Quick links: Premajority unions | Labor Peace Act elections | Denver Art Museum, Douglas County libraries union updates | AG’s top 10 complaints in 2023
It’s been a couple of frenetic years for workers whose casual conversations with colleagues turned into full-on union organization since early 2020. Some workers have been fired. Others abandoned the effort. A small minority have seen success. But for the most part, unions coexist with Colorado’s status as a right-to-work state.
As reported in a Colorado Sun story earlier this week, most of 143 Colorado petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board since early 2020 didn’t make it past the first union-formation vote. An even smaller number failed to attempt a Colorado Labor Peace Act election, which is needed to bypass right-to-work employment policies. Only a small handful have a contract.
To unionize, though, workers don’t have to petition the federal agency. An employer can voluntarily recognize the staff as a bargaining unit, as was the case for artists at Meow Wolf Denver. Or workers can take the premajority route, which lacks collective bargaining rights, but still creates an infrastructure under which to organize. Agriculture workers aren’t allowed to unionize at the federal level, but a Colorado law granted farm workers and the cannabis agriculture workers the right in 2021.
What is a premajority union?
The concept of a premajority union dates to well before the 1930s, when the National Labor Relations Act solidified our current labor policies. Essentially, it’s a group of employees who act like a union but don’t have collective bargaining rights under federal or state law. They have also been called solidarity unions, noncontract unions and minority unions.
But the label, and the workplaces interested in it, has emerged recently alongside an uptick in union activity since the pandemic, said Ahmed White, a law professor at the University of Colorado.
“There’s a surge in positive views of unions, there’s a surge in interest among workers themselves, but this is happening in a context where there is not a lot of union representation,” White said. “The world is very different in that latter respect than it was in the 1970s. That leaves people interested in a union without much of a readymade structure. The path forward is not as clear as it would have been generations ago, even though the interest is high.”
That lack of clarity is reminiscent of the pre-1930s era, before the Labor Relations Act created strict criteria for unionizing, and gave employers more certainty about who they were dealing with. During that time, multiple unions — and even rivalry between unions — within one workplace wasn’t abnormal.
“That could definitely happen (again). No doubt about it,” White said. “It’s not clear that it would be a bad thing, though, that the workers have some choice about what kind of unionism they favor. That was the norm through the 1930s and in some ways into the 1940s and ’50s, and later became quite abnormal. It begs the question: Why is that uncertainty such a bad thing if it accompanies some real vibrancy of choice for workers?”
Getting past the Colorado Labor Peace Act
Another way around the NLRB vote is the Colorado Labor Peace Act. In the case of farm workers, who are allowed to unionize at the state level but not federal, union success stories show up in results of the state’s Labor Peace Act elections.
Grow workers with Green Dragon Cannabis Co. went this route in 2022 and negotiated their first employment contract in November.
But the Labor Peace Act is a law that unions find to be a challenge.
Enacted in 1943, the state law was seen as a compromise between unions and business owners. That’s why Colorado is considered a modified right-to-work state, which means that new hires don’t have to join a union if one exists, though they can if they want to. But if a union wins its Labor Peace Act election, then union membership is required.
The Peace Act rules require three-quarters of eligible workers to participate in a second vote, if they already successfully voted in an NLRB election. Without it, the union has less bite since it doesn’t represent all eligible workers and cannot collect dues from those who don’t join. The NLRB’s vote needs just a simple majority.
“This is where it gets kooky,” said Alejo R. González, political and community coordinator at Service Employees International Union Local 105 in Denver. “So you could literally win the vote 55 to zero and still lose because you didn’t get 75% of the people to vote. That 75% turnout is insane. It’s hard to get that many people to vote. … And a lot of companies won’t start bargaining until that happens.”
According to data from the state Department of Labor and Employment, 22 unions have held a Labor Peace Act election since early 2020. Of those, 13 won, including employees at Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey and Green Dragon Cannabis Co.
While the Labor Peace Act vote means a group of organized workers can bypass the NLRB petition process, it’s still a challenge to reach a first contract agreement, said Jim Hammons, organizing director for United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7, which has worked with more than a dozen new union efforts in Colorado since 2020.
“Most of our (unions) haven’t gotten to the stage where we’re going to ask for the Colorado Peace Act,” he said. “But there was such overwhelming support at Stranahan’s that we conducted a Peace Act election with the state of Colorado. And it passed. Members wanted to be a union shop. We’ve been negotiating for 14 months.”
As The Colorado Sun reported, those barriers to unionization are harder for newly formed unions to overcome. Workplaces with a union precedent have had an easier time riding the wave of union support than those just trying to get started, and ultimately, completing negotiations on that first contract that nearly always includes a pay raise.
Why form a union if you can’t secure a contract?
Even without a collective bargaining agreement — a contract — premajority unions are a way for workers to band together in a semiformal manner, creating an infrastructure to make demands of their employer or work on political issues affecting their industry.
“I think when you are forced to work as an open union or premajority union, you can’t rely on traditional contract negotiations,” said Kiyomi Bolick, CWA Local 7799 secretary and Defenders Union of Colorado member. “But you are still using the power of collective action because, you know, there is power in a group of people just getting together and deciding what to do. And one of the things that we’ve kind of come together on is, well, what if we just passed a bill?”
The Defenders Union of Colorado, made up of public defenders and support staff employed by the state, has been working on House Bill 1289, currently being considered by the state legislature, to create workload standards for public defenders.
The public defenders’ union, like more than 140 other unions, came together after the pandemic. In fact, Bolick attributes the union’s ability to organize to the pandemic, “not just because everyone was miserable during that time, but because we really learned how to rely on Zoom for communication,” she said. Prior to the pandemic, she’d talk to many of her far-flung coworkers once per year at their annual convention. When everyone got comfortable meeting digitally, public defenders in Denver could quickly and reliably trade notes with those in Grand Junction, and elsewhere.
“Sure, it would be really helpful if you fell under the (National Labor Relations Act) or, I don’t know, if you had like a path to forced recognition in Colorado,” Bolick said. “But you don’t need either of those to work with your coworkers to make change.”
➔ ICYMI: In four years, Colorado workers at 143 companies filed to form a union. At least 16 have a contract. >> Read
Colorado’s latest union efforts
➔ Denver Art Museum. Workers at the Denver Art Museum voted 120-59 in favor of forming a union on March 6 and 7. The workers originally stated their intent to unionize in mid-January.
Since the announcement, union organizers have filed an unfair labor practice case with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that their employer discharged or refused to hire employees, changed terms or conditions of employment, and issued coercive statements and rules to discourage union activity, among other things. DAM management stated that they are aware of the claim.
“We can assure you that the museum respects the legal right of employees to unionize and would not interfere with that right, or violate the law, in any way. The museum will respond to the filing and follow any required next steps with the NLRB,” they said in an emailed statement to The Colorado Sun.
➔ Jefferson County library workers unionize. More than 200 workers at Jefferson County’s 12 libraries voted in favor of unionizing with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 18, union officials said Thursday. The 213-62 vote makes the library workers among the first to unionize under Senate Bill 230, or the 2022 Collective Bargaining For Counties Act, which gives county workers the same rights as state employees to join a union and bargain on the terms of employment. “Workers have been contending with a number of issues, including low wages and workplace safety. Safety in particular is a concern, as libraries have become ground zero in culture wars and default social service agencies,” the union said in a news release. Now, it’s on to negotiating the contract, a union representative said.
➔ Denver sheriff deputies get new contract. Denver City Council approved an amended collective bargaining agreement with the Denver Sheriff Department and its union, the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 27. The contract includes a minimum overtime rate of 1.5-times regular pay, annual salary increases of 2% to 3% through 2025 and increasing the one-time weapons allowance from $650 to $1,000, according to the city. The department employs more than 1,100 uniformed and non-uniformed staff, according to the city.
➔ Keystone ski patrollers announce plans for union vote. The 93 ski patrollers at Vail Resorts-owned Keystone ski area could join unionized patrollers at 10 other Western ski areas, writes Sun reporter Jason Blevins. >> Read story
Latest NLRB petitions to form a union:
Don’t miss What’s Working and get it delivered for free: Subscribe!
Sun economy stories you may have missed
➔ Pueblo’s new Fuel & Iron food hall accused in lawsuit of shorting its builders as construction lagged, costs soared. A lawsuit brought by Ash and White Construction blames Fuel & Iron for making design changes, but the developers say the general contractor was disorganized. >> Read story
➔ FAFSA delays cast uncertainty over university budgets as Colorado lawmakers look at how to fund higher education. Lower enrollments and state funding shortfalls could set the scene for “a potential perfect storm,” one university’s director of financial aid said. >> Read story
➔ Colorado construction workers, pressured by longer, harder hours, die by suicide twice as often as other professions. Companies, unions and trade groups have begun paying attention to the mental health of workers to help reverse the devastating trend. >> Read story
➔ AI pervades everyday life with almost no oversight. Colorado and other states are scrambling to catch up. Lawmakers in at least seven states are taking big legislative swings to regulate bias in artificial intelligence, filling a void left by Congress’ inaction. >> Read story
Other working bits
➔ Unauthorized subscriptions top AG’s complaints for third year. During National Consumer Protection Week, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser shared the annual top 10 consumer complaint list and “retail sales” ranked at the top, with 1,666 complaints filed in 2023. That includes unauthorized subscriptions to products and services, issues with service and delivery or cancellation. In total, the AG received 20,390 complaints last year, up 14% from 2022. >> File a complaint
➔ Aurora business gets SBA shout out. Achieve Sports Center, a youth-sports training facility in Aurora is this year’s Colorado Small Business of the Year winner by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The company along with the Aurora-South Metro Small Business development center will be awarded at a ceremony May 2 during National Small Business Week. >> More winners
Thanks for sticking with me for this week’s report. This week’s edition was written by myself and Colorado Sun arts & culture reporter Parker Yamasaki. Give her a shoutout if you’ve got a suggestion about cultural happenings in your community.
Remember to check out The Sun’s daily coverage online. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~tamara
Miss a column? Catch up:
What’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.
Support this free newsletter and become a Colorado Sun member: coloradosun.com/join