Look for the Union Label

Thanks to tea party hype in the recent primaries, analysis has been somewhat scarce that unions haven’t been faring all that well lately at the ballot box.  Meanwhile, there are small bits of news in Colorado that suggest those trends may be taking shape here as well.

Probably the biggest news was in Arkansas, where unions invested $10 million to defeat Blanche Lincoln in a Democrat primary.  Lincoln survived, the unions getting no return on investment.

Now to San Diego.  The Wall Street Journal notes that in neighboring Chula Vista, one of the most contentious union questions in recent memory went down to defeat in a vote that wasn’t close.  Money quote:

By 56% to 43%, Chula Vista voted in favor of Proposition G, which bans project labor agreements. These rules let unions pre-emptively set the terms for municipal construction projects, such as requiring the contractors to consent to union representation, special benefits or pay collectively bargained wage rates. Such agreements increase taxpayer costs as competitive bidding between union and open shops is suppressed. From Boston’s Big Dig to the San Francisco airport, if it’s a project with egregious cost overruns, a project labor agreement is probably involved.

Given the size of the victory, measures similar to Prop G could soon be sprouting up all over California.

What do we see here in Colorado?

First, in the last legislative session, Democrats passed the so-called ‘teacher tenure’ bill, despite the screaming, kicking, and clawing of the state’s largest union, the Colorado Education Association.

Next, again in the state legislature, Dems didn’t want a fight over a law that would permanently create an avenue for union dues to be collected through payroll deductions in government agencies.  The law would mainly effect teachers, but with the government workers union “Colorado WINS” still trying to make inroads, there were broader implications at stake.  Currently, this issue has mainly been decided by gubernatorial executive order, and looks to remain that way in the foreseeable future.  Owens signed an exec order making the collection of union dues through government payrolls illegal; Ritter reversed that order.  It’s almost a guarantee that a Governor McInnis would take things back as they were in the Owens administration, meaning any union worker in government would actually have to write a check in order to pay their monthly dues.  Hickenlooper?  He’s been fairly tight-lipped on the many union issues that Gov. Ritter created, especially the executive order that touched off a firestorm.

But how about a side-spat within the Democratic Party itself?  Recently, Adams County Democrat Edward Casso said Bill Ritter was a profile in cowardice.  As Denver Post reporter Lynn Bartels notes, Casso and Ritter have had disagreements over union issues, with Casso being the louder union voice.

The implications of the Casso-Ritter squabble are almost meaningless to Ritter, but not to Mayor Hickenlooper.  No doubt Casso and the CEA will try to pull “moderate” John Hickenlooper to their side.  Remember that in early in 2009, Hickenlooper got in a staring match with the Denver Fire Union, and the union blinked.  Additionally, Hickenlooper’s been caught on tape praising TABOR, an idea that’s never in line with the CEA or other smaller teachers unions.

It could be an interesting Thanksgiving at the table that Dems and the unions have shared so peacefully for so long.