Boulder County doesn’t think employees of Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) and Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) should be included in the recently formed county-wide collective bargaining unit — and plans to challenge the decision in court.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) denied an earlier appeal from the county about BCHA and BCPH being included in the union, according to a Feb. 25 county memo. County commissioners Feb. 25 authorized county attorneys to file a complaint in district court against CDLE.
The complaint “is not about challenging the union itself” but rather seeking clarity on whether BCHA and BCPH employees are subject to the Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act (COBCA), Senior Assistant County Attorney Olivia Lucas wrote in the memo to commissioners. COBCA, passed in 2022, grants county employees collective bargaining rights.
“Boulder County seeks to correct what it sees as an error in CDLE’s decision that included Public Health and Housing Authority employees in the proposed county-wide bargaining unit,” the memo stated. “The county believes Public Health and Housing Authority employees are not subject to COBCA and so legally cannot be part of the Collective Bargaining Unit for Boulder County.”
According to a county spokesperson, BCHA and BCPH “are each governed by their own separate boards so Boulder County would not be the correct body to collectively bargain under the Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act (COBCA).”
“We believe it is a misinterpretation of how the county is structured,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
The three county commissioners serve as BCHA’s board of directors. The Board of Health consists of five community members who are appointed by the commissioners.
BCHA and BCPH are each “considering action to support our position,” either through filing their own complaints or joining the proposed complaint, Lucas said in the Feb. 25 commissioners meeting.
Boulder County workers voted 422-221 in January to unionize, making the group the largest to unionize under COBCA, according to the group. Of the 1,419 employees who were eligible to vote, 59 were from BCHA and 128 were from BCPH, according to a county spokesperson.
A representative from the Boulder County Employees Union said the unit agrees with CDLE’s initial determination to include BCPH and BCHA.
“We will continue strengthening our union with all our co-workers and continue to advocate for the 100’s of Public Health and Housing Authority employees who voted for union representation,” the representative wrote in an email. “We think CDLE has made the right decision. We are continuing as scheduled towards contract negotiations.”