Ritter: Management or Labor?

I’m back (and feeling refreshed) from a weeklong blog vacation. My hope is that I have not lost my entire readership during that brief span.

While I was gone, Rocky Mountain News editor Vince Carroll highlighted the illogic behind Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter’s attempts to promote state employee unionization:

Reminder to Gov. Bill Ritter: You’re in charge. No fooling. So if you want to “strengthen partnerships with snowplow drivers, prison guards and the other men and women who make up the state work force,” as your spokesman says, then by all means, do so.

If they’re being overworked or mistreated, then put people in charge who’ll treat them right. If their suggestions and concerns are being ignored, find department heads who’ll listen to them.

If their initiatives are being suppressed, then do something about it.

What’s stopping you?

But your responsibility as governor is not mainly to state workers: It’s to all Colorado residents, including taxpayers who expect the most modern, efficient delivery of services that government can provide….

Good questions for Governor Ritter: 1) What about your obligation to the taxpaying voters of Colorado? & 2) Are you management or are you labor?

The labor unions, which have briefed the governor’s office, want collective bargaining. The governor’s office steers far away from the term:

Ritter’s administration has not called the draft bill collective bargaining; instead, it says such partnerships are a way to make government use taxpayers’ money more efficiently.

“The governor has been very open about his support for expanding opportunities to partner with state employees,” Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said. “He believes that stronger partnerships will result in more efficient and accountable state government.”

You can understand why our state’s Democrat administration is hesitant to admit they’re planning to hand over the keys of state government to labor union leaders. But deceitful rhetoric aside, campaign promises are campaign promises.