Posted on 10/03/2008 8:51:43 AM PDT by george76
Colorado's ballot just got a lot shorter.
Union leaders agreed to pull their four ballot initiatives Thursday, hours before the deadline, in exchange for help from businesses for defeating three other amendments, numbers 47, 49 and 54.
The pact calls for businesses to raise $3 million to help unions defeat the initiatives. Unions already have raised $6.7 million, and the $3 million from businesses would give the campaign more money than either of Colorado's two main U.S. Senate candidates has raised so far.
The deal also represents a truce in the union-business battle that has raged throughout most of Ritter's administration.
The November ballot now has 14 initiatives - still the most in the country in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at cortezjournal.com ...
The measures that will be pulled are Amendments 53, 55, 56 and 57.
Amendment 53 would have held executives criminally liable under state law for corporate wrongdoings; Amendment 55 would have require businesses to have “just cause” for firing workers; Amendment 56 would have force businesses with 20 or more employees to provide health-care coverage; and Amendment 57 would have allow injured employees to seek damages outside the workers’ compensation system.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_10618410?source=rss
All four were going down in flames.
How come it is so late?I just received my Blue Book.
No, it represents total capitulation of business to labor unions. Proposition 47 would make Colorado a right to work state.
The union bosses were holding out for maximum bribe money.
The union bosses likely will give themselves a vacation and nice bonuses now.
This may be a blessing in disguise for McCain.
Stinkin' good for nothin unions.
I got this yesterday. The union plans on concentrating on Amendment 47, Right to Work.
NEWS FLASH! Amendments 53,55,56 and 57 are being removed from the ballot. All terrible amendments that would have had a severe affect on business in Colorado. All this in order for Unions, etc. to fight the Right-to-Work Amendment #47.
Four Amendments have been removed from the ballot, reports the Rock Mountain News.
Last-minute deal tosses labor initiatives off Colorado ballot
By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 2, 2008 at 7:37 a.m.
Updated October 2, 2008 at 11:03 a.m.
Colorado labor unions agreed late Wednesday to pull four initiatives from the statewide ballot, just hours ahead of today’s withdrawal deadline.
The decision ends weeks of intense negotiations between labor and business interests to defuse what would have been an all-out brawl leading up to November’s election.
The details were to be announced at an 11 a.m. news conference today and were still being worked out late into the evening after the parties met for several hours Wednesday toward a resolution.
The agreement will allow unions to spend all their campaign resources fighting three potentially damaging ballot measures aimed at weakening labor activity in the state. Sources declined to say exactly how business leaders would coordinate their efforts with the labor community. But those details will likely become clearer after the measures are formally withdrawn from the secretary of state’s office.
The measures that will not be put to a vote include: mandatory employee healthcare premiums, a safe workplace proposal, a just cause measure that limits employers’ ability to fire workers and a corporate fraud initiative that makes executives criminally liable for wrongdoing.
Mayor John Hickenlooper and Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President Joe Blake announced the deal to a group of Denver business leaders traveling in Vancouver, Canada, as part the chamber foundation’s Leadership Exchange program. The news was met with hearty applause.
“I can’t possibly express how relieved we should all be,” Hickenlooper said. “We can get back to solving problems.”
Hickenlooper called the labor-backed initiatives “four poison pills” that posed the greatest risk to business viability that Colorado will ever face.
He then encouraged everyone to oppose three ballot measures viewed as labor-unfriendly, including the right-to-work Amendment 47.
“This now gives us an opportunity, assuming we can defeat 47, 49 and 54, to return to the labor peace where labor and business can work together to solve the challenges we face,” Hickenlooper said.
For a Better Colorado,
I'm disgusted!
I be voting YES on 47!
Me too, I will be voting Yes on 47 but I will also be voting YES on 54, the Clean Government initiative. I got their mailer the other day and did some research.
I found out that the unions, etc. are targeting them too because they think that it is hostile to unions. TRANSLATION: This means that it is good for taxpayers. I am tired of the lying, the deception, and the corruption these guys are doing behind our backs.
So, I encourage you to visit their website too... http://cleangovernmentcolorado.com and check them out.
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