By Jenny Davies
This week, the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee in Denver passed the Worker Protection Act after workers, union activists, business owners and grassroots organization leaders from Colorado Worker Rights United (CWRU) testified in favor of the bill. Sponsored by Sens. Jessie Danielson and Iman Jodeh, it will protect and expand worker rights and make it easier to organize.
Colorado families are struggling to pay for rent and groceries so giving workers the tools to increase their pay is exactly how we should address the affordability crisis,” said sponsor Sen. Jessie Danielson. “When billion-dollar corporations make it hard to form a strong union by requiring a second, supermajority election, corporate profits soar but leave families grappling with higher and higher costs. It’s time for both the legislature and the governor to stand with nurses, service workers, baristas and the millions of people who power our state.”
Powerful multinational corporate leaders use their money and influence to protect the status quo, keeping the rigged system delivering profits to themselves and shareholders instead of the people who do most of the work. These limits on workers’ rights to unionize means that working families are struggling to pay for housing, healthcare and other basic expenses.
“Restrictive state rules and mail delivery problems meant we never had a fair chance to win our second election. At least 25% of workers had to request second ballots, and many of them didn’t receive the second ones either,” said Josh Reitze, a cook at Alamo Drafthouse, owned by SONY. “We want a stronger union to give us a chance to negotiate better wages, win a safer workplace and allow us to live in our expensive state.”
Last year the Colorado Fiscal Institute published a report citing Economic Policy Institute data showing union workers earn 10% more than non-union ones with similar jobs and qualifications. Projections updated in 2026 show that if the bill passes, Colorado workers will earn $2,350 more per year, putting more than $6 billion annually in the pockets of CO working families annually. As compared with non-unionized peers, unionized workers are significantly more likely to receive employer-provided health insurance and retirement benefits, have a 13% better shot of their family owning a home and have four times the household wealth ($201,250 vs $52,221).
“The union was my ticket into the middle class because it gave my family the financial stability that allowed us to buy a home, cover our health care costs, send our kids to college and trade school and retire without worry,” said Ronnie Houston, a Yellow Freight truck driver for 50 years in Colorado Springs. “A strong union meant we could negotiate critical safety protections in a dangerous industry so I knew I’d make it home to my family every night.”
Colorado Worker Rights United is a coalition of labor unions and community groups building worker power through organizing and solidarity in Colorado. CWRU is dedicated to modernizing Colorado’s labor laws to make it easier to organize and empower Colorado workers, 70,000 of whom are currently organizing to form a union.
Jenny Davies writes on behalf of Colorado Worker Rights United.