The Denver Post has a great feature story today about Colorado state employee Dave Ohmart, who has been challenging the union organizing power with a mixture of tenacity, fair-mindedness, and self-deprecating wit:
The self-described “nonunion rep” worries that the nascent state workers union will eventually draw dues from even employees who voted against it, a specter other states have faced. It’s a scenario Colorado union organizers flatly reject.
Nevertheless, Ohmart in June began offering counter-points to union pitches through a group dubbed “Colorado LOSES,” a jab at the three-union coalition Colorado WINS that won the right to represent all 31,000 eligible state workers last month.
“I don’t want someone forcing me to join something,” Ohmart, 59, said. “I want my money to come here and help me and my friends, to help solve problems at work. What they want their money for is political advantage.”
LOSES’ 50 members, who Ohmart affectionately calls “losers,” are a tiny sum compared to the nearly 7,700 state workers who supported unionization.
If nothing else, Dave Ohmart has found a clever way to counteract the self-aggrandizement, greed, and political ambition of union leaders. Faithful readers of my blog may remember Ohmart as the state employee who had a legally-placed poster torn down and received subtle threats from the in-house Colorado WINS representative.
Good luck to Dave Ohmart as he battles the growing specter of monopoly union power and apathy, too – potentially the bigger foe of the two.
I wonder what it takes for a non-state employee to become an honorary “loser”.
I understand they are suposed to be getting a web site up sometime in the near future. I think a lot of the state worker apathy comes from knowing that this exec order will go away as soon as a republican is elected gov. Much in the same way this one resinded Owen’s eo on union dues as soon as he came into office.