(Colorado) Bill would give unemployment to locked-out workers

http://www.examiner.com/a-2016037~Bill_would_give_unemployment_to_locked_out_workers.html

May 14, 2009 4:24 PM

DENVER (Map, News) -
As union representatives and grocery store chains try to negotiate new contracts, Gov. Bill Ritter must decide whether to sign a bill that could affect the balance of power in such talks.

The measure (House Bill 1170) passed by the Legislature would allow workers who are locked out by their employers to collect unemployment benefits. They're not automatically eligible for such benefits now because of a law passed in response to a clash between the United Food and Commercial Workers and grocery stores in 1996.

Then, as now, the chains coordinated during contract talks. When King Soopers workers went on strike in 1996, Safeway locked out its workers in support. The state paid over $5 million in unemployment benefits to the Safeway workers over the protests of the company. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the move but in 1999, at the urging of retailers, state lawmakers agreed to change the law to make it to make a distinction between offensive and defensive lockouts.

Under the current law, a company can call for a defensive lockout to protect its property from vandalism or if a strike has been called against another company it is coordinating with during negotiations. Unemployment benefits are not paid out.

An offensive lockout occurs when a company locks out its workers for some other reason, such as a tactic to encourage workers to accept a contract offer. Workers would get unemployment benefits then.

But the union argues it's easy for stores to claim a defensive lockout under the law and difficult for unions to disprove them.

FULL story at link.