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Bill Repealing Colorado’s Two-Election Labor Law Goes to Governor |
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Last week we told you about the strange Colorado labor law that forces workers to vote twice—with 75 percent of members required in the second vote to approve putting a union security clause on the bargaining table.
Monday, the Colorado state Senate followed the lead of the state House and passed a bill that eliminates the second election. The bill is now on the desk of Gov. Bill Ritter (D) and the state’s business and corporate community is pressuring Ritter to veto the bill. But during his campaign, Ritter told working families he favored dropping the two-vote requirement.In Colorado, even after the workers overcome the already difficult and employer-weighted election process and elect to join a union, state law forbids the workers and their union to begin negotiations over a union security clause. A union security clause doesn’t force anyone to join the union. Rather, it requires that all workers, member or non-member, pay representational costs.
If the workers and their union even want to bring the issue up with the employer, they must first hold another election that requires that 75 percent of those voting or a majority of all those eligible to vote—not just a majority of those who cast ballots—must approve of putting a union security clause on the bargaining table.
The legislation doesn’t require the employer to accept a union security clause or force anybody to join a union, despite what its opponents say.
Check out Colorado MediaMatters for an analysis of the state’s media pro-corporate and misleading coverage that “echoed the conservative talking points of the bill’s opponents.”
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