As the deadline looms today to pull initiatives off the November ballot, Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that negotiations were still ongoing in an attempt to get labor groups to drop four ballot measures aimed at businesses.
Unions put the four measures on the ballot in response to the so-called right-to-work initiative, Amendment 47. That amendment would prohibit union dues or fees as a condition of employment, a move that labor groups see as union busting.
Backers of Amendment 47 have steadfastly refused to withdraw the measure, so business groups have been negotiating directly with unions in hopes that labor would stand down in exchange for cash to fight Amendment 47 and two other initiatives aimed at labor. The most recent deal called for businesses to give $3 million to fight all the initiatives, but business leaders said Tuesday that labor groups had not agreed to that offer.
“We are still negotiating today over that” amount, Ritter told business leaders at a conference in Denver on Wednesday. “We think there’s still a chance that labor will back down unilaterally.”
The deadline is 5 p.m. today to withdraw initiatives from the Nov. 4 ballot.The four measures proposed by unions would require employers with more than 20 workers to pay for health insurance; allow injured employees to sue outside the workers’ compensation system; prohibit employers from firing workers without “just cause”; and hold executives criminally liable for corporate wrongdoing.
Ritter said unions don’t really want any of the four initiatives to pass, because “they know how difficult it would be for our economy.”
Ritter told business leaders at the conference that “it would be very difficult to do business in the state if any of the four measures that are still on the ballot pass.”
In a meeting with The Denver Post editorial board Wednesday, Ritter said “some economic-development decisions are being delayed” pending the outcome of the ballot measures.
His spokesman, Evan Dreyer, later explained that some companies looking to relocate to Colorado or expand in the state have put their decisions on hold until after the election, though Dreyer did not name the companies.
In addition to Amendment 47, other measures aimed at labor would prohibit union fees from being deducted from government workers’ checks and make it harder for unions that represent government workers to make political contributions.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
