Colorado’s disappointed union leaders met Tuesday to discuss a new legislative strategy only days after Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter vetoed a labor- friendly bill.
About 60 union leaders from AFL- CIO affiliates and from Change to Win, a coalition of unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005, attended the meeting at Colorado AFL-CIO headquarters in Denver.
“It was attended by everybody; this is really exciting. It was a good discussion about how we will move forward in the legislative process,” said Rick Bender, a Washington state AFL-CIO leader recently sent by the national union to take over day-to-day operations of the Colorado chapter.
The national union took over after internal disputes threatened to harm the office’s effectiveness, the union has said.
Ritter’s veto of a bill that would have removed a hurdle labor faces in creating all-union shops rocked labor and galvanized the unions, said David Sanger, president of AFT Colorado, a teachers union.
“We need a unified message. The unions felt the governor had made a promise and had gone back on his promise, but we have to go forward,” he said.
The unions will form a committee to consider options for mounting a successful legislative strategy, Sanger said.
With Democrats controlling the legislature and the governor’s office, organized labor expected a friendly reception to its agenda this year. Ritter’s veto was a sobering reminder that Democratic control doesn’t guarantee greater clout for labor.
Participants at the hours-long union meeting didn’t discuss bringing the bill back in the legislature, Bender said.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and House Assistant Majority Leader Michael Garcia, the bill’s sponsor, have said they won’t try to override the veto or reintroduce the legislation.
Romanoff is creating a business-labor council to help lawmakers find common ground on health-care, job-training and economic-development issues.
Organized labor is interested in collective-bargaining rights for public employees and other issues. But individual unions frequently have separate bills they are interested in, said Bender.
For instance, the Service Employees International Union helped craft Senate legislation that would require hospitals to determine and adhere to nurse- to-patient staffing ratios. The union has said it wants to organize more than 50,000 registered nurses in Colorado.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
