The refusal of the union representing stage hands at the Pepsi Center to sign a nonstrike agreement with national Democrats is a rare show of union muscle in a state not known for union strength.
Such an agreement is a prerequisite for the party holding its convention in Denver in 2008.
The city is angling for the political convention, which would be held at the Pepsi Center. The event would raise Denver’s political profile nationally and provide an economic shot in the arm.
Colorado had 170,000 union members in 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about 8.4 percent of the state’s workforce.
That compares to a national union workforce level of 12.5 percent in 2005, down from 20.1 percent in 1983.
Union workers are more heavily concentrated in the East and Midwest and less so in the South and West. Union membership was 8.1 percent in New Mexico, 4.9 percent in Utah, and 5.3 percent in Texas in 2005.
Colorado is part of a region of Western states not known for widespread union representation.
“They say you can have a union represent you but you don’t have to join the union. So it is basically a position of weakness for the union,” said Cindi Fukami, professor of management at the Daniels College of Business.
“If they are voted in, they have to bear the financial burden of representation without having the support of dues,” she said.
Colorado doesn’t have a right-to-work law, but it “isn’t a traditional labor-friendly state,” said Steve Adams, president of the Colorado AFL-CIO. Colorado’s Labor Peace Act makes it hard to form a shop where everyone must join the union, he said.
The last time the United Food and Commercial Workers successfully unionized a company was in 1994, said Ernie Duran Jr., UFCW Local 7 president.
“If you don’t have a union shop, then you have a lot less money to do public relations, to involve yourself in politics, to spend on organizing,” Duran said.
In states with a more labor-friendly climates, creation of a union shop where membership is required is much easier than in Colorado. In those states, a simple majority of workers can make that happen. In Colorado, 75 percent of the workers would be required.
That is almost impossible, Adams said.
Whether the stagehands’ stance will hurt Colorado unions already scrambling to recruit in an unfriendly climate isn’t clear, said Fukami.
“I think it is a tough call. I can see what they are doing as a way of getting attention and leverage, but it is kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face, because having the convention would bring lots of money to the state and lots of jobs,” she said.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
8.4%
Portion of Colorado’s workforce belonging to labor unions in 2005, ranking 30th in the nation
12.5%
National average of union membership in 2005, down from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983
The top five
New York 25.3%
Hawaii 23.7%
Michigan 21.6%
Alaska 20.1%
New Jersey 19.8%
The bottom five
North Carolina 2.7%
South Carolina 3%
Mississippi 4.8%
Arkansas 4.8%
Texas 5%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
