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Ballot proposal would put restrictions on union shops

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 27, 2007 at midnight

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Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier wants voters this November to make it tougher to set up all-union workplaces and to establish Colorado as a right-to-work state.

Late Tuesday, Frazier filed a right-to-work ballot proposal with the state that would ban unionized workplaces from forcing an employee to join the union as condition of employment.

It also would prohibit an employer from deducting union dues or fees from workers' wages to support the union.

The measure would make labor membership voluntary.

Frazier could not be reached for comment.

Denver attorney John Berry filed the ballot proposal on behalf of Frazier and Julian Jay Cole, of Golden.

"It says you don't have to be a member of a labor union to have a job or keep a job," Berry said.

The proposed ballot measure comes months after Gov. Bill Ritter angered fellow Democrats when he vetoed a controversial pro-labor bill to make it easier for unions to organize.

House Bill 1072, by Rep. Mike Garcia, D-Aurora, and Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, would have struck a provision in the 1943 Labor Peace Act that requires a second, supermajority election before a workplace can become a union shop.

Garcia said he would oppose efforts to weaken union shops.

"Right-to-work laws benefit corporate executives with six-figure salaries, period," he said. "Unions are good for working men and women.

"If passed, the right-to-work initiative would make all-union agreements in the state illegal."

Garcia argued that the ballot proposal is unnecessary because federal law already prohibits workplaces from forcing workers to join a labor union as a condition of employment.

But in union shops, employees must join the union - or at least pay the costs of union representation or risk being fired, according to Berry.

Garcia countered that nonunion employees in union shops should pay what's known as an "agency fee" because they're benefitting from the union agreement.

"I think you should have to pay if there is a union there," he said. "The nonunion workers are benefiting from the higher wages, vacation and sick time negotiated by the union, and they ought to pay for it."

Proponents of the right-to- work initiative must collect more than 70,000 signatures to place the proposal on the ballot.

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