Ever a curious bunch over here at Face The State, we took notice when Colorado WINS, a union coalition, announced festivities to kick off its latest effort and elect new leadership this weekend in Denver. When we asked to attend, our request was declined.
The reason we were given? Lack of space. And we weren't the only ones. At least one other media organization we spoke with was denied access to the event.
Sound familiar? Well, this isn’t the first time local labor leaders have said no to the media in recent days. Last week, union reps failed to show up at a scheduled televised debate after producers failed to meet their last minute demands.
And this isn't the first time we've been blocked from labor meetings. In March, despite having being cleared for attendance beforehand, Colorado WINS blocked a FTS writer from covering an event designed to attract new government employees as members. Apparently, organizers didn't care about attracting positive coverage on our site. Our reporter was ordered to leave immediately.
Dawn Lee, the media contact for Colorado WINS and the same person who cleared our attendance in March, said Tuesday that the convention was at full capacity and could not admit anyone else.
Colorado WINS is a coalition of three major unions, CAPE-SEIU, and AFSCME. It was formed just days after Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, signed an executive order giving unions exclusive representation rights to state employees.
On its Web site, WINS says “Everybody!” is included in its effort to unionize Colorado. As it turns out, however, "Everybody!" does not extend to curious reporters.