Colorado House panel rejects ban on strikes by public workers

DENVER - A House committee Thursday rejected a Colorado Springs legislator’s tough prohibition against strikes by public employees.

Instead, the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee voted 6-5 in favor of a measure by Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, that bans strikes by state employees only.

Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, had proposed banning strikes by all public employees in the state, including teachers and city workers. It carried fines of $500 per day for striking workers and $10,000 a day for labor organizations and would have decertified unions and barred employees from working for any public body for one year.

Reisberg’s proposal has less stringent penalties, with violators facing a misdemeanor charge but not the mandatory loss of their job or high fines.

The dueling measures were in response to Gov. Bill Ritter’s Nov. 2 executive order giving state employee unions more bargaining power. Ritter’s order banned strikes, but state Attorney General John Suthers issued an opinion that the Colorado Supreme Court had upheld workers’ conditional right to strike, despite an old clause in state law prohibiting it.

Thursday’s bills were the first shot at banning strikes since the 1992 ruling, and Riesberg emphasized the law is needed to clarify Ritter’s order. Several Democrats who voted for House Bill 1189 said they only supported it because it allowed employees access to nonbinding arbitration.

“I had neither fear nor malice (toward employees) when I decided to bring this forward,” said Riesberg, who once helped to form a union in Greeley. “It was done only for the sake of clarity.”

Republicans said it was a “decaffeinated” version of Gardner’s bill, without teeth to enforce a ban.

Afterward, House Minority Caucus Chairwoman Amy Stephens, R-Monument, said that her party would try to toughen up Riesberg’s bill at its next stop on the House floor.

“I think today is a great day for organized labor in the state of Colorado but an awful day for Colorado business,” said Rep. Victor Mitchell, a Republican who represents Teller County.

If anyone was more upset than Republicans at the decision, however, it may have been union leaders. Officials from the Teamsters and Communications Workers of America railed against taking away the right to strike, and Colorado Education Association lobbyist Dan Daly said that having the right to strike drives both sides to bargain in good faith.

Teamsters Local Union 455 Political Director Ted Textor said he is working with an unidentified legislator on a bill that would grant state workers collective bargaining, in which they present proposals on everything from salaries to safety to their bosses and then vote as a group whether to accept the state’s terms. The “partnerships” that Ritter created carry less power, he said.