see "Union bill stirs debate on jobs" (Denver Post, 2/5/07)
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_5121613

To the Editor:

If Colorado “business leaders” end up in a big fight to make Colorado a right-to-work state, they’ll have nobody to blame for their headaches but themselves. By supporting the biggest tax hike in the state and by not supporting a fiscal conservative for Governor, Colorado’s “Republican in Name Only” business establishment abandoned basic Republican principles of limited government and low taxes in the same way that Republicans in DC did.

But making Colorado a right-to-work state is a worthy battle, and if business takes up the challenge they might go some way toward redeeming themselves. Especially in these times of intense competition, unions are little more than a tax on society. They add cost, decrease efficiency, and encourage corruption.

But beyond details of what people like or don’t like about unions, it is truly frightening that unions may to be able to require payment of union dues as a condition of employment. Since when in America did it become possible for one person, or group of people, to tell us the conditions under which we can contract out our labor? And I ask without any intent of hyperbole, if a union master can tell me that I can’t work without paying him, have we really abolished slavery?