Face the State

A sign at a downtown Denver construction site warns, "If you are not currently an active member of a building trades local union, you are NOT allowed to work on this site."

Steve Brown/Special to FTS

According to representatives at Saunders Construction and site developer Trammell Crow Company, the sign was placed on the site by labor-affiliated contractors in compliance with a mandate from the owner of the new building, Multi-Employer Property Trust, that the project be 100 percent union-built.

Union-backed pension plans invest in MEPT's commercial real estate portfolio. The closed-shop mandate is, according to the trust's web site, in place "to add value through development, redevelopment, and acquiring core properties by building them at or below replacement cost."

As financiers of the construction it is entirely within MEPT's prerogative - and its duty to its union shareholders - to require a closed union shop on the job site.

But with an increasingly contentious battle between business and organized labor looming for this November's ballot, the sign serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of a growing union presence in both the public and private sectors.

State business leaders, including the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, are backing a proposal to enshrine "right-to-work" protections in the state Constitution.

For their part, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 7 has introduced five measures which would require employers to offer rich benefits and job protections by law.

Business leaders fear those initiatives, paired with the labor-friendly policies of Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, will drive businesses from Colorado to states with a lower cost of doing business.

Recent experience shows the state's Democrat-led legislature to be friendly to proposals making it easier for unions to create "closed shops" in private workplaces.

Should they succeed, signs like this may be popping up on job sites everywhere - union-funded or not.