Union ballot initiatives clear legal hurdle (mandatory health ins. sue employers workers comp)

http://origin.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9708705

By Andy Vuong
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 06/26/2008 04:31:53 PM MDT

The Colorado Supreme Court today rejected the legal challenges against the titles of a pair of ballot measures proposed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7.

The court affirmed the state title board's titling of the "Employee Responsibility for Health Insurance" and "Safe Workplace" initiatives, which still need 76,000 certified signatures each to appear on the November ballot.

The health-insurance measure would require any Colorado company with 20 or more employees to provide a health care plan to employees and to charge an individual employee no more than 20 percent of the cost.

The second initiative would allow injured employees to sue employers outside the workers' compensation system.

UFCW Local 7 spokesman Manny Gonzales said hundreds of signature gatherers have been circulating petitions across Colorado on the two measures and that the union expects to have more than the required 76,000 signatures.

Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com