Face the State

Face The State Staff Report

While Amendment 47, a proposed ballot initiative designed to prohibit unions from forcing workers to join a union or pay union dues would protect only Colorado workers, the measure's opponents are relying heavily on out-of-state dollars to fund their campaign, with 76 percent of all funding coming from unions outside Colorado.

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“Right-to-Work is a very important question for anyone in the labor movement,” said Jim Spellane, spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a union that has provided $200,000 thus far to fight Amendment 47. “These kinds of fights start on the state level and can impact the national level.”

Amendment 47 would specifically ask voters to amend the state Constitution to say that workers cannot be required to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. In addition to Spellane's union, contributions to fight Amendment 47 have come from other national unions such as the AFL-CIO ($114,000), the Service Employees International Union ($821,397) and Unite Here ($110,000). An additional smattering of other out-of-state money has amounted to further funds of $307,120 for right-to-work foes, according to filings with the Secretary of State’s office as of June 2.

Kelley Harp, spokesman for A Better Colorado, the campaign promoting Amendment 47, questioned the use of out-of-state worker dues to fund efforts in Colorado. “In the unions’ case, you have out-of-state money coming from the pockets of hard-working union workers across the country, who most likely are unknowingly funding a ballot fight in Colorado they probably don’t care about,” he said.

According to Spellane, decisions about where and how to spend union dues are made by elected officers. “Union members can’t vote on every expenditure, otherwise nothing would ever get done,” he said.

Not only have national unions invested in fighting a Colorado ballot initiative, but the labor-backed group fighting Amendment 47 has also received support from local unions and individuals in Washington D.C., North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Maryland, Florida and New York.

At the federal level, organized labor has invested heavily in the passage of H.R. 800, the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act," which would eliminate secret ballots in elections overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs, was a co-sponsor of the measure. Udall is running against former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, a Republican, for the U.S. Senate.

According to the Secretary of State, financial support for the A Better Colorado campaign has predominantly come from the Golden-based CoorsTek. Only $77.80 of its funding has come from outside of Colorado.

Of the over $2 million that has been raised by the right-to-work opposition, in-state support has come from billionaire Pat Stryker, who provided $25,000, and the Colorado Federation of Teachers, which added an additional $54,000.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2006 there were approximately 165,000 union members in Colorado, equal to about 8 percent of the workforce.

Amendment 47 is one of three initiatives so far certified to appear on the November ballot.