Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, a Denver Democrat, speaks during a hearing on Senate Bill 25-5 on Jan. 22, 2025, at the Capitol. (Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline)
A bill that would make it easier for unions to organize in Colorado passed its first committee hearing at the Capitol on Tuesday, but it is set for a contentious path through the rest of the Legislature.
Democrats on the Senate Health Business, Labor and Technology Committee passed Senate Bill 25-5 on a 4-3 vote along party lines after nearly four hours of witness testimony from labor groups and industry representatives.
The bill would eliminate a second election in the private sector required by Colorado’s Labor Peace Law. The requirement for the second election is unique to Colorado. Currently, employees can unionize with a simple majority vote per federal law, but they must participate in a second vote with three-fourths approval in order to negotiate union security. Union security refers to a requirement that all covered workers — not just those in the union — pay representation fees, sometimes taken automatically from wages. Those workers still benefit from union efforts to improve working conditions, supporters argue, and should financially support that representation.
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The second election does not guarantee union security, but just whether it can be negotiated in collective bargaining.
“Only anti-union states have laws like Colorado’s. The laws of the state are actively hostile to Coloradans’ rights to choose a union and freely negotiate for better pay and workplace safety,” Fred Redmond, the Secretary-Treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, told lawmakers.
“Colorado’s current labor laws imposed burdensome red tape and administrative obstacles that were intentionally designed to make it more difficult for workers to form strong unions,” he said.
Supporters of the bill agree that the second election requirement is a barrier imposed by the government to the formation of unions with effective bargaining power.
“This bill is about choices, not mandates. Workers can decide whether or not they want a union, and workers can decide if they can recover fees for representation in collective bargaining, on unfair labor practices and in disciplinary hearings,” said bill sponsor Jessie Danielson, a Jefferson County Democrat.
The second election creates an “exceptionally high bar just to have a conversation about union security,” she said.
Open to amending current law
A November study from the Colorado Fiscal Institute found that of the 553 unions that initiated a second election between 1977 and 2024, 68% were successful. In 126 of the cases, the second election had a majority affirmative vote but fell short of the three-fourths requirement.
Danielson is running the bill alongside Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, House Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, and Rep. Javier Mabrey, all Denver Democrats.
It faces staunch opposition from business and industry groups, and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has suggested that he will not support the legislation unless a compromise arises between sides.
Opponents argue that the current law, which was passed in the 1940s, has operated well and any changes could drive businesses from the state, increase prices for consumers and create overall turbulence.
“So many of the decisions that you have to make as policy makers are about balancing interests, and that is what the Labor Peace Act did so well 80 years ago. It has served Colorado’s economy and all Coloradans since the time of its inception, smoothing out a lot of the bumps in our economy during the ensuing decades that it has been in place,” said Rachel Beck, the executive director of the Colorado Competitive Council.
She said that Colorado’s system gives employees more choice and additional time to consider how their union operates.
Other business representatives said they would be open to amending the Labor Peace Act without eliminating the second vote.
“There may be structural or administrative changes that can be made. We’re open to discussing those, but we remain committed to respecting the employee’s choice,” said Loren Furman, the head of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.
Furman criticized the decision to have a committee hearing on such a contentious bill so early into the legislative session, which began Jan. 8. She said business groups had a meeting scheduled with the bill sponsors and union representatives for Wednesday.
Witnesses from the Colorado Restaurant Association, the state’s contractor associations and small business owners also opposed the bill.
Opportunity to bully
Danielson pushed back on the assertion that the current system is working.
“It’s working well for business. It’s preventing people from unionizing, which prevents them from accessing better pay, better health care and safety on the job,” she said.
Supporters testified that the second union election gives another opportunity for workplaces to intimidate and bully their employees against voting. Liza Nielson helped organize the first union at Starbucks in Colorado, and she said workers are gearing up for the second vote after retaliation during the first election.
“Starbucks threatened to fire me twice. Both times I recorded the conversation, and they backed down. But that was just one chapter in an ongoing struggle,” she said. “Colorado’s requirement for a second election creates barriers for workers who just want the freedom to stand up for their rights. It creates an unnecessary obstacle, when we are just trying to negotiate better wages, better benefits and safer working conditions.”
Dylan Small, a nurse at the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, said that strong unions will be more important than ever in the reproductive health care industry as surrounding states enforce anti-abortion policies and out-of-state patients come to Colorado for care.
Even though there was “immense” support for the first election to unionize at the clinic, the second election “barely missed” the 75% mark.
“You can advocate for safe staffing and workplace benefits and patient protections if you have a strong, healthy union to do it,” he told Colorado Newsline ahead of the hearing. “But because Colorado has that second election, it’s incredibly difficult to get everyone to stand up together and organize.”
The bill now heads to the Appropriations Committee and then to the full Senate chamber for consideration.
Democrats have strong majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.
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