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THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Mr. President
and fellow delegates, the provision which
you are being asked to consider was passed
by a vote of eighty-three to thirty-seven
by this body sitting as a Committee of the
Whole. This was passed after five hours of
debate, protracted questioning-, and much
consideration, and after the Committee on
Personal Rights devoted approximately one
full day and a half to hearings, pro and
con, on this issue.
There is nothing that can be said or has
been said since the action of the Committee
of the Whole which was not known to all
who were in this room at that time. I hesi-
tate to embark upon a complete explana-
tion of the action which was taken at that
time although I suppose it must be done
at least to the extent of answering some
of the various letters and questions that
have been reiterated since.
The subject to which Delegate Hostetter
addresses himself is the one, of course, to
which the debate was largely directed when
the matter was before the Committee of the
Whole, and that is whether this provision
belongs in the Declaration of Rights.
Of course, it does. One would think per-
haps that we were debating in the Conven-
tion in which the gentleman's picture over
on the wall was taking place one hundred
years ago in 1867. This matter would have
been a subject of great debate and conten-
tion as to whether employees should have
any rights vis-a-vis their employers, but
this is 1967. Maryland is anachronistic in
that the right has not been fully realized
long since.
In the State of New York which I be-
lieve was the first to provide in its consti-
tution for a recognition of a right to
organize and bargain collectively while the
new Constitutional Convention of this year
recommended continuation of that provi-
sion. The debate in the New York Conven-
tion was whether it was still necessary to
continue it because it had become so firmly
established.
We here in the Convention are not con-
tinuing many provisions of the current
Declaration of Rights of the Maryland
Constitution. One example is the prohibi-
tion against slavery. It is no longer neces-
sary to speak of that. What we need to
speak to and of today is the rights of
people in 1967 in a modern industrial so-
ciety where the relationship between em-
ployer and employee is one of the most
pervasive and perhaps the most important
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which the average man or all the citizens
of the State enter into. I do not think it is
necessary to point out statistically that
just about all of the citizens of the State
of Maryland are either employers or de-
pendent upon the wages and working con-
ditions of an employer for their own
livelihood and well being.
Some five hundred thousand citizens of
this State who are working people do not
have any realization of the right to or-
ganize and bargain collectively because they
are not covered by federal law and there is
no state provision. It has been said that
the whole subject should be a statutory
one. I agree. It should largely be a statu-
tory one, but the principle is of consti-
tutional dimension.
And, it is only the principle which is
expressed here in the Declaration of Rights
before you today, the principle that em-
ployees shall have the right to organize and
bargain collectively.
Of course, it will be and should be regu-
lated by statute, and I point out that there
are many rights that are regulated by
statute. One that was just discussed in
such length was eminent domain. We have
a simple statement in the constitution that
property shall not be taken or damaged
without just compensation, and then we
have a full legislative article setting forth
how property can be taken, what fail-
standards there are —
THE PRESIDENT: You have three-
quarters of a minute, Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: The same would
apply under the provision which is here
advocated.
This provision could be the most im-
portant which we put in a Declaration of
Rights. Employees should have the right to
organize and bargain collectively if they
choose to do so. They do not have it now.
It is one of the most important preroga-
tives of the individual citizen of this State
that can be had or realized. I urge that
you reject this amendment and put in the
Maryland constitution a right which four
other state constitutions have recognized,
which almost every other state in the Union
has recognized, which is long overdue in the
State of Maryland.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Mr. President
and ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you
will support this amendment and delete
this provision and these are the reasons
on which I urge this decision.
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