Reality Check | State of the unions: 8 facts you need to know about unions in Colorado
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DENVER — Support for unions is growing across the U.S., and Colorado is no exception to the worker rights movement.
Workers in Colorado have pushed for unions with varying success at big companies such as Starbucks, Safeway and Trader Joe’s, as well as smaller workplaces including the Denver Art Museum, the Jefferson County Library, and Eldora ski resort.
But in many cases, employers have pushed back with alleged firings, legal battles and heated negotiation sessions accompanying the unionization drives.
So how does Colorado compare to the rest of the U.S. regarding union representation and organization? We break down the state of the unions in the Centennial state.
1. Colorado is a modified ‘right to work’ state
A “right to work” state is a state where an employee can work for an employer without having to join a union. In “right to work” states, a single workplace can have both union and non-union employees — in which case all workers are technically represented by the union and reap the benefits of its activities, even if not all workers are paying members of the union.
Colorado is a modified “right to work” state because, under the state’s Labor Peace Act, workplaces with unions may hold a second election to become an all-union workplace. If at least 75% of eligible workers approve its Labor Peace Act election, the workplace becomes all-union, meaning every worker must join the union and pay dues. The act was passed in 1943 as a compromise between unions and business owners.
In 2023 and 2024 to date, nine Labor Peace Act elections have been held — six won and three lost, according to the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
“Think about our politics in general, how many people agree 75% of the time? It's very, very few,” said Alendra “Len” Harris, organizer for the AFL-CIO Colorado chapter.
“It’s meant to seem more democratic, but actually makes it very difficult to create a unionized workplace in Colorado,” Harris said.
2. Since 1989 (when data became available) union rates in Colorado have been below the national average, with the exception of 2018.
In 2023, 6.9% of workers (189,000 people) in Colorado were unionized compared to 10% of workers nationwide. Unionization in the state went up slightly from the year before (0.2%).
Hawaii (24%), New York (21%), Washington (17%), New Jersey (16%) and Connecticut (16%) had the highest rates of unionization in the country. South Carolina (2%), North Carolina (3%), South Dakota (4%), Utah (4%) and Arizona (4%) had the lowest rates of unionization in the country.
Across the U.S., public sector unionization (e.g., police officers, teachers and postal workers) is higher than private sector unionization. Union density for public sector workers in Colorado is 24%, whereas in states like California, it’s 57% and in New York, 69%, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
3. Union members make higher wages on average than non-union members in the U.S.
In 2023, union members had median weekly earnings of $1,263, while nonunion workers had median weekly earnings of $1,090, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 10% more in wages than a similar peer in a nonunionized workplace in the same industry.
More men than women are in unions, and Black workers are more likely to be union members than White, Asian, or Hispanic workers.
4. Of the workplaces that successfully unionized in Colorado in the past four years, only one in four have a contract with their employers.
“A common trend we’re seeing right now is that a lot of unions that are organized are not getting their first contract because their employers are not bargaining in good faith,” said Sophie Mariam, labor policy analyst at the Colorado Fiscal Institute.
A Colorado Sun analysis of union formation in the state between Jan 1, 2020, and Feb. 29, 2024 found that 143 petitions were filed with the National Labor Relations Board. 63, or 44%, were successful in unionizing, and of those, about one quarter, or 16, confirmed they reached their first contract.
“Delay, delay, delay, delay. That’s probably the most effective mechanism companies have,” said Harris, who was an employee and union organizer at the first Starbucks store in Colorado that unionized.
“Time is money, time is power. You can lessen people’s morale. You can get people out the door who are pro-union and people in the door who are not,” she said.
One reason employers may choose to delay contract negotiations for more than one year is because of the prospect of decertification.
After one year, an employer can file to decertify the union if they believe the union has lost majority support. In that case, at least 30 percent of workers would need to call for a re-election, and unless a majority of votes cast are in favor of unionization, the union would be decertified.
Beyond decertification, Harris said common business tactics to avoid getting to a contract include arbitrarily changing locations or dates of negotiations, and focusing on non-economic, less contested issues first such as diversity equity and inclusion – while delaying discussion of economic issues like pay and benefits.
To date, Starbucks workers have successfully unionized at 475 stores across the country, including 12 in Colorado.
“The first successful unionizing campaign started in 2020. The first union store in America happened in 2021,” said Harris. “It’s now mid-2024 and not a single Starbucks store has a contract.”
5. Nationally, support for unions has been increasing in recent years, though the rate of union membership has been going down.
In 2022, U.S. support for labor unions reached its highest point since 1965, according to a Gallup poll, with 71% of those surveyed approving of labor unions. Support for unions was highest in the 1950s (75%) and lowest in 2009 (48%), but has since been on the upswing.
However, union membership has fallen precipitously since the 1980s.
6. Denver is one of the largest cities in the U.S. without collective bargaining rights for public employees. That could change this November.
Under federal and state law, public sector workers are not guaranteed the right to collectively bargain — a process by which workers negotiate contracts on items such as pay, benefits, hours and leave.
However, many city charters, particularly those in blue states, have granted its workers those rights — but not Denver.
In Denver, while police officers, sheriffs, firefighters and public school teachers have the right to unionize and collectively bargain, about 7,000 other municipal employees such as library workers, parks and recreation staff, social workers, public health employees and trash collectors, do not have the right.
However, the city council in July voted to bring this issue to the ballot, giving voters the chance to change the city charter in November.
Similar measures made it onto the ballot twice before — in 1980 and 1997 — but both measures failed.
If the ballot measure is approved, the affected municipal employees would not automatically renegotiate their contracts; instead, they would have the opportunity to vote for a union and collective bargaining rights.
Some evidence suggests public sector collective bargaining rights boosts pay by 5 to 8 percent.
“Being able to collectively bargain is one of the most powerful pieces of having a union,” said Harris.
7. Most county employees in Colorado can now collectively bargain.
In 2022, Senate Bill 230 granted county employees in counties with more than 7,500 people the right to organize and collectively bargain.
The bill was highly controversial and faced fierce opposition from many local governments. While it originally would have affected 250,000 people, it was pared down to affect 38,000 workers.
Workers at school districts and public universities were carved out of the final bill, and county workers were not given the ability to strike.
“It’s not super useful to have a union if you have no way to collectively bargain, which is why until now, county workers wouldn’t necessarily unionize,” said Mariam.
8. Independent contractors and agricultural workers cannot unionize under federal law, but in Colorado, there have been some recent pushes for greater rights.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), passed in 1935, is a federal law that grants employees the right to form or join unions. It covers most employees in the private sector — but does not cover agricultural laborers or independent contractors, including domestic care workers.
During the 2023 Colorado legislative sessions, lawmakers passed a bill that created the Direct Care Workforce Stabilization Board to improve working conditions for the approximately 60,000 Colorado workers who provide in-home care to people with disabilities and elderly patients.
These workers are predominantly male, and tend to be Black or Latino and living in low-income households. Forty-two percent of Colorado’s direct care workers rely on public assistance, according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute.
While the bill does not address unionization or collective bargaining rights, the 15-member board will review the direct care industry and develop standards related to compensation, working hours, benefits and other concerns.
Like domestic care workers, rideshare, taxi and limousine drivers are also considered independent contractors and are therefore not covered by the NLRA. Two recent Colorado bills, however, mandate upfront disclosures to drivers of fare, distance and direction — and transparency to customers around driver pay and platform fees.
Harris and her organization, the Colorado AFL-CIO, advocated for these changes.
“One of the things that we're trying to do for gig workers is find different ways that we can help elevate worker freedom, worker power, and the ability to work in a dignified way that isn't necessarily through a union campaign,” said Harris.