Posts tagged Jared Polis
Colorado Senate passes Labor Peace Act overhaul, sends bill to governor
May 7, 2026 // The Democratic governor has said since before this year’s introduction of House Bill 1005 that he’s very likely to veto the bill, as he did in 2025 over concerns that it doesn’t represent consensus between business and labor and could hurt Colorado’s economy. The fact that union and employer representatives haven’t sat down with him to negotiate a potential compromise — something they did last year — reinforces the notion that Polis has no inclination to take a different tact to what would be a major shift in state labor policy.
Key labor bill clears Colorado legislature, faces governor’s veto for second year in a row
May 6, 2026 // The bill would repeal an 80-year-old unionization rule unique to Colorado that mandates workers hold a second election before their union can operate, following a simple majority vote to unionize in the first place. In the second election, a three-quarters majority of a company’s workers must sign off in order to negotiate labor matters as a union. Under a union security agreement, every employee must contribute union fees regardless if they are a union member.
‘This is us continuing that work’: Colorado lawmakers reintroduce bill to make forming unions easier
March 26, 2026 // Legislation to consolidate unionizing in Colorado from a two-election process to a one-election process is back, but will Governor Polis approve this year’s version? Last year, lawmakers passed SB25-005, which sponsors said would make it easier for workers to unionize and thus would raise wages. The new version of this bill, HB26-1005, largely does the same thing.
What’s Working: Colorado union membership fell 22% last year. Labor unions say they didn’t see a decline.
February 24, 2026 // Still, 2025 was rough for local labor organizers. It began with President Donald Trump ending collective bargaining rights for workers at many federal agencies over security concerns. In May, Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a union-supported bill to end a state policy requiring workers to vote a second time to start a union. And by the year’s end, petitions to unionize in Colorado fell to 34, down 40% from the prior year when the post-pandemic peak averaged more than one new filing a week.
Opinion: Teachers Unions Get Desperate
February 17, 2026 // Antichoice plaintiffs “usually file lawsuits right before families sign up for the program just to be particularly cruel. They know they’ll lose nearly every case, but delaying or enjoining the programs in any way is the last-ditch effort to slow maximum uptake for families,” says Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children. Many suits are striking out. Idaho’s high court just ruled 5-0 in favor of the state choice program. Top courts in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and West Virginia have upheld choice programs. The U.S. Supreme Court has continued to issue beneficial rulings. Yet the legal threat is real, and unions, often accompanied by local school districts, continue to throw millions at litigation and disruption, forcing states to spend huge amounts to defend against them. Then the unions and the districts claim schools are underfunded.
Op-ed: Teachers’ unions have hijacked classrooms across the US to indoctrinate students with far-left propaganda
February 11, 2026 // The teachers’ unions fired the starting gun by blasting out anti-ICE propaganda to teachers, urging them to rally against immigration enforcement and turn schools into battlegrounds for their partisan fights. The National Education Association is also pushing teachers to print out immigration-related political propaganda posters and put them in their classrooms.
Democrats will reintroduce bill to do away with second unionization vote
January 11, 2026 // Business leaders argue that the second vote is necessary to preserve the economic liberty of workers opposed to unionization and to stop them from being forced to pay union fees when they don’t want to do so. They also say the law gives Colorado an edge over union states in attracting jobs — one of the few edges it retains as increasing housing costs and regulations now rank the state as having the fourth-highest cost of living and 13th-highest cost of doing business. Labor leaders say the second vote is an already difficult hurdle that is routinely made harder by employers who ramp up intimidation campaigns between votes to get employees to vote “no.” And without the fees generated by union security, unions don’t have the resources to properly represent workers in hard-fought negotiations, leaders say.
Dems have been bleeding working-class support. Now possible 2028 contenders are fighting with unions.
July 24, 2025 // High-profile Democratic governors fighting the Trump administration are also mired in bruising conflicts at home — with allies they’ll likely need to advance their presidential ambitions.
Democratic governors face off with unions at home
July 22, 2025 // Democratic governors who may be eyeing 2028 presidential runs have been at odds with public sector-unions in their states over a variety of issues, including return-to-office policies and the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. In Colorado, state workers sought to join a lawsuit after Gov. Jared Polis allegedly instructed employees to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement with information on undocumented immigrants. Unions have also sparred with California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his order calling state workers back to the office for at least four days a week, with three of them securing eleventh-hour temporary exemptions. And Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office has been engaged in a tense bargaining process with state employees over health care benefits and paid parental leave.
Op-Ed: Public employees deserve truth from union officials
June 27, 2025 // In 2020, Colorado union officials gained mandatory collective bargaining affecting state employees. Three years ago, they landed compulsory organizing of many county workers. And the following year, Colorado lawmakers granted more favorable rules on how certain municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals interact with and speak about unions. Now, union officials want to fundamentally change the state’s labor landscape once again.