Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About Ben
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Writer / Editor For Hire
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
  • Archives
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • The Westfield Gardener
Home clean government AFSCME Sends Union Membership Cards to Colorado State Employees

11/14/2009 By Ben 5 Comments

AFSCME Sends Union Membership Cards to Colorado State Employees

Reports indicate that thousands of Colorado state employees received AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO) union membership cards in the mail yesterday. Many of them are wondering just why they received them, as they never signed up to join any union — especially not one that is spending plenty of member dues money to shill for the unpopular Obama Care socialized medicine fiasco.

AFSCME is one of three partner unions (SEIU and AFT are the others) that joined together to form the Colorado WINS organizing coalition but a few days after Bill Ritter signed an executive order opening the doors of state government to unionization. According to Section 12, page 9, of the Colorado WINS organizing agreement (PDF):

All members of Colorado WINS shall be members of SEIU, AFT and AFSCME.

As commenter (and presumably Colorado state employee) Eldon wrote on this post of mine: “I received a afscme membership card today. What the H— is this. I never joined any union, and voted against the union. Is this happening to anyone else??” Eldon, did it look like this?

And did it come with a letter like this?

AFSCME Letter to Colorado State Employees – November 2009

The membership card and the letter leave us with a series of questions:

  • Why is AFSCME sending membership cards to many Colorado state employees who never signed up to join a union (and while addressing them as “Dear AFSCME Member”)? (one comment forwarded to me from an employee said: “I called my payroll person and he said that human resources send him a list every month of people to make deductions for dues.. but that I have not been on any list as of yet .. I told him if he does get my name on a list to call me.. BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT THEM TO GET DUES from me..”)
  • Why is AFSCME advertising a “2008-09” union membership that would last no longer than the next seven weeks?
  • Why is AFSCME advertising itself to state employees separately from Colorado WINS and its other organizing partners — SEIU and AFT?

I’m sure there are more questions. But these are just the first three that popped into my head. I know of at least two workers who have contacted AFSCME headquarters and/or the local field representative to get more answers. You can be sure I’ll follow up on it here.

Until then, maybe the Denver Post can pick up on this story, too.

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General, Labor, PPC

Comments

  1. Kathie Hamm says

    11/17/2009 at 6:44 pm

    Why is our HR giving out our personal home address? Are they selling this list? Who else has been given my private information? We should be allowedd to opt out of sharing this information with anyone without our permission.

  2. Sandi McGoff says

    11/19/2009 at 7:19 pm

    I’m not a member of this or any other union. I refused to sign anything for/from them. I want answers as to why I have received one of these cards stating I’m a “Member in good standing”. What is going on? I demand to know how they have any information on me!

  3. Ben says

    11/20/2009 at 8:57 am

    Sandi, Go here for some more updated information:
    https://bendegrow.com/2009/listen-to-colorado-loses-podcast-update-afscmes-mass-mail-screwup/

  4. Sandi McGoff says

    11/21/2009 at 12:46 pm

    Thanks Ben. I sent an e-mail to both Marty Flahive & AFSCME, demanding to know how they have my information. I will not let this drop. We have also been in contact with Glen Beck. Perhaps someone will pick up on this & investigate. Sorry, but I do not want my name associated with a bunch of “thug” unions. I have heard back from Flahive, only to be told he can’t tell me what he doesn’t know. Nothing back from AFSCME yet.

Trackbacks

  1. Peoples Press Collective » Listen to Colorado Loses’ Podcast Update: AFSCME’s Mass Mail Screwup says:
    11/19/2009 at 4:24 pm

    […] Saturday I reported that thousands of Colorado state employees who never signed up to join a union were barraged with membership cards from the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — one of the […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Inside

  • About Ben
  • Archives
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
    • Colorado Ballot 2014
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • The Westfield Gardener
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Writer / Editor For Hire

About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

  • AI-Enhanced Cyberbullying: The Dark Side of Teen Innovation
  • My Baker’s Dozen of Top 2023 Reads
  • Common Learning Disabilities in Children
  • Tips to Teach Kids to Set and Achieve Goals
  • The Christmas Music Countdown You’ve Been Looking For: 2022 Edition

Colorado News

  • Colorado Senate News
  • Complete Colorado
  • Independence Institute
  • Loveland Politics
  • The Colorado Observer

National News and Politics

  • Drudge Report
  • Hot Air
  • National Review
  • Politico
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Reason
  • The Washington Times
  • TownHall
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Weekly Standard
  • World Magazine

Blogs Extraordinaire

  • American Thinker
  • David Harsanyi’s Blog
  • E!! The True Conservative Story
  • EIA Intercepts
  • Evangelical Outpost
  • Hugh Hewitt
  • Instapundit
  • LaShawn Barber
  • Lileks
  • Little Green Footballs
  • Michelle Malkin
  • NRO's The Corner
  • Power Line
  • Red State

Completing the Blogroll

  • Alarming News
  • Black Five
  • Blogs of War
  • Eduwonk
  • Flypaper
  • Fraters Libertas
  • Historical Conversations
  • IMAO
  • Jay P. Greene
  • Mike Anderson
  • Mullings
  • Professor Bainbridge
  • Right Thinking
  • Right Wing News
  • Right Wing Nuthouse
  • Shot in the Dark
  • Talking Points Memo
  • Virginia Postrel
  • Volokh Conspiracy

Christian Commentary et al.

  • Kevin Pierpont
  • Sharper Iron

Conservative and GOP Sites

  • Backbone America
  • Cal Thomas
  • Colorado Republican Party
  • Colorado Republican Study Committee
  • Dennis Prager
  • Denver Metro Young Republicans
  • Free Republic
  • Heritage Foundation
  • Jefferson County Republican Party
  • Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  • Mark Steyn
  • Michael Medved
  • Rush Limbaugh

Colorado Blogs

  • American Kestrel
  • Bob Agard
  • Colorado Charter Schools
  • Colorado Peak Politics
  • Colorado Pols
  • Colorado Right
  • Conservative Libertarian Outpost
  • Coyote Gulch
  • Ed Is Watching
  • Free Colorado
  • Jeff Crank Show
  • Mark Hillman
  • Patient Power
  • PirateBallerina
  • Protein Wisdom
  • Reagan Girl
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 1.0 (Archive)
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 (Archive)
  • Rossputin
  • Stop the ACLU Blog
  • The Spot (Denver Post)
  • We Stand Firm

Other Sites

  • Technorati
  • Word Press

Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0

  • Reclaim the Blue
  • The Business Word
  • The Daily Blogster
  • View from a Height

To Contact Me:
bendegrow-at-gmail.com

Copyright © 2025 RSS Feed · WordPress · Log in