21 does
not go that far. It is merely the right to
organize.
THE CHAIRMAN : What is the question?
DELEGATE SICKLES: To improve
your amendment, you talk in terms of pro-
cedural activities and regulations. Would
you agree to include the word "procedural"
before the word "regulations", if that is
your intent?
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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James.
DELEGATE JAMES: I do not believe
that is satisfactory with either me or my
co-sponsor, although I think to a large
extent the amendment is designed to handle
the procedural aspects of the thing.
But I do not believe the word "proce-
dural" would encompass a substantive mat-
ter of exactly which unions the State would
recognize in conforming to this constitu-
tional adjunctive.
I think the State ought to have the basic
power to do this. Now, carrying it over
to the private sector, the State, I think,
even in the private sector, should have the
right such as I believe you have in the
federal law — and this is done without
any constitutional provision — to lay down
rules and regulations under which unions
will be recognized after taking appropriate
votes. This should be a flexible matter han-
dled at the legislative level.
Now, once you have achieved the con-
stitutional right, and this is a recognition
of it in the constitution, it seems to me
that it is a small concession to say that
the legislature can adjust the right.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
want to speak in opposition?
Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I must oppose
it. The necessity for it emphasizes the lack
of wisdom in enacting Amendment No. 21.
You have cast into the constitution the
right to organize, a right which has always
been statutory as, for example, the right
to bargain collectively in the Wagner Act.
It is a fundamental statutory right, but
since it was in the statute and not the
constitution, the Congress was not pre-
cluded in the Taft-Hartley Act, and some
others that have followed, from laying
clown restrictions upon carrying that right
to the nth power.
Unlike freedom of assembly and free-
dom of religion, the right to bargain col-
lectively must be limited in some respects
and on many occasions. Delegate Sickles
has alluded to some and Delegate James to
others.
The danger is by enacting Amendment
No. 21 it might be argued that we have
stripped the plenary power of the legisla-
ture in this field completely. I accept Dele-
gate Bothe's explanation that that was not
the intention of Amendment No. 21 and
Delegate Sickles' representations to the
same effect.
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