Big Labor Pushes For Monopoly-Bargaining Mandate in Colorado

Under current Colorado law, local governments have the prerogative to hand public-safety union bosses monopoly power to speak for all police and/or firefighters on matters concerning their pay, benefits and work rules.  So-called “exclusive representation” forces public-safety officers who don’t want a union to allow it to negotiate their terms and conditions of employment.  And the experience of state after state shows that government union monopoly bargaining results in higher taxes and public services that are at best  mediocre.

With the law already tilted heavily in their favor, you’d think Colorado’s government union bosses would be happy, but they aren’t.  They want state law to force local governments to grant unions monopoly-bargaining status as soon as a bare majority of employees indicate they support unionization. Legislation now before the state Senate would accomplish that objective for the firefighters union brass.  Reporter Eli Stokols furnishes more information in the story linked below:

 It’s the kind of bill that would never have survived a legislature where Democrats and Republicans each controlled a legislative chamber. . . .

Senate Bill 25, which labor unions have long pushed for, would allow collective bargaining for firefighters without a local government approving it. . . . 

But it’s strongly opposed by local governments that don’t want the state overstepping local ordinances and potentially affecting their budgetary decisions. . . .

It’ll get its first hearing before the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee Wednesday afternoon.

Lawmakers set to hear firefighters’ call for collective bargaining