The Labor Peace Act: Colorado Now Is a Modified Right-to-work State
| Jurisdiction | Colorado,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 7 No. 7 Pg. 1124 |
| Pages | 1124 |
| Publication year | 1978 |
1978, July, Pg. 1124. The Labor Peace Act: Colorado Now is a Modified Right-To-Work State
Warren L. Tomlinson, Denver, is a partner in the firm of Holland & Hart.
In November of 1958 the hottest political issue in the state was whether Colorado should become a "right-to-work"(fn1) state. A proposal on the ballot in that election year would have placed a right-to-work provision in the Colorado constitution.(fn2) After an intense and heavily financed election campaign, the voters rejected right-to-work by more than a 3 to 2 margin.(fn3)
In relatively unheralded developments in 1976 and 1977, the 1958 political decision was partially reversed. Colorado has become a modified right-to-work state. All Colorado lawyers whose practice touches on any aspect of the employment relationship, whether in the representation of employers or employees, should be aware of this fundamental change of direction in Colorado labor law.
Generally speaking, the labor relations of all private employers whose business "affects commerce"(fn4) are governed by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 ("LMRA"), popularly known as the Taft-Hartley Act.(fn5) Under the LMRA, an employer and a union representing employees of that employer may enter into a collective bargaining contract containing a "union security clause"(fn6) without meeting any additional requirements or submitting the question of whether such a clause should be placed in the contract to a vote of the represented employees.(fn7)
However, the LMRA specifically permits states to enact right-to-work laws. Section 14(b) of the LMRA provides:
Today twenty states have right-to-work laws.(fn8) Under the recent developments, Colorado has placed one foot in the right-to-work columnNothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the execution or application of agreements requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment in any State or Territory in which such execution or application is prohibited by State or Territorial law.
The Colorado Labor Peace Act,(fn9) enacted in 1943, is a comprehensive statute regulating the labor relations of Colorado employers and their employees.(fn10) It applies to private employers of eight or
The Colorado Labor Peace Act guarantees to employees the right to join and assist unions, to bargain collectively, to strike and to picket peacefully. It defines unfair labor practices by employers, employees and unions. It sets up election procedures for employees to select a union and to permit the employer and the union to execute a contract requiring all employees to belong to a union. The Industrial Commission is empowered to administer and enforce the Act.
Prior to the amendments passed in 1977, the Colorado Labor Peace Act required two secret-ballot elections conducted by the state before an employer and a union could enter into an "allunion agreement," different terminology for a union security clause.(fn13) The first election established the unit or group of employees to be represented by the union, and the desire of those employees to be represented by the union. That election was determined by the vote of the "majority of the employees."(fn14) However, even if the employees by majority vote expressed their desire for union representation, the employer and the union could not yet execute a contract containing a union security clause. A second election was required, in which three-fourths of the employees must vote in favor of having a union security clause before one could be executed.
Prior to 1977, few union security elections were held under the Colorado Labor Peace Act, probably at least in part because of the unsettled state of the law. Before the insertion in the federal labor law in 1947 of the specific right of states to enact right-to-work laws, many employers and their lawyers thought that if the employers were subject to the federal labor laws, they could not rely upon more favorable provisions in the labor laws of the state in which they operated.(fn15)
Even after Section 14(b) was added to the federal labor laws in 1947, the National Labor Relations Board held that Section 14(b) did not protect state laws, such as the Colorado Labor Peace Act, which merely regulated rather than prohibited the execution of union security clauses.(fn16) The U. S. Supreme Court in 1949 in Algoma Plywood Co. v. Wisconsin Employment Relations Board(fn17) held that Wisconsin's labor law which, like the Colorado Labor Peace Act, regulated the execution of union security clauses by providing...
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