REUTEMAN: Stakes are sky-high in showdown over right-to-work issue

By Rob Reuteman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Oh, to be a fly on the wall of Gov. Bill Ritter's office Monday. That's when, sources tell me, Ritter will have a closed-door meeting with proponents of a hotly debated right-to-work ballot initiative.

Jonathan Coors has been invited, as has Andrew Zuppa, general manager for Jake Jabs' American Furniture. Both are said to represent those behind the right-to-work measure. Both are board members of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, which decided last week to endorse the November ballot item. They did so after a pro-labor group filed ballot initiatives that would, one, make it far more difficult for employers to fire anyone, and two, allow anyone in the state to sue executives involved in corporate fraud.

The CACI endorsement last Friday was followed Monday by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, which filed five of its own initiatives for the November ballot. The UFCW initiatives would mandate annual cost-of-living raises, various safe workplace measures and an increase in health care for all workers at companies with 20 or more employees.

Need a scorecard? I sure do.

Coors is the director of government affairs for CoorsTek, the privately held ceramics company founded by the brewing family in 1910. Zuppa works for Jabs, who, along with Coors, is said to be funding the right-to-work ballot measure but who is on a furniture-buying trip somewhere.

What will transpire in Ritter's office? The term jawboning comes to mind, as does the phrase "take them to the woodshed." "Stand down" is another phrase likely to be uttered. Who'll be in attendance? Not sure, but Joe Blake, CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, canceled a trip to D.C. to be on hand. Recent weekend meetings on the subject have been attended by Ritter, Blake, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Hogan & Hartson managing partner Cole Finegan and Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

Should Ritter et al. be successful in persuading the right-to-work guys to back off, they'll go to the pro-labor guys and attempt the same, and there'll be peace in the valley once more. Or not.

"This is a very high-stakes game," said Blake, an avid historian. "I liken it to World War I in the sense that all the countries had plans to mobilize but no plans to demobilize. The labor movement in Colorado has been a powerful constituency for the future of our state and keeping it competitive. But if (these initiatives) are rendered, plans for education, transportation and health care are going to be very seriously impaired."

Right-to-work has been a flash point between business and labor in Colorado and elsewhere for many decades. Twenty-two states have right-to-work laws on the books. Such a measure makes it illegal for a collective bargaining agreement that requires all employees, whether they are union members or not, to pay fees to a union if they are covered by union contracts. Since 1943, Colorado has had a law - the Labor Peace Act - that requires an employee vote of 75 percent to approve any such arrangement. Colorado is the only state with such an arrangement. It puts the state in between anti-union right-to-work states and states where "union shop" workplaces are more easily adopted - where all employees must pay the union for costs of representation even if they refuse to join. For many of us, these are arcane, hair-splitting considerations. For those more closely involved, they are crucial.

"Labor is in a very aggressive mood right now," said pollster Floyd Ciruli. "They feel we have entered a more liberal, progressive era. They feel they've won a host of smaller wars. Ritter's executive order makes it easier to unionize state workers, and they see him as not opposed to their concerns. Plus, there is a general labor view that a right-to-work initiative is a sort of nuclear action that justifies similarly wild gestures, like offering five amendments that will essentially socialize the state."

Ciruli also said there's a sense among businesspeople that the coming of the Democratic National Convention this summer is giving pro-labor folks "massive leverage."

"The business community sees the DNC as a choke point for organized labor to make demands that would otherwise be ignored," he added. "Put it all together and you can feel the anxiety in the business community."

Ritter needs to signal to both sides that this is the worst time to push these ballot initiatives, Ciruli said.

"We're headed into a recession, tough economic times, absolutely not the time to have labor-business wars."

If any of these initiatives, from either side, end up on the ballot and pass, "there would be real adjustments in the perception of Colorado," he said. "It would significantly reinforce the notion that Colorado is much less welcoming to new business than it was. We have a long-term reputation as being balanced. We're perceived as having good civic and business leadership that is aggressive for things that labor benefits from, through more jobs or general economic activity - good schools and transportation, a balanced regulatory climate."

If any of these initiatives are successful, Ciruli added, "there will be an understandable perception that Colorado is moving out of balance and toward a more costly business climate."

The Rocky business section does a little weekly feature where we contact business executives and ask them to tell us the best advice they've received in their careers. Last Aug. 24, we featured Jonathan Coors. For him, it was: "In business and life, we're always faced with tough decisions that - as we grow personally and professionally - will have a larger impact on those around us. If we learn to make good decisions early on, the easier it will be to make the bigger decisions when more is at stake."

A lot is at stake here and many people could be impacted. If the decades-long balance between pro-labor and pro-business interests in Colorado - always shaky, often challenged - is upset over a high-stakes game of "chicken," it could take a long time for the wounds to heal. Is it really worth it?

Business editor Rob Reuteman can be reached at 303-954-5177 or reutemanr@RockyMountainNews.com. To comment on this column, go to RockyMountain News.com/business.

• April 5, 2008

  9:29 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Brockage writes:

  Just what we need as we return to developing our state's energy resources and in the midst of a slow-down (recession?) -- businesses and investors from elsewhere thinking Colorado is anti-business and in the pocket of the union gangs. Ain't no "petroleum club" pecan pie coming back for ANYbody if the union special interests get their way.

• April 6, 2008

  9:59 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  jacka writes:

  Say what a nuclear option? That sounds bad what's at issue? Who are the winners and losers? Read on brothers and sisters...

  Should you… be forced to join the union just to work in Colorado? Or, should you… be free to work in Colorado?

  Right to work lets YOU DECIDE to join or not join the union.

  Instead of politicians, CEOs or labor bosses forcing you to do what they decide.

  Say what, conspiring? Yes, big business conspiring with big labor and big politicians to restrict YOUR personal freedom.

  That right, this is the same old tired group that took your taxes via Ref C and FasTracks. The unions, the governor, Denver Shamber of Commerce, governor's college buddy and Shamber chairman, compromising shamber board members, other unions, and former businessman cum mayor.

  Their backroom deals? Where is that Ref C money - fka as your former tax rebate when gov't achieved it annual 6% budget growth? Did your family budget grow at 6% from 1990 - 2006? Has it grown at 6%++ since 2006? How is FasTracks doing, nearly $2 billion over budget?

  Don't fall for the backroom deal reached by shamber of commerce, politicians, and big labor bosses.

  It’s YOUR job, YOUR’RE doing the work. It’s YOUR decision.

  Send a message to the group that conspires. They increased your taxes, now they want continue to restrict your personal freedom to choose.

  It’s YOUR Right to Work. Support YOUR Right to Work.

• April 6, 2008

  9:39 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  gwats writes:

  If YOU are enjoying the wages & benefits of the hard work of your Union Brothers and Sisters, then you need to join the Union in your Shop or go down the street to the Non-union shop and apply for a job. It's just that simple.

• April 6, 2008

  11:27 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jacka writes:

  "It's just that simple." Gwats, a communist, is right.

  Today if you go to work at a union shop and don't join the brotherhood and pay their "dues", then the corporate HR department will fire you. It's that simple.

  Conspiring against the worker, you bet!