DISQUS

Wendy Norris · 2 years ago

this comment in particular strikes me as odd

"The tone reflects how serious his (Ritter's) decision is," Haley said. "We think he is in danger of losing (support of) the business community. The business community is vital to his agenda. We think this is a turning point in his administration. We didn't like the content of the executive order, and we didn't like how it was done."

The Post has every right to criticize the governor's actions. That goes without saying.

But Haley's comment about losing the business community and the method for making this announcement strikes me as political advice not commentary nor news analysis reserved for the editorial pages.

Common-tater · 2 years ago

I hope Haley wiped his chin when he got through "writing" that thing.

Andrew Oh-Willeke · 2 years ago

The business community cares about what government does not how the state runs its internal affairs.

Union-management relations in the private sector are overwhelmingly governed by federal law.  There are a few small details that state law can tweak, but the National Labor Relations Board and the federal laws it enforces really strike the balance of power between private employers and private sector unions.

The fact of that matter is that while public sector unionization has grown in the last few decades, that private sector unionization is at the lowest levels since the 1920s.  These days, employers are far more concerned about being hassled over immigration compliance than they are about unions.

Also, public sector unions have always been a different beast than private sector unions.  Public sector employees have employment security to an extent private sector union employers could only dream of, because of civil service and merit selection rules imposed to limit patronage appointments.  And, as coverage of Ritter's Executive Order has noted, Colorado's state employee unions haven't primarily dealt with hard line negotiations over wages and benefits either.

This doesn't mean that a new role for public sector unions in the state is irrelevant.  But, the conversation in the public sector is a world away from the conversation in the private sector. 

ol Stu · 2 years ago

That Post Editorial I'm waiting for Singleton to come out against those other anti-American things we free workers have to put up with. I'm talking about the 8-hour day, time-and-a-half for overtime, holidays off with the family. You know, those traitorous liberals forced the unsuspecting workers to put up with at the expense of the poor defensless employers.

no@spam.com · 2 years ago

Haley is a dubious little toad Some of us were present at the otherwise-excellent panel at the Denver Press Club featuring Wendy Norris of CoCo, Bobby Clark of ProgressNow and Mr. Haley.

Anybody remember Haley bragging about how he spends his day deleting comments from the Denver Post that are, in his view, "wrong?"

Suggestion to progressives and independent journalists: never appear with this man again, he is devious and he is no friend of journalistic integrity.

It's not like you're going to have to deal with the Denver Post in its current incarnation much longer anyway. It's funny because Norris and Clark probably though Haley was giving them credibility by appearing on their panel, when in fact he was using them...

ruthetters · 2 years ago

workers rights Unfortunately, your facetiousness is a bit dated. Mr. Singleton has been targeting those workers' rights for the past two years in York, Pa. At the York Daily Record, he's been demanding concessions on work days and time and a half from the union-backed journalists.

Oh yeah, he also wanted initially to make it allowable to fire an employee for making disparaging remarks against the company. (He later backed off after it attracted attention from the national media.) So much for defenders of free speech, huh?

bmenezes · 2 years ago

Workers' rights part II Go back further than that, to his newspapers in the Bay Area and Dallas and you'll see that this type of behavior is the rule, not the exception for Singleton.

Apple jack · 2 years ago

What do you mean? What do you mean by "It's not like you're going to have to deal with the Denver Post in its current incarnation much longer anyway." What changes are in store?

Wendy Norris · 2 years ago

a point of clarification Colorado Media Matters and the Bell Policy Center jointly organized the July panel that included Dan Haley. Neither Bobby nor I were involved in the selection of guests.

If I had to hazard a guess, it would make sense to invite Dan to speak on behalf of the traditional media. Bobby discussed blogging and I were there to talk from the perspectives of online journalism and alt-weekly news.

Conservative talk radio host and columnist John Andrews (who no-showed) was also an invited guest.

So, all in all, it appeared that Colorado Media Matters was seeking balance and broad perspectives rather than glomming onto anyone's "credibility."