Gov. Bill Ritter released more than 1,200 pages of documents Tuesday related to his handling of union issues since he took office.
The documents show ongoing conversations between union leaders and administration officials regarding the creation of “state employee partnerships.”
Statehouse Republicans pounced on the documents, saying they show Ritter is working toward a more union-friendly workplace for state employees.
“If this is their plan to unionize the state government, they should let us all in on it and not conduct secret meetings to plot against the taxpayers of Colorado,” said House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker.
Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter, rejected the GOP claims.
“They’re just plain wrong,” Dreyer said. “There is nothing secretive or sinister about the governor’s very open and very public pronouncements to strengthen partnerships with snowplow drivers, prison guards and the other men and women who make up the state workforce.”
Statehouse Republicans have been challenging Ritter in recent weeks regarding his administration’s policies toward unions and state workers. They contended that the Department of Personnel and Administration was pushing a rule to make it easier for unions to use state work space to hold meetings.
And union officials – with the Democratic National Convention coming to Denver next year and newfound Democratic dominance at the statehouse – have pent-up demand for changes to the state’s relationship with its workers.
The documents released Tuesday include e-mails, letters, academic studies, union recommendations for board appointments and a draft bill that would create partnerships that “promote quality state services, increase accountability and attract and retain (a) skilled, motivated workforce.”
In one exchange with the Ritter administration, union lobbyist Scott Wasserman wrote: “Please feel free to distribute this to the members of the working group, but please ask them to not share the document beyond that circle for the time being.
“Our thinking at this point is purely political – we believe that the state employee agenda for next session will be a heavy lift, and therefore has the potential to be extremely polarizing if not messaged correctly,” Wasserman wrote in a June 26 e-mail to Christine Murphy, policy analyst for Ritter.
Brad Jones, managing editor of , a Republican-leaning online news site that requested the documents, said he considers that e-mail proof of a secret effort to force state workers into unions for collective bargaining.
“If this is such a great idea and collective bargaining is going to be so good for the state,” Jones said, “I’m very curious why this has been a very secretive effort so far.”
Collective bargaining is a way for workers to negotiate together for higher salaries and better benefits.
The draft bill that would create state employee partnerships says the agreement “would shape the legislative budget-setting process.”
That’s a dangerous proposal, said Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, because it will drive up salary and benefits costs.
“The ramifications to the budget are enormous,” he said.
Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, who was considering sponsoring the legislation, said the partnerships would help the state save money by reducing waste and inefficiency.
“We have to run state government like good business,” she said. “We’ve got to retain quality people, and to do that we’ve got to create a quality environment.”
Marshall had asked the Ritter administration to withhold her draft of a bill as “confidential” work product.
Dreyer said the administration was “obligated to produce it, and we did.”
Some documents bitterly denounce the Democratic governor for vetoing a bill that would have made forming unions in private workplaces easier.
“I am returning the Bill Ritter for Governor bumper sticker that I once proudly displayed when I was an avid supporter and voted for you last November,” wrote John Meding, a member of the state executive board for the Colorado Mail Handlers Union, Local 321.
“I feel I was totally lied to and manipulated,” Meding wrote after Ritter vetoed House Bill 1072.
Eric Sondermann, a Denver-based political analyst, said union leaders are betting that they have political clout after the Ritter veto and with the Democratic National Convention coming to town next year.
“If there’s one thing unions know how to use, it’s leverage.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
