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Panel OKs bill barring strikes by state workers

GOP members call Democratic version toothless

By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 25, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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Riesberg's bill includes only state workers in strike ban.

Riesberg's bill includes only state workers in strike ban.

Gardner's bill banned strikes by all public employees.

Gardner's bill banned strikes by all public employees.

Riesberg's bill includes only state workers in strike ban.

Riesberg's bill includes only state workers in strike ban.

Gardner's bill banned strikes by all public employees.

Gardner's bill banned strikes by all public employees.

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Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, offered a little humor Thursday in summing up the chance he thought his bill banning all public employees from striking had of passing once it hit a Democratic-controlled committee that afternoon.

"I've sharpened my sabers and loaded my gun," he said. "However, I think I'm about to put the gun to my head and the saber to my chest."

Indeed, the Democrats on the House Business and Labor Committee killed his bill by postponing it indefinitely on a 7-4, party-line vote.

They called it a heavy-handed overreaction to a possible problem with Gov. Bill Ritter's Nov. 2 executive order giving unions a larger voice in state government.

Instead, the committee barely approved a competing bill offered by a Democrat to clear up an ambiguity in Ritter's order.

It voted 6-5 in favor of House Bill 1189, sponsored by Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, which would prohibit strikes for the roughly 37,000 state workers eligible for Ritter's so-called employee-partnership agreements.

Ritter had argued that his order barred state workers from striking. But he agreed to sign legislation banning strikes after concerns were raised that his order could not supersede an existing law allowing a qualified right for public employees to strike.

Riesberg's bill would make it a misdemeanor to violate the prohibition. He urged its passage in the interest of helping the legislature move on to what he said is more important business.

Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, was the lone Democrat to vote against the bill, saying she didn't want to take away state workers' right to strike.

All four Republicans on the committee voted against it, saying it was toothless.

They argued instead for Gardner's bill, which would have banned strikes for all public employees, including RTD bus drivers and public school teachers.

HB 1187 also would have levied harsh penalties against striking workers, including jail time, hundreds of dollars in fines and mandatory firing.

Carroll said the penalties in Gardner's bill were stiffer than those for sex offenders and other felons.

Representatives for several unions spoke out against both bills, reminding the committee that the right to strike was won after the Colorado militia killed striking workers in the Ludlow massacre in the early part of the last century.

Joe Blake, president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, spoke in favor of both bills, saying Ritter's executive order had created an impression among companies that might consider moving here that Colorado is not a business-friendly state.

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, challenged Blake to tell them how public employee partnership agreements would harm private-sector businesses.

"Have we seen a diminution of interest (in companies coming to Colorado)? I wouldn't say that," Blake conceded.

Riesberg's bill banning strikes for state workers will head to the House next for a full vote.

Republicans will get another chance to debate the role of unions in state government when the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee takes up a GOP bill seeking to reverse Ritter's order.

bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059

Comments

  • January 25, 2008

    7:33 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jacka writes:

    Total democrat cya.

    Way to go Mr. Weld county legislator. Your weak bill will be passed and signed by the union master to the token objection of a few union bosses.

    I can't wait for your election mail stating just how pro business you are, how you butch slapped the union bosses, etc... all in the name of the good people.

    Somebody please get a striking writer to start drafting the screen play of the just democracy and social justice at hand.