Labor
The entrepreneurial spirit of the American economic system has led to innovations and wealth generation with the potential to advance the standard of living for all Americans. However, rewards are going primarily to the wealthy rather than those who generated the wealth. It is time to level the playing field. Corporations must stop sucking the profits from workers to do stock buybacks and for the personal benefits of executives while the middle and working classes struggle to afford housing, food, and healthcare. It’s time for a tax code that supports working Americans so that everyone makes a living income for themselves and their families, no one in the United States lives in poverty, and all have the opportunity to get ahead.
Wealth inequality is greater than at any time in our country’s history and continues to grow. This is a threat to our democracy. The top one-tenth of one percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. Deregulation and government policies have resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth from working people to wealthy oligarchs.
Working poverty must be eliminated. Nobody who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty.
One of the most significant reasons for the 40-year decline in the middle class is that the rights of workers to collectively bargain for better wages and benefits have been severely undermined. Unions are and must remain a pillar of our economy, and workers’ rights must be respected.
1. All who do a fair day's work deserve a fair day's pay with adequate benefits, rights to organize, and a safe and healthy working environment.
2. Increase the US minimum wage from $7.25 to a base living wage that reflects the true cost of living and accounts for inflation.
3. Increase the daily wage for incarcerated individuals to provide a means to attain a higher dollar amount available to the incarcerated individual upon release.
4. Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to ensure equal pay for women.
5. Ensure safe and healthy workplaces with collective bargaining, training, and education, as well as adequate funding for enforcement of all state and federal safety laws.
6. Provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave; two weeks of paid vacation; and 7 days of paid sick days; and 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.
7. Ensure that all workers are free from emotional, mental, and physical coercion when exercising rights to assemble and organize, bargain collectively over wages and working conditions, or have dues and political contributions deducted from their paychecks.
8. Strictly enforce child labor laws.
9. Enact legislation preventing courts and bankruptcy laws from being used to abrogate labor contracts and pension obligations.
10. Strengthen the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and oppose exempting more workers from its protection. Retain provisions for covering non-exempt employees.
11. Make it easier for workers to join unions through card check legislation.
12. Continue to dismantle the Colorado Labor Peace Act, which imposes unfair requirements for voting to unionize and denies collective bargaining rights to agricultural and warehouse workers.
13. Restrictions upon the rights of workers to negotiate union security provisions with their employers must be opposed.
14. Colorado citizens should receive the benefits of Colorado state construction and procurement contracts using incentives whereby state contractors are encouraged to hire Colorado workers.
15. Consumer credit information must not be used for employment purposes.
16. Continue to advance “Ban the Box” legislation, which prohibits employers from seeking job applicants making unnecessary or unrelated past conviction disclosures not applicable to the job.
17. "Right-to-work" legislation, which restricts workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain for fair wages and working conditions is harmful.
18. We support state prevailing-wage legislation such as the federal Davis-Bacon Act that includes off-site project fabrication.
Approved Apr. 9, 2022 2022 Colorado Democrats Platform Page 32
19. We support the U.S. Postal Service, continuation of the 6-day mail delivery service, expanding services to include financial services, and repealing the congressional mandate requiring excessive pre-funding of health care benefits. We oppose privatization efforts recreating the postal banking system.
20. The Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) should remain a defined benefit plan, directed by a board elected by the membership.
21. We support Colorado State Employee protections provided for in the state constitution, including provisions for veterans' preference in hiring.
22. Pay extended unemployment benefits during times of high unemployment and in emergencies. 23. We oppose the use of sweatshop labor.
24. Full-time permanent employment with health care and pension benefits instead of extended use of contract employment must be a goal.
25. Crumbling infrastructure requires putting at least 13 million Americans to work by investing $1 trillion over five years towards rebuilding roads, bridges, railways, airports, public transit systems, ports, dams, wastewater plants, and other needs.
26. Create 1 million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans by investing $5.5 billion in a youth jobs program. 27. Fund job training and retraining programs, in order to retool the American workforce for the new economy, relieve underemployment, and counteract homelessness.
28. Support the creation of jobs to address our global climate crisis, including jobs in alternative energy production, conservation, and non-toxic-based food production.
29. Enact policies that improve the competitiveness and sustainability of small businesses and businesses owned by people in marginalized and rural communities.
30. Encourage corporations to set limits on executive compensation, create more jobs, and increase worker wages. 31. Support worker-owned cooperatives or business entities owned and controlled by their members, the people who work in them.
32. Fund job training and retraining programs, in order to retool the American workforce for the new economy, relieve underemployment, and counteract homelessness.
33. Encourage corporations to set limits on executive compensation, create more jobs, and increase worker wages. 34. Encourage and support Community Development Corporations (CDCs) and neighborhood-based, non-profit corporations to create jobs and housing and improve physical and social infrastructures. 35. Provide robust economic support to all individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and explore the creation of national employment and workforce development programs comparable to the creation of the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps.