It’s Official: Colorado Government 100% Unionized, Thanks to Bill Ritter

It’s not often I break news on this site, but just remember it was reported here first: As of today, the entirety of Colorado state government is officially unionized. Previously, the “Colorado WINS” union coalition won the right to represent six of eight occupational groups in state government – despite being outvoted by the “don’t give a crap” coalition.

While political junkies in Colorado await the results of candidate primary campaigns, results from mail-in ballot elections for the final two occupational groups of Colorado state government were counted and tabulated today. Via an email from the state labor department, here are the results (which should be posted here shortly):

Financial Services Group:
Colorado WINS was successful in this election. Here is the vote count:

Yes: 405
No: 325

Professional Services Group:
Colorado WINS was successful in this election. Here is the vote count:

Yes: 1,783
No: 1,208

In both cases, fewer than half of eligible employees voted, and fewer than 25 percent voted for employee representation. Interestingly, these two contests were closer than any of the previous six – more participation overall. Combined with the results of previous elections, here is the final tally of state workers on the question of receiving exclusive union representation from “Colorado WINS” (H/T Mike Antonucci):

In favor of unionizing: 7,669 (24.0%)
Against unionizing: 2,952 (9.2%)
Don’t give a crap: 21,353 (66.8%)

It looks like the “Colorado Loses” campaign may have made a small dent in urging more state employees to vote no, but the efforts were too little, too late. Thank you, Governor Bill Ritter.