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Ballot-issues deal next week, Salazar says

By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 19, 2008 at 8:33 p.m.
Updated September 19, 2008 at 11:53 p.m.

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Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar

Photo by @Associated Press

Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar

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Labor and business leaders met Friday evening to continue negotiations over several contentious issues on the November ballot, making progress on how they would work together but agreeing to wait until next week for any deal.

The two sides met at the Denver offices of Sen. Ken Salazar, who has been working with union leaders and business executives to come up with a way to defuse what could be a huge battle at the polls.

As Salazar arrived at his office on 15th Street, he told the Rocky he expected a formal agreement "by next week." He declined to elaborate. "We're working on it," Salazar said.

The latest offer that sources say is on the table: businesses would kick in about $5 million to help fight three measures unions are trying to defeat:

* Amendment 47, the so- called right-to-work measure that would prohibit the current practice of requiring workers covered by collective bargaining contracts to pay at least some union dues.

* Amendment 49, which would bar governments in Colorado from deducting union dues - or money for other special interest groups - directly from workers' paychecks.

* Amendment 54, which would ban sole-source government contractors from making political contributions.

In exchange, unions would pull four measures that businesses would otherwise have spent money fighting until Election Day on Nov. 4.

Those measures would make executives criminally liable for fraudulent activity they know about but fail to report, as well as ban the firing of workers without a specific reason. The measures also would require employers to pay 80 percent of employees' health care premiums and allow injured workers to seek damages beyond workers compensation benefits.

Unions spent millions of dollars to get those measures on the ballot, mainly in the hope of using them as leverage to convince backers of the right-to- work amendment to withdraw their ballot proposal.

But right-to-work proponents have said they have no intention of backing down by an Oct. 2 deadline to withdraw.

While some business groups have endorsed the right-to- work measure, a number of business leaders associated with an alliance called Colorado Concern have become willing to defeat it as a way to preserve the current labor-business climate in the state.

The potential agreement under discussion between business and labor also would call for unions and businesses to mount a "no" campaign on the three anti-union measures.

Pat Hamill, president of Oakwood Homes and a board member of Colorado Concern, arrived at Salazar's office wearing a green button indicating his positions: "No on 47, 49, 54."

Among others at the Salazar meeting were Jim Carpenter, who is Gov. Bill Ritter's chief of staff; Ernest Duran Jr., president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7; and Jess Knox, executive director of Protect Colorado's Future, a labor-backed coalition.

kelleyj@303-954-5068 or RockyMountain News.com

Comments

  • September 19, 2008

    9:10 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    WeloveDenverkids writes:

    If the unions think for one minute that business will live up to their agreement and they pull their ballot initiatives, they will get what they deserve..................No more dues base.

  • September 22, 2008

    8:27 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jacka writes:

    Pat Hamill is a Democrat loving hack. He is the developer of Green Valley Ranch - you know Green Valley Ranch out by DIA home of the 50% foreclosure rate.

    Oakwood Homes = Green Valley Ranch developer

    Just who got all those unqualified buyuers into Green Valley Ranch?

    Hammill = Democrat hack