Right to Work Only Popular as a Slogan
I wrote yesterday about how "Right to Work" is a clever name for a measure that is designed to cripple labor unions. As it turns out, the "Right to Work" slogan may be effective, but the measure it promotes is not very popular with Colorado voters.
According to a poll done by the Denver firm of RBI Strategies, the ballot language associated with the "Right to Work" measure does not do well among voters surveyed:
Without including the words "Right to Work" in the ballot title or language, there is little support among Colorado voters for this potential initiative. Predictably, the opposition to the initiative is strong among Democrats (65% are against). However, even a majority of unaffiliated voters oppose the measure. Conclusion While it is very early to be talking about a ballot initiative with likely voters, these results indicate that the language proponents use in describing the measure is popular, but voters show little support for the actual policy behind the language. That lack of support for the content of the initiative indicates that it faces an uphill battle. Most ballot proposals need a 55%-60% level of support in initial ballot language tests to be considered viable. Proponents of this initiative have a long way to go to convince Colorado voters to change the way labor unions and their members negotiate in this state.According to the poll, only 36% of respondents supported a ballot measure about "Right to Work," while 56% opposed it. Those numbers are bad news for proponents of the measure, because any statewide ballot initiative that doesn't start out in the 50% range for support usually doesn't end up winning in the end. I must admit that I am a little surprised at these numbers; I would have guessed that Coloradans were more anti-union than the poll shows. My guess is that this polling data reflects a general indifference, particularly since Colorado is not a state with a strong labor union population. If most people aren't a part of a union and don't know anyone who is, then they probably don't feel threatened by unions.
Comments
Submitted by Sheera (not verified) on Fri, 2007-06-29 10:15.
"Right to work" reminds me of the Declare Yourself campagin to try to get youth to vote. I feel that "Right to work" is completely misleading, however, if you check out declareyourslef.com at least you can laugh at the hilarious video shorts. "Right to laugh!"
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2007-06-29 02:45.
I think that bill should have been worded differently. I had to read it carefully several times to make sure that National Right to Work wasn't trying to pull a fast one.
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation - SourceWatch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Right_to_Work_Legal_Defense_Foundation#Administrative_Officers
Castle Rock Foundation
http://www.mediatransparency.org/funderprofile.php?funderID=14
http://www.corporations.org/coors/
http://www.corporations.org/coors/lgb1.html
FOLLOW THE MONEY
The large and wealthy Coors family, whose estimated $770 million fortune was created by the brewery, has long been a major bankroller of homophobic radical right organizations, and the history of Coors support of the far right is extensive and well documented. In "Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States" author Sara Diamond writes, "The archetypical right-wing funding conduit was the Coors beer company. Chief executive Joseph Coors poured millions of dollars into dozens of evangelical and New Right organizations and established a pattern for other corporate funders."
Submitted by UniversalUpdate.com (not verified) on Thu, 2007-06-28 16:02.
Right to Work Only Popular as a Slogan
