Legislative Issues Committee Recommendations for the 2008 Ballot

Some important background:

In 2007, on a Friday afternoon in November when no one was looking, Gov. Bill Ritter signed an executive order allowing all public employees to join a union. Many believe this was the quid pro quo to have the unions’ sign-off on the Democrats bringing their national convention to Denver. Now almost all public employees in Colorado are in a union, depriving the Legislature the authority to set benefits and wages. That is now negotiated with labor bosses. Now, taxpayers have no voice in benefits and wages for public employees and there is no accountability to them in the process.

Amendment 47, the so-called "Right to Work" initiative was put on the ballot by a small group who understand first-hand the negative effect of unions on the economy. It allows employees to opt-out of union membership and prohibits unions from collecting mandatory union dues regardless of membership status.

Amendment 49, Ethical Standards Now (which passed last year in several counties as an "Ask First" initiative), stops government from bundling money through public payrolls and delivering it to the unions. Basically, union members would have to make their own arrangements to have their dues deducted from their checking account or write a check, rather than the government automatically withholding union dues and sending it to the union. Why should citizens pay to have the government administer union dues collection?

Amendment 54, the "Clean Government" initiative stops "pay to play" by prohibiting contractors from donating to candidates for two years when they've been awarded a no-bid or non-competition government contract.

In response, the unions put up four "poison pill" initiatives:

Amendment 53 - makes executives and board directors personally liable for corporate fraud committed by employees

Amendment 55 - bars employers from firing workers without "just cause" which is broadly defined and exempts unions

Amendment 56 - requires businesses with more than 20 employees to provide "major medical" health insurance for all employees and their dependents

Amendment 57 - allows injured workers, after collecting Workers Comp, to "double dip" and sue for unlimited damages including inconvenience, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life.

Passage of any one of these "poison pills" would have an immediate and negative effect on Colorado's economy. 53: Non-profits and homeowner associations would have a hard time finding volunteer board members willing to assume the personal criminal liability for a sub-contractor that might cheat the organization. 55: Businesses would become even more careful in hiring, if they thought they would be stuck with an employee for life. 56: Businesses would want to know how many dependents a new employee would bring to the table: a parent with children or a woman who might become pregnant might be less desirable employees - or be offered a lower salary - so that an employer could compensate for the additional costs of mandatory health care. 57: Businesses would do much deeper due diligence on an employee's health history and litigation history to determine if the person might sue after receiving Workers Comp, or might simply not hire for those jobs with high risk to personal safety.

Passage of any of the "poison pills" would surely have the effect of slowing job creation and hurting those in the bottom of the job food chain - the young and the inexperienced. Some people would go out of business; some would move out of state. Those in the service industry have already been hit hard. For one key sector, restaurants/bars/tourism (which tends to hire the young and inexperienced), has already been hit hard: the multiple effect of union-creep into the private sector (organizing kitchen workers), mandatory minimum wage increases (where restaurant owners pay FICA taxes on increased wages beyond tip income), the effect of the smoking ban (which has slowed traffic in bars), and the higher price of gasoline (which has increased food costs and decreased disposable income to eat out).

Gov. Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper recognized this and both came out against the Amendments, but Ritter failed to use his leverage to demand that the unions withdraw their initiatives or risk a reversal on his pro-union Executive Order.

Instead, the unions went to business and blackmailed them into an agreement whereby the unions pulled their initiatives in exchange for $3 million of advertising from private businesses to kill 47, 49, and 54. To his credit, Jon Caldera, president of the Independence Institute and a key proponent of 49, refused the $800,000 promised him if we would withdraw 49.

This represents the worst of back-room politics. Colorado has typically been pretty clean, until Ritter invited the unions to practice their thug-like tactics. Make no mistake, this doesn't improve wages or benefits to workers; it only provides well-paying jobs and political power to the union leaders.

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