University of Colorado at Boulder economist Jeffrey Zax says an executive order issued by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter in November is unlikely to give state employees greater bargaining power because it lacks critical provisions that would ensure binding arbitration and the strength and survival of labor unions.
Ritter's order calls for a "bargaining partnership" between classified state employees and state government, with an eye toward improving workplace safety, training and efficiency. Critics argue the policy will give unions too much political clout and drive away investors. Supporters believe it will re-energize state government.
Zax contends that both opponents and supporters are overestimating the order's potential to bring about sweeping changes.
"The order actually confers, in many ways, only the weakest of organizing rights to unions," he said.
An associate chair and professor of economics at CU-Boulder, Zax specializes in labor, public and urban economics and has written extensively about the effects of unions in the local sector and on wages, employment and expenditures. Unions can actually increase employee productivity, and membership does not translate into drastically higher costs for employers, he said.
"There are many states across the country where state government employees have much stronger rights for unionization (than in Colorado)," Zax said. "None of those states are in disarray. None of them are falling apart. None of them are losing their private sectors."
The economist believes the ultimate goal of the governor's executive order may have been to establish a system that would make it easier for state employees to collaborate with managers to streamline and improve work processes and, in the end, save taxpayer dollars.
To hear more of what Zax has to say about the governor's executive order and employee unions in a CU-Boulder podcast go to .