Colorado Democratic Party Labor Initiative

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by: Ray Springfield

I’ve recently joined the Colorado Democratic Party Labor Initiative. It’s the place where the action is when it comes to Colorado Labor. Mike Cerbo (executive director of Colorado AFL-CIO) frequents the meetings. It meets on the third Wednesday of every month at 6pm. I get off work at 6pm on Wednesdays so I arrive late. Tonight’s meeting was well attended as noted by the presence of State Representative Sara Gagliardi and State Senator Morgan Carroll. I took a seat between Tim Allport, the Chair of the Initiative, and an executive of the Denver Area Labor Federation.

I sat down to find State Senator Morgan Carroll describing her recent hearings involving Pinnacol: a hybrid semi-private company that overseas this state’s workmen’s compensation claims and insurance. It was clear in her eloquent discourse that getting people to testify about practices at Pinnacol met resistance. As is so true in labor organizing, the fear of retaliation kept Doctors from going on the record about questionable practices. I assume that the Doctors fear being cutoff from being able to do business with Pinnacol. Injured workers were also reluctant to testify for fear of reprisal from their employers. While whistle blowing protections may exist in the law, in practice management has ways of making people fear for their jobs, or of riding people to the point where many choose to quit. Nevertheless, recordings of numerous testimonies exist which involve truly tragic situations. One member suggested that these recording be publicized through You Tube. It’s a good suggestion. Publicizing human suffering to the public about our nation’s current health care system demands attention. It reinforces my belief that we need health care reform now.

After Sen. Carroll spoke, University of Colorado at Denver Professor Jim Walsh spoke about Labor history and the Romero Troupe’s “Which Side Are You On?” Prof. Walsh teaches with drama. His students create art, and in this case a play that I had the pleasure of seeing at the Oriental Theatre about 2 years ago. It tells the story of the Labor Movement in America. It’s very difficult to find curricula on labor from Labor’s perspective in the schools. Prof. Walsh also informed the audience that the Colorado National Guard has been called out 12 times in the history of Colorado to quell labor members from striking. There has been more than just the Ludlow Massacre. His play discusses the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, or the Wagner Act, which created the National Labor Relations Board and provided for collective bargaining, and the Taft-Hartley bill of 1947, which stripped Labor of many of the tools which would help its cause. Examples of this include restrictions on boycotts and restrictions on general strikes. It forbade closed shops. It stopped unions from donating to election campaigns. Although many tried to repeal the act, it stayed in effect until 1959 when the Landrum-Griffin Act amended some of its worst aspects. A large portion of it’s statutes still stand.

The most damaging legacy of this legislation for Labor has been the establishment of Right to Work Laws, which basically disallows non unionized labor any defense against firing without merit. Prof. Walsh’s production educates. Mother Jones, and Martin Luther King Jr. come up in the play. Many people don’t realize that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while in Memphis supporting the garbage collectors union.

Tim Allport then opened the floor for questions. I asked Sen. Carroll what she thought of the prospects of new legislation backed by labor being brought forth in the new state legislative session. I believe that if bills such as the Labor Peace ACT were introduced in the middle of the session, that the prospect for the Governor to sign it were good. This resulted in some surprise, but I insisted that the Governor needs labor to win re election. The vast majority in the room concluded that they would back the Governor’s bid for another term. A few individuals honestly stated that many in the ranks of labor will not support the Governor. Nevertheless, Sen. Carroll recommended that Ed Knox (President of the Electrical Workers’ Union local 68) and other notable institutions such as the Denver Area Labor Federation, should work on bills to present that they felt were most important.

I personally believe that Labor cannot risk the election of a Republican Governor. Rep. Sara Gagliardi agreed. She added that the she will host a fundraiser next month with Governor Ritter in attendance. Nor can we sit idly by and hope that Gov. Ritter signs bills in a 2nd term that may or may not come to pass. Hopefully I lit a fire that will grow into the Democratic Party base consolidating and reaching accords which heal any rifts. We must unite and find a way to win this election next year without sacrificing our desire for equitable labor law.

We all stand together with our brothers and sisters of local 7 UFCW.

The Colorado Democratic Party Labor Initiative meets on the third Wednesday of every month at 6pm at the following location.

Sheet Metal Workers Local 9

7510 Lakewood, CO W Mississippi, 1st Floor

Lakewood, Colorado

12 thoughts on “Colorado Democratic Party Labor Initiative”

Ray Springfield says:

October 23, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Ed Knox is President of Union Local 68 in Denver for the electrical workers.

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Gecko says:

October 23, 2009 at 4:51 pm

what about all of the hundreds of workers that abuse the system for their own selfish reasons?

I have to keep track of all of the workers related injuries in the company I work for. I mainly need to do this to keep current with OSHA. We have had not a few, but many workers that have abused the worker’s comp system. They have faked injuries and drug out minor injuries for prolonged periods of time in order to be paid to stay home and not have to actually show up for work.

Before you say bullshit let me tell you I’m telling you the truth. Now not all of our reported injuries are bogus but many are simple injuries that have are turned into major ones, when they really aren’t.

We have a gal who’s sole job responsibility is to answer the phone. Period. She has had one claim after another going on five years now, including lawsuits when Pinnacle balks, for injuries such as “hurting her wrist from turning a door knob”, from injuries such as “hurting her hand operating a stapler” (a simple Swingline everday stapler, not anything huge and powerful.), from wrist injuries due to “typing” (she wears a headset and presses a keyboard key to answer and transfer calls), and from injuries to her other wrist due to “overusing that wrist because of the injury to the first wrist”!

I am not making this shit up. And if the owners try and let her go, with her already having a lawyer involved, she will sue the crap out of the company and proably win, and possible causing the company to go bankrupt.

We have had men that filed claims for injuries due to stepping on their own caulking guns and twisting their ankles, and other similar injuries. Then drug them out for a full year resulting in settlements of tens of thousands of dollars being paid by Pinnacle. This has happened several times.

We had another worker file a claim for an injury when he bent over to pet a customer’s dog. That lasted for over two years with about a 15K settlement.

I am not a company owner, just an employee. I have used workmen’s comp once back in the late 80’s when I slipped a disc in my back at work. I used it when they took me to the emergency room for the doctor to tell me to learn to live with it. That was it. Go home and man up, which I did as I had three kids and a wife to support and couldn’t lounge around.

So before we feel oh so sorry for all of these injured helpless workers, remember there are many many that abuse the system causing the costs to increase. Not all are legit. For the legit cases, workmen’s comp is fantastic and much needed.

Either way, stating we need a Democrat governor because a Republican governor would be bad for our workers is a line of bs……

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1. Colorado Pols says:
  
  October 24, 2009 at 1:50 am
  
  Don’t ever screw off and take advantage of their situation? There are no Qwest employees with office jobs who really don’t do much besides search the Internet all day?
  
  People that screw off at work and take advantage of the system – that’s not an exclusive “union-only” phenomenon. There’s bad apples on every tree, whether it’s union or non-union.
  
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  1. Gecko says:
    
    October 24, 2009 at 3:41 pm
    
    My job is total non union. Where did you get that I was singling them out?
    
    I’m talking workers in general abusing the system. It is a common problem. All one has to do is fake an injury and they are set. Be paid to stay home.
    
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2. DavidThi808 says:
  
  October 24, 2009 at 8:03 am
  
  At my first company I fired a woman and she claimed discrimination because she was black & female. I told her I’d be happy to face her in court.
  
  Never heard from her again.
  
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  1. Gecko says:
    
    October 24, 2009 at 3:50 pm
    
    I would if I could. In fact I have but since I am not the owner, and the owner makes the final decisions, my hands are tied.
    
    Ya see the owner of our company is too much of a nice guy……people pleaser so to speak.
    
    I begged him to let me bring these oafs in and put them on “modified duty”. It works if you give it time. All you need is to have the work that you are going to assign the worker approved by his/her doctor. Then they HAVE to show up for work each and every day, all day long. If they don’t, and they have no documented excuse from their doctor, they can be fired. We could have them pulling weeds, counting nuts and bolts, any stupid easy dum dum job, just make them show up to work.
    
    It is amazing how fast they “get all better”. I have only been able to do this twice in the past ten years but anymore, my boss would rather see his experience modifiers go through the roof than to have these crybabys hanging around on reduced pay crying the blues.
    
    It really is a sad situation where I’m at and one of the main reasons why my house is for sale, my wife already is in Wisconsin working, and as soon as my house sells, I’ll leave my job (of 25 years next month) and high pay and split. Start anew so to speak.
    
    Will I be allowed to write occassionally if I’m not a Colorado resident?
    
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    1. DavidThi808 says:
      
      October 24, 2009 at 6:45 pm
      
      As it lets a few lazy ones risk everyone’s job by putting the company at risk. Sorry you’ve got a situation like that.
      
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    2. parsingreality says:
      
      October 25, 2009 at 6:10 am
      
      Gecko, the problem isn’t workmen’s comp. It’s dishonest people. I think that’s an issue that religions and civilizations have been trying to reduce for thousands of years.
      
      Believe it or not, it was Business that wanted comp laws about 100 years ago. The new laws protected them against really big lawsuits. Just like the broadcasters asking for the FCC.
      
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Ray Springfield says:

October 23, 2009 at 11:03 pm

I don’t agree with your last statement.

The premise of fraud is a different issue altogether. That’s a crime and should be prosecuted.

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MADCO says:

October 24, 2009 at 1:20 am

That feel like actual news.

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sufimarie says:

October 24, 2009 at 11:57 am

to the website of The Labor Initiative, facebook group, and twitter

From Morgan Carroll, some Pinnacol problems and solutions .pdf

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