Face the State

Since a November executive order issued by Gov. Bill Ritter went into effect permitting unions to organize state employees, Colorado's labor leaders have acted like lonely high school seniors desperately in search of prom dates.

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Most recently, on Wednesday, the American Arbitration Association sent out 21,000 ballots to state employees representing five different occupational categories asking them to unionize. The AAA has been contracted by the Department of Labor to oversee the election process.

Colorado WINS, the union coalition that has been diligently working to capitalize on Ritter’s order, which specifically empowered unions to serve as the “exclusive representatives” of state employees for the purpose of forming “employee partnerships.” (Days after the order, a coalition of three major unions – CAPE-SEIU, AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers – announced a cooperative agreement to organize state workers under the name Colorado WINS.)

In order to win the election, Colorado WINS need only receive yes-votes from a majority of the ballots cast. Meaning, that if there are 1,000 people in a department and 600 employees return their ballots, Colorado WINS only needs 301 votes in order to claim victory.

As Face The State has previously reported, Colorado WINS began pounding the pavement shortly after the order's announcement in an effort to garner employee support. The response has been, at best, tepid. In order to hold an election, 30 percent of all employees of a department or occupational group must vote to allow for an election about whether union representation should be approved.

According to insiders, Colorado WINS is particularly eager to organize quickly because it wants to capitalize on political momentum going into Denver's Democratic National Convention this August. Insders suspect Colorado WINS aims to “partner with” state employees before the Democratic National Convention this August. The coalition has been blasting mailers that tout the union’s ability to improve worker compensation. Union representatives have been accused of accosting state employees in workplace parking lots, showing up at employee homes, and denying reporters open access to meetings between union officials and state employees.

In the aftermath of new campaign finance laws, unions have already become a driving force behind Colorado politics, as they are able to dump millions of dollars into Democrat campaigns, turning the state legislature blue in 2004.

While nonmember employees would not be required to join the union, a majority "yes" vote would designate Colorado WINS as the "exclusive" representative for all employees, whether they desire the representation or not.