Posted on 12/01/2007 5:26:19 PM PST by george76
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's executive order granting conditional collective bargaining rights to state employees has produced at least one unintended major benefit: It has belatedly focused public attention on a confusing set of laws and court decisions that govern the rights of public employees to organize and bargain collectively.
Ritter's order, of course, does nothing to improve the landscape — and if allowed to stand, will further muddle the issue. Thanks to a narrow 1992 Colorado Supreme Court decision, it is already quite tangled. The court in that year held that government employees had a qualified right to strike, a right essentially identical to that of private workers.
That decision was a shocker, since it was based on a statute passed in 1915. In the 77 years between the passage of that law and 1992, the state's appellate courts hadn't said a word about the rights of public employees to strike. In fact, it was widely recognized that under the common law, government workers didn't have the right to strike.
It wasn't until the 1970s that some states began to write legislation specifically granting rights to state employees.
Still, the four-member Colorado court majority found that the definitions in the 1915 law covered government workers and therefore must have granted those workers a right to strike.
Attorney General John Suthers is currently studying this issue...
(Excerpt) Read more at origin.denverpost.com ...
.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers ruled Thursday that state workers are allowed to strike.
Do you think that state workers ought to legally be able to strike?
Yes
No
Gov. Bill Ritter’s executive order giving unions a larger role in state government can’t preclude workers from striking, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in a legal opinion Thursday.
Ritter has said that his order contains a strong no-strike provision that would prohibit state workers from forming a picket line if negotiations between unions and management soured.
But state employees already have a right to strike under a 1915 law, and the legislature would have to pass a new law to reverse it, Suthers wrote.
Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, and Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, have drafted a bill that would do just that. And Suthers’ opinion reinforces the need to pass it next session, Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany said.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/nov/30/suthers-rules-against-no-strike-clause/
Under no circumstances should govt employees be allowed to strike. They are already grossly overpaid and underworked as it is. The average govt employee spends less than 4 hours per day actually doing anything and most govt jobs serve absolutely no useful purpose in the first place. The idea that they have anything to strike over is beyond ridiculous.
If govt employees don’t like it then they can sell those wonderful skills of theirs in the private sector... LOL!
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