Union workers would have an easier time collecting unemployment benefits when managers lock them out of the workplace under a bill that passed the House on Thursday and raised Republican hackles.
The bill would change how blame for a lockout is assigned in labor conflicts.
Republicans said House Bill 1170 would strain the state’s unemployment insurance fund as growing ranks of out-of-work Coloradans need that help. They also argued that the proposal would promote more strikes and labor disputes.
But bill supporters such as freshman Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, said the plan would support working families at a critical economic time.
“The only reason there is opposition to this bill is because it benefits union workers,” Pace said. “All they’re trying to do is earn a good, living wage.”
It passed on a 37-27 vote mostly along party lines.
The bill would change the standard for whether locked-out workers get benefits from “which side started the fight” to “who stands to gain from it.”
If workers are seeking higher pay, for example, and as part of that dispute are locked out, they would not receive unemployment. If their bosses are trying to wring concessions from workers by shutting their doors, then the workers would get benefits.
The bill changes the law back to its pre-1999 form. Republicans at that time changed the law after a bitter fight between grocery-store chains and employees that resulted in more than a month of strikes and lockouts.
Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, said the current law has prevented far-reaching labor disputes, so changing it makes no sense.
“This bill would pour gasoline on every single labor dispute after this bill becomes law,” Balmer has said.
To avoid criticism about timing, the bill was amended in committee to take effect in 2010 rather than immediately, should it pass. The biggest proponent of the bill, the union that represents grocery-store workers, begins major contract negotiations in May.
But Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, said there’s another reason the timing is bad.
He said business and labor groups had particularly contentious fights last year, and now is a time to mend fences.
“Anything that pits these forces against each other, now is not the time to do it,” said Riesberg, who voted against the bill.
