If there were annual awards for hypocrisy and bad judgment, Bill Ritter would win both, hands down. He might win them in consecutive order.
During the 2006 election, while seeking and getting the support of business, Bill Ritter made backroom promises to labor that he would help destroy the labor peace act. The newly elected legislature took him at his word and fast tracked HB 1072.
Their timing wasn't that great as Ritter had just asked the business community to help him clean up $250,000 in campaign debt. Like any good politician, Bill Ritter couldn't poke his benefactors in the eye that quickly, so he vetoed the bill.
If the situation had been left there, we might have had labor peace in Colorado, but Bill Ritter still had a debt to labor. He repaid that debt with a midnight executive order.
Any organization will act to protect itself. The business community, which had never pushed right to work when the Republicans were in charge now sees it in its interest to put right to work in the Constitution. Labor is quite willing to try to destroy the Colorado economy to keep that from happening.
Now, according to the Denver Post, Bill Ritter wants peace.
The problem is that the business community seems likely to give him and labor his gains, forgetting that their desire for peace will cost their allies in government employ who don't want to belong to a union thousands of dollars in "agency fees."
[ Bill } Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer would not confirm details of the proposal but said Monday that "there are a number of discussions underway about how to get all of these measures off the November ballot. One of the things Gov. Ritter has talked about conceptually is preserving the Colorado Labor Peace Act."
The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce has taken no official position on any of the ballot initiatives. But chamber president Joe Blake and other officials of the group have been lobbying to get all the measures off the ballot.
Colorado's Labor Peace Act requires two separate votes by employees to create all-union workplaces. That requirement has resulted in a relatively small number of union shops in the state.
"If you could preserve the Labor Peace Act, if that could be the whole outcome of this rattling of sabers, that would be the best outcome," Blake said in a recent interview.
If Bill Ritter wants peace, let him fully reverse the damage he has caused. If Business thinks that the only thing worth protecting is its precious Labor Peace Act, it needs to know that it is sacrificing its allies among the voters. This peace, if had at the wrong price, won't be worth having.
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