GOP irate at union access

New policy for public employees clarifies current law, Dems say

Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 11, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado will be turned into a union paradise under a proposed policy formalizing union access to state employees, angry Republicans say.

The new guidelines, put forth by Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration Director Bill Gonzales, would require the state to provide employee organizations with space to hold meetings, e-mail addresses of all employees and use of state mailrooms.

Gonzales, an appointee of Gov. Bill Ritter, says he wrote the policy in response to confusion expressed by several state department directors over how to deal with requests by union organizations to communicate with state employees.

"It's not political, for sure," he said. "It really is in response to an issue."

Republicans, who read the draft rules obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, said Friday that they amounted to a back-room administrative fiat by a Democratic administration trying to pay back the public employee unions that helped elect Ritter.

"This type of policy change should be addressed by the full legislature and not done behind closed doors during the summer recess through regulatory finesse," said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma.

"The balloon payment for the unions will be made by the Democrats during the 2008 legislative session, when pro-labor union legislation moves from a pat on the back to a full-blown body massage," Gardner said.

Draft of policy distributed

Gonzales distributed a draft of the new policy this month to the executive directors and human resource directors of every state department and to the president of the state Department of Higher Education for review.

He said he expects the policy to take effect in early September.

A spokesman for Ritter said Gonzales' new policy simply allowed the administration to clarify the existing rules.

According to State Personnel Board rules, which have been in place for many years, "Employees have the right to associate, self-organize, and designate representatives of their choice. . . . The employee's representative may confer, with prior consent from the supervisor, on employment matters during work hours."

"The rule is already in place that provides the access, and we're just trying to create the framework, so it can be done in kind of an orderly fashion," said Wil Alston, Ritter's deputy communications director.

'Mea culpa serenade'

Republicans said the policy amounts to Ritter's second concession to unions after angering them last legislative session when he vetoed a pro-labor bill to make it easier for unions to organize in the private sector.

The first payback, they said, was an executive order that allowed union dues to be automatically withdrawn from paychecks.

"Taxpayer-subsidized e-mail, phones and mail service is just the latest verse in the governor's mea culpa serenade to the disgruntled union bosses," state Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, said after reviewing the rules Friday. "And I don't doubt for a second that there's a lot more mea culpa to come."

Democrats, meanwhile, defended the new rules as a sensible interpretation of state law.

"I think that the proposed rules balance an employee's free speech rights while ensuring that there is no interference with the productivity of those employees and the efficiency of our state government," said state Rep. Mike Cerbo, D-Denver.

"I trust and have confidence in our state management team to competently manage our state government and see no impediment to that task in these proposed rules," he said.

bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059

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