The most anticipated veto of this year’s legislative session took place on Friday, when Gov. Jared Polis rejected the proposal to eliminate a key requirement before labor organizations can negotiate imposing union dues on non-union members, arguing it failed to meet important thresholds that would maintain stability.  

The measure provoked a major battle between business and labor, which sought to repeal an election tied to union dues from the state’s 82-year-old law dealing with collective bargaining.

Polis urged business and labor to find a compromise and his office pushed a deal, but negotiations collapsed in the final week of the legislative session. He repeatedly said he won’t sign any major changes to the law without an agreement from both sides.  

After the negotiations failed, sponsors pushed through the bill virtually unchanged from its introduction on the first day of the 2025 session.

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 was before Colorado lawmakers.

At issue at the Colorado Capitol was the state law requiring a “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 eliminate it.

Polis: Core issue deals with union dues, not union formation

In his veto letter, Polis said the core issue in Senate Bill 5 is union dues — not union formation, which, he noted, is governed by federal law.

“At its core this is about who has a say in whether union dues are deducted from employee paychecks,” he said. “To my mind, mandatory dues deduction should require a high bar of both participation and support, particularly at a time when hardworking Coloradans are concerned about the cost of groceries, the economy, and their job security.”

The current law — called Labor Peace Act — has maintained “peace and stability” between employers and unions, and it was the stability that he sought in pushing for a deal, the governor said. 

“I am disappointed we did not find common ground,” said Polis, who sought to defend his “pro-union, pro-worker” record and cited new policies under his tenure as governor, such as collective bargaining rights for county employees and family and medical leave insurance.

The governor said he believes there must be a “high threshold” for “worker participation and approval for bargaining over mandatory wage deduction.” The bill before him, he said, failed to meet that threshold. 

The governor offered an olive branch to labor — he is open to changing the law, saying it “can and should be amended to more fairly allow workers to choose union security.”

Current law sets a threshold so high that “second election” that it creates an incentive to “almost exclusively seek to unionize at small companies,” he said. That makes winning “union security” — meaning the imposition of union dues on all workers — at large employers nearly impossible, where, he said, organizing might be even more important.

The “greater of 50% + 1 or 75%” standard counts people who didn’t vote as de facto “no’ votes,” he said. 

He thanked both sides for negotiating but said they missed an opportunity to modernize “this outdated law while providing lasting certainty to Colorado workers and businesses.”

He said both sides should continue the conversation.

There were various permutations of the offers in the negotiations. Broadly speaking, they included eliminating that “second” election — so long as higher thresholds in the voting participation are met in the federally-supervised election to unionize. There were also competing proposals around unfair labor practices.

Labor and business clashed over framing a proposal to eliminate a key requirement before unions can negotiate to impose dues on non-union members. The labor coalition pushing the legislation and its allies at the state Capitol insisted it’s about workers’ ability to unionize, arguing that unionization yields much better economic results for a state.

Business representatives have countered that the proposal has nothing to do with workers’ ability to form a union. They maintained that the legislation deals solely with imposing dues on all workers.

“I don’t think the reaction is unexpected,” said Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, one of the co-sponsors of SB 5.

“We did all that we could, advocating and negotiating up the last day,” she told Colorado Politics. Citing the governor’s statement that he supports labor, Bacon said, “We believed this was the crown jewel of that support. The governor will have to demonstrate what his support for labor is.”

Unions call veto a ‘setback’; business governor protected ‘individual choice’

Unions criticized the veto. 

“Governor Polis has chosen to protect an 80-year-old, anti-union law over the rights of working Coloradans,” said Stephanie Felix-Sowy, leader of Colorado Worker Rights United and president of SEIU Local 105. “He is now the only Democratic governor in the country defending a ‘right to work’ policy that undermines worker freedom and shields corporate power. Nurses, janitors, caregivers, and service workers across Colorado won’t forget, and we’re just getting started. Governor Polis may have caved to corporate pressure today, but workers are building a movement that he can’t veto.”

Dennis Dougherty, executive director of Coloraodo AFL-CIO said the veto is a setback — but not the end of the road.

“It’s the beginning of the next phase,” he said. “Working people are taking this fight directly to the ballot in 2026, where Coloradans can choose to stand with workers and finally end unjust firings and union-busting tactics. This ballot measure will be a defining moment in our fight for fairness and dignity on the job and help create a more just and sustainable Colorado for everyone.”

Loren Furman, president of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, applauded the governor for his veto.

“Today’s veto is a recognition of the good faith effort and concessions we were willing to make to strike a compromise,” she said in a statement Friday. “We applaud the governor for standing with employees across Colorado who deserve a say in how they spend their hard-earned paychecks. Jobs and livelihoods should not be put at risk because a worker chooses not to support union officials who they do not feel represent them or may use their dues to support political causes they disagree with.”

The Colorado Restaurant Association also lauded the decision.

“By rejecting SB25-005, Polis has reaffirmed the importance of giving workers a real voice — not just about whether to form a union, but also whether mandatory union membership and dues should be imposed on every employee in a workplace,” the group said.

Sonia Riggs, president and CEO of the association, added that by preserving the second vote, the governor protected “individual choice, supported the unique nature of the restaurant industry, and helped ensure that Colorado remains a welcoming environment for employers and job seekers alike.”

Polis vetoed three union bills after the conclusion of the 2024 session, earning him the animus from labor unions and a willingness by progressive Democrats to push through this year’s measure.

Colorado Politics’ Marissa Ventrelli contributed to this report.