Colorado business leaders have been working behind the scenes to strike a deal with organized labor that would remove four economically devastating union-backed amendments from the ballot in exchange for millions from the business community. But according to inside sources, the negotiations are being derailed by media attention and political pressure.
There is uncertainty about how much money the unions are demanding. The rumored amount has ranged from $4.5 million to $6 million. The deadline to withdraw the union initiatives from the ballot is Oct. 1, and the business community needs to come up with the agreed amount and deposit it before then. The money would be spent on the union's campaign against Amendments 47, 49 and 54. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce came out against Amendment 47, the right-to-work measure, saying it did not want to disturb the relationship between the business and labor community.
After the media exposed his initial involvement, Joe Blake, president of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, has been trying to distance himself from the negotiations. Now the chamber’s issue committee—Coloradans for Responsible Reform—is launching its own $1.9 million advertising campaign against the four labor-backed amendments that the chamber alleges now threatens the state’s economy.
CRR is calling the unions' measures--Amendments 53, 55, 56 and 57--the "Poison Pill Amendments." Their first few rounds of advertising are fully paid for. After CFRR's media buy, the group has $174,370 in the bank, and is still making another fundraising push. Some business leaders, like Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, have opted for funding the opposition to the "Poison Pill Amendments" instead of succumbing to the unions' demand for cash.
With no deal announced, the chamber made the decision to move forward with its ad campaign Friday morning. Sources say negations faltered because hotelier Walter Isenberg and Pat Hamill, CEO and founder of Oakwood Homes, are having trouble raising cash for the union-proposed truce. Isenberg and Hamill sit on the Executive Committee of Colorado Concern, an alliance of business leaders, with Blake.
Sources say that despite falling short of their goal, Isenberg and Hamill are about halfway there with about $3 million, some of which is cash and the rest pledged.