Colorado: Unions Brought Fully Into the Fold
According to The Denver Post:
Winning bargaining power for 32,000-plus state workers has long been a goal for unions in Colorado, and several pieces neatly fell into place this year to bring it about, observers say.
"This is labor being served and labor being brought fully into the fold," political analyst Eric Sondermann said of Gov. Bill Ritter's signing Friday of an executive order giving unions for state workers official recognition and bargaining powers.
After more than 40 years, Democrats finally controlled both legislative houses and the governor's office with Ritter's election last November.
Within his first weeks in office, the governor found himself at odds with the Colorado unions that helped get him elected, when he vetoed the so- called Labor Peace Act.
Denver's selection as host to the 2008 Democratic National Convention allowed national unions to take potshots at Ritter and Denver for a perceived weakness on the union question.
Teamsters president James P. Hoffa threatened that protests could "blow up" during the convention. Hoffa and AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney were critical of the lack of union hotels here for delegates to stay in - there is only one - and of Ritter's veto.
Sondermann and other observers speculated then that the convention and the Democratic takeover of state government would provide the best leverage ever seen in Colorado for collective bargaining for state workers.
But state-level unions even then tried to downplay that leverage, and they downplayed the suggestion after word of Ritter's order was released Friday...click to continue.
