The battle over the proposal to eliminate a key requirement before labor organizations can negotiate imposing union dues on non-union members has now shifted to Gov. Jared Polis, who must decide whether to sign or veto the legislation, as he had threatened all session long.

Polis repeatedly said he would reject any significant changes to Colorado’s 80-year-old law governing collective bargaining, unless business and labor can find an agreement. The governor pushed for a deal in the last few weeks, but the negotiations failed to produce a compromise.

On Tuesday, the state House sent the proposal to the governor’s desk, shifting the pressure to Polis.

One sentiment at the state Capitol is that the governor did not want to be in that position—if he signed the measure, he would be perceived as thumbing his nose at Colorado businesses, and if he vetoed it, he would do the same to unions.

“Once again, we urge Governor Polis to stand with Colorado’s nurses, construction workers and service employees — the people who power our economy every day — instead of siding with billionaire CEOs and corporate consultants trying to maintain the status quo that hurts working Coloradans,” Dennis Dougherty, co-chair of the Colorado Worker Rights United and the Colorado AFL-CIO executive director, said over the weekend.

The coalition of businesses opposed to the measure, which included Colorado Concern and the state and metro Denver chambers, responded: “Our employees should not be compelled to reduce their paychecks to pay union officials who may not even work at their company and who may support political causes with which they disagree. This is untenable and would be nothing short of taxation without representation for our employees and comes at a time when we already face workforce and affordability challenges in this state.”

Senate Bill 005, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver, Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, and Reps. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, and Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, seeks to repeal the 80-year-old requirement to hold an election to establish a “union security” agreement at an already unionized workplace. Under that law, once agreed to by the company and the labor group, non-union workers would be required to pay union fees.

Polis has until June 6 to act on the bill, which passed on a 43-22 party-line vote. He could sign it, veto it , or allow the measure to go into effect without his signature.

Federal law governs union formation. In that election, a labor group must receive a simple majority to unionize—a related but separate issue from what’s before Colorado lawmakers.

At issue at the Colorado Capitol is the state law requiring the “second” election to allow a unionized workplace to negotiate over fees on non-union members. That election requires a higher threshold of a 75% “yes” vote to pass, and the unions want to get rid of it.