Poll: 70% of voters oppose changes to Labor Peace Act

State Sen. Jessie Danielson draws applause from union members as she discusses a proposed change to the Colorado Labor Peace Act at a news conference in November. Danielson and Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez are co-sponsors of Senate Bill 5.

Less than a week before the first scheduled hearing of a bill to rewrite Colorado’s Labor Peace Act, a coalition of business groups has released a poll that it argues shows voters of all stripes are overwhelmingly opposed to the proposed changes.

The 82-year-old law is unique among states in that it requires two votes for workers to unionize a company and then to allow automatic paycheck deductions to fund union negotiating activities. The first vote to unionize requires a simple majority, but the second vote to allow fee deductions needs 75% support — a provision that unions call an unnecessary barrier and that business leaders say keeps union-opposed workers from having to pay the organizations.

Senate Bill 5 — which is scheduled for a 2 p.m. hearing Tuesday before the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee and, as such, is the first bill that will get a hearing in the Senate this session — would remove the mandatory second election. That would allow labor leaders to begin negotiating with a company upon the first unionization vote to ask for fee deductions to be taken from all paychecks.

What the poll found

A poll of 507 voters commissioned by nine business organizations and conducted from Jan. 6-8 found that 70% of respondents oppose removing the second vote while just 25% support the action. And that opposition reaches across parties, with Republicans rejecting the idea by a margin of 87% to 9%, Independents opposing it by 72% to 24% and Democrats opposing it by 50% to 43%.

At the same time, 64% of poll respondents said they have a favorable opinion of labor unions, while 28% had an unfavorable opinion and 8% said they were unsure. That, poll backers said, showed that the issue is not about union formation but about the elimination of a crucial safeguard to unions taking mandatory fees from paychecks.

“Who does this help?” asked Sonia Riggs, president/CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association, one of the organizations that funded the poll. “It helps union executives, not Colorado restaurant workers.”

 

Labor leaders criticize poll

Union leaders criticized pollster WPA Intelligence, a Washington D.C. firm that political site 538 rates as having 1.7 stars out of three for its track record and whose founder recently was fired amid allegations of financial mismanagement, according to Politico. Colorado AFL-CIO Executive Director Dennis Dougherty also criticized the ability of the organizations behind the poll to paint an accurate picture of voter sentiment.

“This poll was funded by corporate interests with a long history of misleading the public on worker protections, so I’m not buying it,” Dougherty said in a statement to The Sum & Substance. “Not only does the polling firm have poor credibility ratings, but also they’re under scrutiny for serious misconduct.”

Leaders of the groups that commissioned the poll, however, said that the findings show evidence that the push to get rid of the second election simply doesn’t have support from the general population. Those groups are the Association of General Contractors, Colorado Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Competitive Council, Colorado Concern, Colorado Contractors Association, Colorado Hospital Association, Colorado Restaurant Association, Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC and Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

How the poll was done

According to a polling memo, WPA first explained the two-vote system to respondents, emphasizing that the second vote is needed if the union “wants to include a requirement that all workers, whether they want to or not, pay dues or fees from their paycheck as a condition of their continued employment.” Union leaders have emphasized that it is fees rather than specific union dues that would be deducted from paychecks.

The poll then explained SB 5 and asked: “Based on what you know today, would you support or oppose this change to Colorado labor law?” That produced the response of 70% opposition and 25% support, with 5% of respondents saying they were not sure.

The sample of voters was selected from the Colorado voter file and was stratified by geography, age, gender, educational attainment, party registration and ethnicity, according to the polling memo. The survey has a margin of error or 4.4% at the 95% confidence level, the memo added.

“The Colorado Chamber of Commerce supports the rights of workers to control their own paychecks, and we stand with the vast majority of Coloradans in opposition to SB 5,” said Loren Furman, president/CEO of that organization.

Loren Furman is president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.

The poll also found that opposition to the changes in SB 5 was consistent across age groups. Respondents ages 18 to 34 opposed the proposal by a margin of 66% to 29%, those aged 35 to 64 years opposed it by 70% to 25% and those aged 65 and older opposed it by 72% to 22%.

A brewing battle around labor regulations

Business groups have noted since union leaders and legislative Democrats announced in November their plan to amend the Labor Peace Act that they have fought not only previous similar efforts but also efforts to turn Colorado into a right-to-work state that bans the requirement that employees be members of a union to work at unionized workplaces. They have said that the unique wording of the law gives Colorado a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining employers over states that mandate union membership to work at unionized companies.

“The Labor Peace Act strikes the right balance and protects Colorado workers and our economy,” said J.J. Ament, president/CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber.

But unions and supporters of the changes say that the second election and its 75% bar has served as a barrier to allowing workers who have supported unionization to move forward on funding the negotiating efforts that will lead to higher pay and greater benefits. And the poll doesn’t change the arguments they will present to the Senate committee next week that SB 5 is needed to give greater voice to workers, Dougherty said.

“The current law works great for C-suite billionaires but not for workers,” he said. “Coloradans are ready to empower workers so they can stand up and level the playing field for better pay and safety.”