Unions and other radioactive politics

Unions might not enjoy the support of many Fort Collins residents, having been trounced in a special election almost two weeks ago.

But state workers—and voters—still have plenty of union issues to consider this fall thanks to competing union-oriented ballot measures.

The Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance is weighing in, asking both sides to cease fire and take their proposals off the ballot.

At issue is Amendment 47, a right-to-work measure backed by conservative business leaders but opposed by the Denver Metro Area Chamber of Commerce, and a series of pro-union bills that oppose it.

A constitutional amendment, 47 would ban “union shop” arrangements, wherein all workers covered by collective bargaining contracts are required to contribute to the union that represents them.

The principle in such agreements is that workers are reaping the benefits of union representation, so they should have to contribute. But some business leaders think workers should not be forced to join organizations they may not support.

Pro- and anti-union groups have gone back and forth over various ballot measures, prompting some lawmakers to ask for a truce of sorts.

Already, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 withdrew two of four ballot proposals in an effort to calm the business groups.

The NCLA, the lobbying arm of the Greeley, Fort Collins and Loveland chambers of commerce, said in a resolution that both sides should take a breather.

The group supports the existing Colorado Labor Peace Act of 1943, which strikes a balance between labor and business interests. The group said “actions by the governor and legislature” emboldened organized labor groups to advocate changing it, which prompted right-to-work advocates to petition 47 onto the ballot.

“(The NCLA) calls on proponents of right-to-work to cease their effort to amend right-to-work into the state constitution; and also calls on labor leaders to cease their strategy of flooding the ballot with measures that will have a deleterious effect on the long-term economic well-being of Coloradans, and as a final point, calls on both parties to retract all initiatives immediately.”

That’s doubtful, but with many business groups beginning to weigh in against 47, you never know.

Even without all the ballot bustle, unions are already gaining a stronger foothold in Colorado.

About one-fourth of state workers will have union representation after voting to join a new union conglomerate called Colorado WINS, a compendium of the more familiar-sounding American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Colorado Association of Public Employees-Service Employees International Union.

The workers were allowed to join because of an executive order Gov. Bill Ritter signed last November, which allowed recognition of state employee unions and a nonbinding form of collective bargaining.

So it’s already clear that unions will be one of this year’s big issues in Colorado, no matter the beating they recently took in Fort Collins.



Radioactive politics

While Piñon Canyon continues to burn, political rhetoric over its future is also ... hot. Although it’s a long way from Northern Colorado, issues surrounding the canyon-carved grassland resonate here because the larger issue has to do with land rights, always a big issue in these parts.

The Army wants to expand its training site in the southeast Colorado area, but had planned to do so by using eminent domain to swallow up more land.

Meanwhile, it’s been burning for more than a week, and now it might even be nuclear, so to speak.

The “Bridger Fire,” which scorched about 48,000 acres on that training site, was about 85 percent contained on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

But a lawmaker from that area had some slightly more explosive news Wednesday.

State Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, announced that he found highly radioactive soil at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site earlier this year, showing a uranium concentration as high as 60 parts per million. That’s three times the concentration that would normally trigger a cleanup process; typical amounts in soil are only a few parts per million, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

McKinley said he wants the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to check it out and demand a federal cleanup.

The Army is hoping to expand the training site to about 1,000 square miles. Most of Colorado’s congressional delegation opposes the plans, including U.S. Rep. and Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall and U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican.

Both said earlier this week they were pleased this year’s military construction appropriations bill includes language that prohibits the Pentagon from spending any money on the expansion.

“It is clear to me that the Pentagon has failed to convince Coloradans, or the country, that there is a pressing military need for the Army to acquire an additional 418,000 acres at this particular location,” Udall said.

While the move might not prevent the expansion, Udall said it would send a strong message to the Army that there is no support for its planned use of condemnation authority to acquire the land.

Musgrave said the approach, which she helped author, would protect landowners while not prohibiting expansion altogether.

“This language effectively protects the rights of private property owners in southeast Colorado while requiring the Army to consider ways of meeting their training needs without condemning ranchland,” she said.



Doc, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium

In other nuclear news, Udall said he was “deeply troubled” by the news that a plutonium spill at the National Institute of Standards and Technology may have leaked into the city of Boulder’s sewer system.

NIST has said public safety was not compromised, and Boulder officials have found no ill effects since the June 9 spill.

“But the agency has considerable explaining to do about how a material as dangerous as plutonium could accidentally be released into a laboratory sink,” Udall said.

According to the Denver Post, a researcher washed his hands in a sink after being exposed to about one-fourth of one gram of plutonium, a highly radioactive element. The discharge from the sink enters the city’s sanitary sewer system, according to the Post.

Udall, a member of the House Science and Technology Committee, said he would work to make sure NIST, part of the Commerce Department, was doing all it could to protect the public and its employees.

“No human system is fool-proof, but this incident suggests that safety practices at NIST need to be thoroughly reviewed,” he said.