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Colorado Capitol Coverage is produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Purplish: The embattled Labor Peace Act

Teal buttons read "Pushed to the brink, ready to strike," in white and yellow lettering. They are attached to purple lanyards. The buttons are from a vote held by Service Employees International Union members on Thursday, August 31, 2023, on whether to call for a strike against Kaiser Permanente.
Hart Van Denburg
/
CPR News via Colorado Capitol News Alliance
Service Employees International Union members held a vote in 2023 on whether to call for a strike against Kaiser Permanente. Unions believe the time is ripe to repeal Colorado's Labor Peace Act, a law that sets up an additional hurdle to workplace organizing.

Colorado was once the scene of guerilla warfare over labor organizing, culminating in the 1914 attack on striking coal workers and their families in Ludlow.

This year's fight at the State Capitol isn't as bloody, but it could have far-reaching consequences for Colorado workers.

After decades of opposition, labor groups believe the time is finally ripe to repeal the 1943 Labor Peace Act. The law makes it harder for workplaces to fully unionize by requiring two votes. The second, which allows unions to collect "fees" to represent workers, has to pass with 75% support. Supporters say it strikes a balance between pro-union and right-to-work labor laws.

The last attempt to repeal the Labor Peace Act died in 2007 in a surprise veto from a Democratic governor, and current Gov. Jared Polis has signaled his skepticism toward repeal. But the Colorado General Assembly has shifted in favor of labor, and unions have been successful in recent years in organizing workplaces, despite the hurdles.

Hosts Bente Birkeland from CPR News and Jesse Paul of the Colorado Sun dive into the Labor Peace Act: how it works, where it came from and why labor thinks this is the year to have this fight. They also discuss whether the voters themselves might ultimately be called on to decide the fate of the law.

Purplish is produced by CPR News and the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

This episode of Purplish was edited by Megan Verlee and produced by Shane Rumsey. Our theme music was composed by Brad Turner.

Bente Birkeland is an award-winning journalist who joined Colorado Public Radio in August 2018 after a decade of reporting on the Colorado state capitol for the Rocky Mountain Community Radio collaborative and KUNC. In 2017, Bente was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and she was awarded with a National Investigative Reporting Award by SPJ a year later.