Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: We’re county commissioners who support the collective-bargaining bill for county workers

On the final day of Colorado’s 2022 legislative session, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 230, entitled “Collective Bargaining for Counties.” We helped to support lengthy negotiations and numerous changes because we believe that collective bargaining is a fundamental right for all workers and we wanted to find a way to make it work for counties. We […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: The right to strike is the right to be treated as a human

Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee while fighting for the rights of sanitation workers. Indeed, MLK Jr. was a strong advocate for the rights of workers to organize unions, demanding in his final years that the country recognize its working poor. He even equated anti-labor voices with racism, once proclaiming “the labor-hater […]

Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government

Higher education faculty in Colorado beg lawmakers to pass collective bargaining rights bill

Craig Svonkin relocated to Denver 15 years ago and while he’s been able to teach children’s literacy and poetry at Metropolitan State University of Denver exactly like he set out to do, it has come at a heavy cost: his financial stability. The associate professor of English took a huge pay cut to move from […]

Posted inNews, Politics and Government

The Colorado Capitol’s next big labor fight: whether to let local public workers unionize

A bill that would grant more public employees in Colorado the right to unionize is shaping up to be the next big labor fight at the state Capitol. The proposal, which will be sponsored by House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, a Pueblo Democrat, would allow people working for cities, counties, schools, public hospitals and other […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government

With Jared Polis’ blessing, Colorado lawmakers will try again to let state employees collectively bargain

Colorado lawmakers will try again to pass legislation to allow the state’s roughly 30,000 employees to collectively bargain after years of falling short.  The big difference in 2020? The effort has Gov. Jared Polis’ blessing. Polis and Democratic lawmakers rolled out their plans at a news conference on Friday at the Capitol, flanked by state […]