In a communcation to its members, the politically-charged, largest state public employee union sent a letter from its political director, Andrea Cooper to urge workers to work a phone bank to urge a Colorado Senator to vote to pass the HEROES Act. This act, which is a $3 trillion economic stimulus package, narrowly passed the House on May 15 by a vote of 208 - 199. It is stalled in the Senate. In the letter, Cooper intructs members

SEIU launched an Adopt A State program where members from states like Oregon can reach out to voters in swing states and convince them to demand that their Senator support the HEROES Act. SEIU 503 adopted Colorado and Senator Cory Gardner.

We’ll have a phone bank targeting Colorado voters and Senator Gardner next Thursday, July 16th, from noon to 3 p.m. There will be a brief training session prior to the phone bank and staff will be available if you have any questions or issues.

It's not terribly controversial that SEIU would support this bill and would ask its members to work to get it passed. What is controversial, is that it seems as if it is expected to be done during work hours, presumably while state workers are working on taxpayer time.

This kind of activity may not be illegal. In fact, it was made possible by a law passed during the 2019 session, HB 2016, which allows public employee unions to have their members perform union work on taxpayer time. Section 4, subsection (1) of the bill, passed in the House on a straight party-line vote, and over the objection of a single Democrat in the Senate (Betsy Johnson D-Warren), says:

(a) The public employer shall provide a reasonable term of release time for public employees to serve as designated representatives of the exclusive representative or an affiliated labor organization.

Section 2 describes what a "Designated Representative" is:

(1) “Designated representative” means a public employee: (a) Who is designated by the exclusive representative as a representative for the employees in a bargaining unit;

Section 3 describes what these "Designated Representatives" may do:

(1) A public employer shall grant public employees who are designated representatives reasonable time to engage in the following activities during the public employee’s regularly scheduled work hours without loss of compensation, seniority, leave accrual or any other benefits: ...(h) Perform any other duties agreed upon by a public employer and an exclusive representative in a collective bargaining agreement or any other agreement.

In a time where state budgets are awaiting a multi-billion dollar trim, critics have pointed out that it is is very poor taste to be using taxpayer-funded public employees to do politicking in Colorado.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-07-08 17:36:43

Last Update: 2020-07-09 09:36:55