Union sellout in Colorado

For the slither of American “working” men and women who belong to unions (because if you’re not in a union you’re not working, apparently) there is some good news from Colorado: According to Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute, “As of today, the entirety of Colorado state government is officially unionized.”

How do they do it? First, Democratic Governor Bill Ritter signed an executive order (”state employee partnerships”) last year rather than allowing a debate in the legislature or bringing the issue to the people. Then, 7,669 workers imposed unionization and so-called “protections” on 24,305 workers who didn’t vote for it.

Presto, the state of Colorado is ready for the Democratic National Convention.

Soon they’ll be even more to celebrate. In the Senate, there is a bill co-sponsored by Barack Obama that would give unions the right to organize workers without a secret election — Soviet style — called, laughably enough, the Employee Free Choice Act*.

Those who believe in individual liberty, meritocracy and free markets need not fret, too much, however. Unions can slip through as many quasi-authoritarian laws as they want.
Few people want, or, perhaps the more precise word is care, about unions. A mere 7.5 percent of private sector workers belong to unions. How many of those workers are in states that allow “union shops” and would quit if they could, who knows?

Coincidentally, today Steven Malanga points out today, union-backed state legislation is often a burden to state economies.

States with the friendliest and most pro-union legislation, including elaborate prevailing wage laws, haven’t fared very well. In California, which not only has some of the most detailed statewide laws protecting unions as well as dozens of local ordinances in left-leaning municipalities, the portion of the construction industry that’s unionized has slumped in 25 years to 17 percent from 41 percent. In New Jersey, where union-friendly legislators have made it a felony for a company to violate prevailing wage laws (in most states it’s a civil violation publishable by fines), union rates in construction are down to 23 percent of all workers, from 38 percent.

Sounds delightful, doesn’t it, Governor?

*And as David Freddoso reminds me, liberal icon George McGovern has come out strongly against the “Employee Free Choice Act.”