The new web site is up, www.protectcoloradosfuture.org. This organization is in place to help us defeat the work for less lobby. Please sign up as a member and help us stand up against these attacks on middle America.

At the heart of the divide is the typical false premise that giving employees contractual rights is not good for them. This is already an "at will" state where most employees can be fired anytime for almost anything, ie, without "just cause", but that is not good enough for the work-for-less lobby, the so called "right to work" crowd. They are is a conglomerate of powerful corporate entities with a front group based in Virginia. Their purpose is to cripple labor unions and to keep the practice of democracy in the workplace an elusive goal for as many people as they can. They will demonize unions with double talk and clever slogans and glorify union busting under the scared umbrella of all that is "business friendly".

Employees in work for less states make an average of $5,333 less than those in free bargaining states. Their benefits are greatly decreased and their job security is generally non-existent. Unionized workers are simply better off and claims to the contrary ignore the basic facts. A key point is that labor activists bear no ill-will towards business or fair levels of profit. We understand that business and labor are mutually beneficial partners when balance and cooperation exist. Those of us who represent labor seek only to empower employees as an inclusive component of business and not as an expendable tool.

The individual freedom argument used work for less lobby and others is a sham. Federal law already protects the rights of non-members. Nobody has to join a union or engage in union activities that violate their religious or political beliefs. In a union shop however, the democratic principle of majority rule does require non-members to pay a fair share expense fee if they choose not to join the union.

Organized labor is a primary avenue to bridge economic inequality and the imbalance of opportunity between average people and Wall street. The labor haters should stop pretending to care about workers by branding labor unions as the enemy. Anybody who takes a non-political look at the facts knows who is truly on the side of employees and that is the unions who set the standards for labor protections.

Cross Posted (partially) Colorado Confidential

Step up, don't be shy!

We just had the gold-medal award-winning record-breaking GOP-freaking fantastically amazing caucus turn-out of all time (so far).

There are swarms of new bees buzzing! NOW, how do we keep them active and making honey for the election in the fall?

Let's all think of some ideas, and don't worry about whether someone else will think they are the best ideas ever. Just...share them. The thing about ideas is that often they generate MORE ideas. And one that might not totally work where I live (rural and red) could be perfect for Pueblo or awesome for Alamosa.

I'll start. We are going to harvest the emails and PO addresses our county collected at the caucuses, and use those to start a 'known active' mailing list. It was pretty expensive to mail a postcard to every Dem household in our county, but mailing a few hundred postcards before other events? Doable.

An idea I want to promote down here is to start up some committees new people can join. Bake sale contributers? Someone to work a MONTHLY voter registration table? (Maybe combine those two ideas? Register people AND sell them cookies?)

I once read something about how to be happy: you need something to do, something to care about and something to hope for.

The way I see it, we Dems have the power to help a LOT of people get happy!

So first...ideas!

Your turn!

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(You know I didn't actually write the above, right? But I'm sending it out as part of my final Prowers Dems newsletter of the year, and I thought, what the heck, share the love!)