Group seeking to decertify state employee’s union
BY STEVEN K. PAULSON
Associated Press Writer
Published: Saturday, January 30, 2010 5:10 AM MST
DENVER | An anti-union coalition has begun steps to decertify a state employee union, the coalition’s founder said Friday.
Dave Ohmart, who formed a coalition of about 200 people in the organization he calls Colorado LOSES, began sending out e-mails Friday to about 2,000 members of the 7,600 members of the state’s professional and financial services divisions in an effort to determine if they are happy with the state employee union WINS.
Ohmart says if a third of the 3,500 members of Workers for Innovation and New Solutions are dissatisfied, he plans to begin decertification in August, the two-year anniversary of the union’s founding.
About 3,500 of the state’s 25,000 eligible employees have joined the union from state divisions that include teachers, state troopers, transportation and other departments. Ohmart said there is no way of knowing which state workers he is polling are union members.
The poll asks state workers if they support WINS, if they voted for a state employees’ union and if they are happy with the union’s effort over the past year and a half.
“If I find state workers don’t like the union, I will try to decertify it,” he said.
The union was formed after Gov. Bill Ritter signed an executive order authorizing “partnership agreements” that will make better use of workers’ abilities and allow them to meet with management to discuss concerns.
Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said the governor was unaware of an effort to decertify the union, but he said the governor believes it is working well.
“We have good relations with Colorado WINS. They’ve been working with us on furloughs and other measures to balance the state budget,” Dreyer said.
A spokesman for Colorado WINS did not return phone calls seeking comment.
When Ritter signed the order in 2007, he insisted it doesn’t allow collective bargaining and doesn’t require employees to join a union or force them to pay dues if they decide against joining.
Ritter signed the executive order to show he wasn’t anti-union after angering unions when vetoed a bill in 2007 that would have made it easier for them to form closed shops, even though he had promised to support it. He said business leaders should have had more of a voice in the debate before it passed and objected to the process, not the bill.
Ohmart was among some state employees who complained the union was pushy and tried to coerce employees into joining the union.
Ohmart, an employee at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said he formed a group to counter the union drive. He said his recruiting signs were been vandalized and the state refused to allow him to use state e-mail accounts, even though the union has monthly access.
Ohmart said about 200 employees have contacted him asking him how to resist union pressure.
Ohmart said employees are wasting their money paying the unions because their wages and benefits are set by the Legislature and the state already has a grievance procedure. He said the union can raise millions of dollars without having to account for how it is spent.