Denver voters showed solid support for Referred Question 2U to permit city of Denver employees to organize and bargain collectively, with 64.1% of votes in favor of it late Tuesday night.
Referred Question 2V to allow Denver firefighters, who are already unionized, to seek binding arbitration when contract negotiations stall was also leading with nearly two-thirds support as of 11:30 p.m.
The two labor-focused questions didn’t receive the attention of other items on Denver’s ballot, but they take up close to half of the pages in the And they could usher in additional powers for city employees.
ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election
2U would give the bulk of the city’s 15,500 workers not within a union the right to organize and bargain collectively. The measure excludes the 3,250 city police officers, sheriff’s deputies and firefighters who already have bargaining rights and supervisory and “confidential” employees.
That would leave about 8,500 workers who could gain collective-bargaining rights if voters approve 2U. The estimated cost of setting up the collective bargaining system is $3 million, with ongoing annual costs starting at $2.3 million in fiscal 2026.
Referred Question 2V, the other labor measures, seeks to install binding arbitration, or a dispute resolution process run by a neutral third party when the two sides can’t agree. It would replace the current approach, called advisory fact-finding, that can trigger a special election and align firefighters with the approach used by the unions representing police and sheriff’s deputies.
