CARROLL: Where unions rule
By Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
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Is that building at Colfax Avenue and Bannock Street still Denver City Hall, or have council members formally renamed it Denver Union Hall?
If not, the rechristening may not be far off. After all, kowtowing to union interests has gotten so pronounced that one council member objected last week to a proposed contract with a company to manage airport parking for fear that its modest management fee signified a covert plan to cut union staffing.
"That raised my eyebrows, and right away I thought that I hope that doesn't come on the backs of the employees," said councilman Paul Lopez.
In the normal course of affairs, it would be considered good news that the most highly rated bid for a $70 million, five-year parking contract also included the lowest management fee among four proposals. But such is Lopez's union-centric view of the world - he worked as an organizer before his election last year - that even a management fee can't be accepted at face value.
Believe it or not, Lopez is only one of several council members who have expressed reservations about the proposed fee for Standard Parking ($510,000 a year, as opposed to bids of $656,000, $790,000 and $1.3 million). It's as if the company, which also operates parking at airports in Chicago, Kansas City, Cleveland and Portland, wasn't competent to figure out what fee makes sense to its bottom line.
Council members didn't only wonder whether the city might be better off paying a larger fee. They lectured the company on its duty to reach a "mutually agreeable" collective-bargaining deal. "Having a union representing our work force out at the airport is very important, particularly in light of the thousands of union members that are going to be flying in and seeing our city with the Democratic National Convention," declared Chris Nevitt rather superfluously.
Meanwhile, Rocky reporter Daniel Chacon has discovered that Nevitt and two other council members seemingly functioned as informal negotiators on the union's behalf during a recent meeting with labor leaders and Standard Parking executives. One company official told Chacon he was "a little taken aback" by the pre-meeting hugs between council members and union representatives.
And speaking of overkill, it's been less than a month since the council approved a proclamation honoring Leslie Moody, president of the Denver Area Labor Federation. (Nevitt once ran a nonprofit think tank founded by the federation.) After three irritated council members made a point of vacating the chamber during the vote, Lopez offered this curious assessment, according to The Denver Post: "I respect their opinion. But there should be no controversy about the need for a living wage or access to health care or affordable housing."
But of course there is controversy over the definition of "affordable housing" and how to provide it, the definition of a "living wage" and whether government should guarantee it, and the best way to cover the medically uninsured.
But I suppose you'd have to search beyond the confines of the labor federation to locate such differing views.
McCain's judgment
"John McCain Has No Plan to Help Colorado's Families Hit By the Mortgage Crisis," blared the press release from Forward Colorado, an outfit associated with the Colorado Democratic Party.
McCain doesn't? You mean to say a politician actually believes "it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers," as he said Tuesday? You mean the man thinks that "any assistance (to homeowners) must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren't"?
The fact that a politician - especially one running for president - refuses to bid for votes with costly programs actually speaks well of the fellow.
By coincidence, McCain's judgment was reinforced this week by the announcement from the National Association of Realtors that February sales of existing homes (but not new homes) unexpectedly rose, suggesting the worst may be behind us.
Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.
Comments
Posted by kathyM on March 27, 2008 at 8:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Denver is looking more and more like Chicago. Unions attract organized crime like moths to a flame, so it won't be long before that element shows up here.
Posted by Elwood on March 27, 2008 at 9:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's already here, just look at the Governor and his state legislature (although the "organized" part is a little suspect)
Posted by Brockage on March 27, 2008 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
There are many ways to buy a politician: money is only one of them.
Posted by mytwosense on March 27, 2008 at 11:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hmmm, interesting statement about McCain. I've heard similar sentiments expressed by both liberal and conservative citizens. It seems the media wants to turn this into a bi-partisan issue, though, and as always, the politicians follow suit...
Well, except for McCain. I honestly think he's one of the few decent politicians out there, although, as a lib, I don't subscribe to many of his conservative beliefs.
Posted by bropous on March 27, 2008 at 11:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
$.02, your (liberals') comfort with McQueeg is precisely the reason that many true conservatives break out in hives to think that this backstabbing liberal has been foisted upon us as the Republican candidate.
McQueeg has spent the past few years gutting conservatives, stabbing our President in the back and sucking up to the Dhimmi/Media machine.
I'll vote for the S*B, but only under protest, and only knowing how much worse off we'd all be if Hitlery or Hussein got elected President.
Posted by JimmyB on March 27, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
There's nothing wrong with unions. Don't your believe everyone should be owned by one? Just ask the Teamsters.
Posted by mytwosense on March 27, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Bropous, how do you define a "true conservative"? Just curious.
Posted by pj48b on March 27, 2008 at 2:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Unions have their place. City, State and Federal Government is not one of them....
Posted by MikeK on March 27, 2008 at 3:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't usually read the News, but I did notice this editorial and the article today, and I have to say: I know unions may not be as popular here where everyone is a independent contracter/pioneer/ cowboy, but where I come from (Michigan) we realized that the workers only hope against the power of our employers and the government that favored them, was to come together and act with a unified will. It works. AND, Do I think the city oughta be concerned about how any company they contract to treats their works? H*** Yes!
Posted by peterpi on March 27, 2008 at 8:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's one thing to be supportive of unions, which I am. It's another thing to hold a meeting in defiance of Open Meetings laws to apparently do the union's work for them. If those city councilpeople have a concern about the contract, they should be open about it. Call me dense, but I fail to see how a management fee means workers won't have health care or decent pay.
Regarding John McCain and his alleged lack of empathy for the alleged victims of the current housing crisis, there's a perfectly acceptable economic theory that the best way for us to get out of this mess is for the market to right itself. People can disagree with it, but it doesn't make adherents like McCain callous. I don't agree with it entirely myself. It can degenerate into a mercenary sink or swim attitude. But the bottom line seems to be that loans were given to people with shaky financials who may never have had the ability to pay back. How many people screaming "Oh poor me!" should never have received a loan in the first place?
Long time consumer fraud maxim: If a deal sounds too good to be true, it is.
Posted by kathyM on March 27, 2008 at 9:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
MikeK, I've seen unions do good work. My father started his career as a steelworkers' union "mill rat." My great-uncle started a Great Lakes shipmasters' union in the 1940s, which was very successful. But I've also seen the downside of unions.
In 1980 I was a clerk (non-union) at an industrial construction company in Chicago. The trade unions were taking turns--yes, taking turns--going on strike that summer. The local pipefitter union president worked at our jobsite. He thought it was insane to go on strike when industrial construction was nearly at a standstill. He spent much time on the phone with the union higher-ups, begging them not to call a strike for demands like birthdays off with pay! I'm not kidding!
Unfortunately, he was in the minority. All the unions got their turn and their pound of flesh. The only people who benefited were the union members--that is, those who could actually get work.
Unions once had a noble purpose, but they have abused their members with short-sighted bargaining and making it nearly impossible for an employer to adjust to a rapidly changing marketplace. That's one of the biggest reasons the Midwest became "the rust belt" in the 70s and 80s. And that's yet another reason why Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
Posted by Cwillyrun1 on March 27, 2008 at 9:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The voters of Denver were warned what would happen if they elected union sympathizers, and now the city has it. Thankfully I don't live in Denver. Does it matter if the people coming to Denver for the convention see union airport workers.... are they sticking around to see them at the airport every day? The Denver city council is in the union's back pocket, along with the governor of Colorado.
Do these elected officials get kickbacks for kissing union a-s-s? Brown nosers!
Posted by stuckiniowa on March 28, 2008 at 12:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
unions are responsible for the fall in stature of the once great American Steel industry, the domestic auto industry and at least one major airline. Of course their effect on government will be negligible since it is already completely useless and inefficient.
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