Colorado union fight ramps up with the delivery of petition signatures

DENVER - The debate about unions in Colorado was ratcheted another notch with this week's filing of petition signatures for a second anti-union measure for the November ballot.

The Independence Institute turned in more than 120,000 signatures for Initiative 53, a proposed constitutional amendment that would bar special-interest groups such as unions from taking dues directly out of government workers' paychecks. A total of 76,047 signatures are needed to qualify for the ballot.

If enough signatures are determined to be valid by the Secretary of State's Office, the initiative would be on the ballot alongside Amendment 47, a right-to-work law that would bar "closed shops" in which union membership is a condition of employment. Unions already have contributed about $2.2 million to fight that measure.

Jon Caldara, president of The Independence Institute, a conservative think tank, disputed characterizing the proposal as anti-union, saying its intent is to bar government from being the "banker, accountant and collection agency for special interests."

If the state of Colorado deducted workers' money for a group like the National Rifle Association, people would be upset - and unions are no less a special interest than the NRA, he said.

Jess Knox, executive director of Protect Colorado's Future, a group fighting Amendment 47, dismissed that contention, saying the two measures have the same goal: promote special interests over workers.

"If it swims like a fish and smells like a fish, it is one," Knox said.

Caldara also is circulating a third petition opposed by Knox's group that would ban sole-source government contract holders from being able to donate to political candidates.

Meanwhile, Protect Colorado's Future is collecting signatures for two measures to make company executives criminally liable in cases of business fraud and to require just cause for any employee to be suspended or fired. Knox said it has collected more than 68,000 signatures on petitions that must be submitted by Aug. 4.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union also is circulating petitions for two measures to require companies to operate safe and healthy workplaces and to mandate that businesses with 20 or more employees provide health insurance.

All this adds up to a scenario that some have called mutually assured destruction, in which pro- and antiunion groups dump tens of millions of dollars into the state and potentially hurt the economy through their fight.

Protect Colorado's Future already has sued to knock Amendment 47 off the ballot, claiming signaturecollection fraud, and Knox made the same accusations against Initiative 53.

Caldara said the allegations are standard actions to try to knock something off the ballot.

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CONTACT THE WRITER: (303) 837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com