Unionization of Colorado Public Employees Moves Ahead: The Minority Rules

In January we posted on the curious, nearly subterranean, ways in which public employees in Colorado gained collective bargaining rights. Odd that we always say it that way, as if all public employees in Colorado wanted collective bargaining. Although I'm not thrilled with the outcome, at least in our state, expanded collective bargaining came about by legislative action and a gubernatorial signature. In Denver, the governor slipped it through by executive order.

Now, we see that the unions continue to gain ground. Hard to tell if it's a move the average public employee supports.

About 6,900 state workers from a pool of 22,500 who were eligible participated in the election, which gave them a choice between Colorado WINS or no union representation. Of those, 5,481 supported the union.

The results were based only on the number of votes cast, but even those who did not vote will now be represented by the union — regardless of whether they pay the voluntary union dues.

Hardly an overwhelming endorsement.

Comments

[Reitz]

Dick, sounds like the "majority" election we had in 2005 once Washington agency employees were authorized to negotiate with the governor. Of the 30,000+ general gov't employees represented by WFSE, only 6,133 voted.

http://www.effwa.org/main/article.php?article_id=850&number=49

[Labor Goon]

Dick,

Sounds a lot like the "majority" election we had to elect George W. Bush. Of the 206 million voting-age American citizens in 2000, only 50.4 million voted for Bush.

Who is to blame when people can't be bothered to vote on things that affect them? If a union or employer illegally blocked folks from voting, the election can be thrown out. But if folks were just too busy to vote for whether they wanted a union, or a particular president or governor, they have themselves to blame if they don't like what/who everyone else chose.