Battle brewing over state unions

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/23/battle-brewing-over-state-unions-right-to-strike/

By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Originally published 12:30 a.m., January 23, 2008
Updated 07:16 a.m., January 23, 2008

Republicans are ramping up to pick the fight they promised this session over Gov. Bill Ritter's executive order making unions a bigger player in state government.

Ritter and his fellow Democrats in charge of the legislature, meanwhile, are maneuvering to draw attention away from the debate.

The fight will last at least two rounds and could be over two weeks from now.

That's roughly when Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, expects his bill, which would toss out the so-called employee partnership agreements Ritter signed, to be deep-sixed by the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs committee, where Democrats hold a 3-2 edge.

"There's always the hope that (the bill) will find one Democrat more interested in good policy than partisan politics and union payoff. But State Affairs is a stacked committee, so hope is dim in that dungeon," Mitchell said.

Prior to that, round one begins in the House this week with a debate over how to deal with a decision by Attorney General John Suthers that Ritter's executive order could not repeal state workers' never-used right to strike.

FULL story at link.

Pity. :rofl: