Collective Bargaining?

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by LHS79

Just saw the ad with the Mayor saying our Firefighters make $80K/year now- with pensions (of course).

Not sure if that is starting salary or not- if so they are doing pretty well.

I will vote NO on the issue when it comes up for a vote- I feel if every department were allowed to unionize it would drive costs through the roof.

We are already seeing how much more our cost of living has exploded here: https://gazette.com/business/colorad...1aa38cdcc.html

Of course for the newbies it is "Still better than where we came from!"- for other like low income/fixed income or folks who grew here/long-term residents not so much.

I just took time to read the Gazette article.

First, everyone needs to know that the Gazette is owned by a billionaire, a one-percenter, most of whom see ANY government as a mortal enemy denying them free rein to milk every last cent from us. The less power we have the more they like it.

So of course the Gazette is going to pimp a point of view that sows discord; in this article they say that electric utility rates have gone up higher than humma humma humma. So what. The Gazette doesn't explain why rates have gone up leaving us to make our own conclusion that the mean old guv'mint is incompetent or corrupt. I'll hazard a guess that CSU is now getting around to paying for years of deferred maintenance and modernization to its system.

The devil is always in the details and the Gazette won't go there; truth is not always in their best interests (i.e., the best interests of Phil Anschutz, multi-billionaire owner of The Broadmoor, Staples Arena, etc.,). The people who play divide and conquer games know they only have to say the rates have gone up at a higher rate (i.e., claim there's a problem). They don't need to say (lie) about who's to "blame" for this, they know most people will fill in the blanks with their pre-determined bias to believe the worst in others and blame da guv'mint.

I'm not sure I'd say the cost of living in COLO SPGS has 'exploded' since it's still below the national average and I don't see any correlation given to prove that collective bargaining is tied to the cost of living in COLO SPGS.

I do know that the Koch brother's network of hard-right / libertarian billionaires who provide tremendous amounts of money to GOP pols are bitterly opposed to all labor unions and have a visceral hatred of public employee unions. The Kochs own Scott Walker of WI and after elected Governor of WI the Kochs got their payback from Walker who put an end to collective bargaining of WI public employees.

Mayor Bach took Koch money and contracted-out the jobs of city garage mechanics. I'm sure Strothers took Koch money too and his payback will be to kill collective bargaining of your city firefighters. Right wing propaganda has divided people to where one set of workers in COLO SPGS are voting to limit the middle class existence of other workers. Divide and conquer rolls on; 99% of us are the victims.

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by DrDog

Good question Mike. Is Colorado a right to work state like Arizona?

YES it is.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by LHS79

YES it is.

"Right to work" is another big lie foisted upon (mostly) southern states by the billionaire class who've long funded a lobbying group to push their agenda. It's just another way to say 'union busting' so that we get less and they get more. Millions of people have fallen to the propaganda of the lobbyists and gladly vote against their own best interests, which has been studied by academics who find such thinking rampant in red states where lower levels of educational funding and achievement makes much of the population susceptible to propaganda and LIES. Yes, the Koch network is actively funding this bunch too, they've a whole octopus of arms into many aspects of lobbying at all levels of government.