The Denver Post reports today that Big Labor has escalated its political battle with the business community by introducing new proposals for Colorado's fall ballot:The five ballot initiatives filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 include measures that would: • Deny tax breaks and incentives to companies that relocate jobs outside Colorado. • Require businesses to pay more in property taxes. • Allow injured workers to sue employers outside the workers' compensation system. Along with ballot proposals backed by other unions, Monday's filings further set the stage for a fiery showdown between business and labor in November. Big Labor has pulled out the big guns to try to shoot down one … [Read more...]
Search Results for: Ritter executive order
Iowa, Like Colorado, Bending to Government Employee Union Pressure
The pressure to expand the power of government employee union officials at the expense of taxpayers is not isolated to Colorado. The Des Moines Register reports:Ignoring pleas from the governor and a slew of local elected officials to give Iowans time to weigh in, Democrats in the Iowa Senate today approved a labor-backed bill that would give unions more power at the negotiating table. House File 2645 would give public employees the same power as managers to open up contract talks to almost any workplace subject. The Senate approved the bill on a 27-23 vote. Six days passed between when this proposal was offered and the bill’s passage by both chambers. It marks the first substantial change since the collective bargaining law was … [Read more...]
Dems Push Forward “Wet Noodle” Anti-Strike Legislation
A bill that would ban strikes for Colorado state workers passed a Senate committee yesterday, reports the Denver Post - all unleashed by the stroke of Gov. Bill Ritter's pen. Today's article omits the significant detail, so it's incumbent upon this blogger to remind you that the Democrat proposal is weak and ineffectual. Colorado Senate News features the best commentary on the bill:"Obviously, this bill wouldn't have been introduced at all if Republicans hadn't urged the governor to do the right thing and assure taxpayers their vital public services wouldn't be jeopardized by the threat of a strike," the GOP's Sen. Bill Cadman, of Colorado Springs, said after the committee vote. "Unfortunately, what we got from the governor and his … [Read more...]
Meet the CAGEUG
My creative (and apparently not-too-busy) colleagues at the Independence Institute put together this fun little (less than 2-minute) YouTube video to highlight some recent revelations following Gov. Ritter's executive order: How accurate is this parody? You can find the original story here. … [Read more...]
Radio Show Review
Thanks for those who tuned in to News Talk 1310 KFKA this morning to hear my inaugural guest host appearance on the Amy Oliver Show. For those who want more information on the guests and some of the topics discussed: Alan Gottlieb of the Public Education and Business Coalition edits the HeadFirst Colorado blog, which covers a range of education reform issues. Today we talked about the latest on the Bruce Randolph autonomy proposal, including union officials' latest delaying tactic, which Alan also posted on today. There's also a great story from yesterday on the topic at Face the State. I posted on the news of the rapidly growing estimates of revenue from the Governor's property tax hike at the Colorado Taxpayers blog. Other stories … [Read more...]
More Unions Jockeying to Get a Piece of State Employee Action
From this week's edition of the always insightful & entertaining Education Intelligence Agency Communique:2) Colorado Public Employees Union Hooks Up with CWA. Organized labor in Colorado is about to become very volatile. The dust has yet to settle from Gov. Bill Ritter's executive order establishing "partnerships" between state agencies and labor unions, which is clearly the prelude to public sector collective bargaining. The plans of Colorado WINS, a coalition of SEIU, AFSCME and AFT, are in evidence in the new organization's founding documents, first released exclusively by EIA on November 19. But Colorado WINS will have some competition. The formerly AFT-affiliated Colorado Federation of Public Employees has dissolved and … [Read more...]
On a Transparency Kick
In case you care to read them, below are my two latest published pieces for your perusal, and they strike a common theme: transparency in government. On Nov. 24, the Rocky Mountain News published (printed in the Sunday Denver Post, of all places) my Speakout submission in response to Gov. Ritter's unionization executive order. This Sunday, the Pueblo Chieftain published my op-ed calling for greater online transparency of school district budgets. Want to figure out as a taxpayer just how much your local schools are spending on different items? Think it's easy? Hence, the purpose of the op-ed. So yes, I've been writing on a transparency in government kick lately. It's an important issue more people on both sides of the aisle might … [Read more...]
More Sirota Selective Deception
Repeating himself at the Dead Governors site and at the Denver Post blog, Lefty political hit man David Sirota plies his latest act of deception with the headline: "Business to CO GOP: 'Where's The Evidence' To Back Up Attacks On Ritter?" Sirota links to a Denver Business Journal piece titled "Mixed reaction to union order" to make his point. The problem? First, Sirota willfully ignores the obvious split in the business community between the self-interested and conflict-averse Chamber of Commerce sector and the more entrepreneurial, independent-minded small business sector. Sirota cherry-picks the apathetic responses of the former (you can read his posts for the excerpts) and disregards the strong anger from the latter: One of the … [Read more...]
Rocky Mtn News: Thumbs Up to Ask First and Good Government
For your edification, in case you missed it, a great lead editorial from the Rocky today: Somewhat surprisingly, "paycheck protection" is back. And it's encouraging to see that even with a union-friendly governor and a Democratic legislature, this time the campaign could have lasting consequences. Attempts to end the automatic deduction of union dues from paychecks without the prior consent of individual employees have generally gone nowhere. Legislation has failed. So have proposed ballot initiatives. The only paycheck protection measure that had any impact on automatic dues deductions - a 2001 executive order from Gov. Bill Owens that covered state employees - was rescinded by Gov. Bill Ritter this year. The latest foray, however, … [Read more...]
Union Payback: The Saga Goes On
The Rocky Mountain News reports today about a new policy giving labor union leaders privileged access to Colorado state government property. Too bad the administration of Governor Bill Ritter (D) is so fixated on rewarding some of his biggest campaign supporters. Colorado's voice of center-right reason on the Western Slope cataloged where these new perks fit into the larger scheme of union payback by Democrats: Republicans said the policy amounts to Ritter's second concession to unions after angering them last legislative session when he vetoed a pro-labor bill to make it easier for unions to organize in the private sector. The first payback, they said, was an executive order that allowed union dues to be automatically withdrawn … [Read more...]
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