Worker Rights Bill Introduced in Colorado Senate

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DENVER – Today Sens. Robert Rodriguez (D-Denver, Majority Leader) and Jessie Danielson (D-Wheat Ridge) introduced the Worker Protection Act (SB25-005) to update Colorado’s labor law so workers have more freedom to negotiate for better pay and workplace safety. Currently, Colorado law interferes with employer-employee relations by limiting what they can discuss until workers win two separate elections. So far, more than 50 Colorado organizations are in support of the bill, which has 16 Senate co-sponsors and 33 House co-sponsors.

“It’s time to stand up for workers who want the freedom to negotiate so they can put more money in their families’ pockets, decrease the wealth gap and increase worker safety,” said sponsor Sen. Robert Rodriguez. “Working families shouldn’t have to struggle to get by while corporations and investors just get richer. I’m proud to introduce legislation that will eliminate unnecessary barriers Colorado workers face when they want to level the playing field with their employer.”

Workers in Colorado must win two elections to form a strong union, a barrier not faced in any other state. The first is a simple majority for union recognition, in alignment with federal law. Colorado is the only state that requires a second supermajority vote for workers who want to negotiate “union security,” which means all workers benefiting from contract bargaining and ongoing representation pay their share of representation fees – but does not require union membership.

Even if Colorado workers win the second election, there is no guarantee they’ll win union security, only that it can be on the agenda for negotiation talks. Holding a second election subjects workers to a second round of bullying and intimidation, making it even more difficult to negotiate for better pay and safer worksites.

“Our union organizing for a safer workplace accelerated after a pallet weighing hundreds of pounds fell and broke my co-worker’s back, something I saw with my own eyes,” said Larson Ross, a former Hello Fresh warehouse worker. “Once 70 percent of workers signed union support cards, management retaliated by interrogating, intimidating and cutting our schedules and pay. Workers were bullied into dropping their support during the first election and we lost our vote. Why should workers seeking safety and better pay be forced to go through this at all, let alone twice?”

A recent Colorado Fiscal Institute study showed the Worker Protection Act will improve the economic standing of working families, boosting the economy as a whole. Unions help companies retain more tenured, productive workers, reducing turnover costs by increasing job satisfaction and giving employees a voice in their working conditions. Despite corporate lobbyists’ warnings, evidence suggests unions don’t cause business failures or businesses to leave the state. In fact, the decline of unions may slow economic growth by increasing inequality and shifting more profits to the pockets of corporations and the wealthy.

“The union was my ticket into the middle class,” said Ronnie Houston, a Yellow Freight truck driver for 50 years in Colorado Springs. “Not only did a strong union mean we could negotiate critical safety protections in a dangerous industry, but it also gave my family the financial stability that allowed us to buy a home, cover our health care costs, send our kids to college and trade school and retire without worry.”

A flowchart of how Colorado’s union election process works is attached.

Colorado Worker Rights United is a coalition of labor unions and community groups building worker power through organizing and solidarity in Colorado. CWRU is dedicated to modernizing Colorado’s labor laws to make it easier to organize and empower Colorado workers, 70,000 of whom are currently organizing to form a union at a time when an all-time high of seven out of 10 Americans support labor unions.