For years, Colorado's human services workers were state employees, covered under its merit pay system. When the state turned the responsibility over to the counties in 1997, each county was forced to slot the workers into its existing personnel plan. This has made it very difficult to recruit replacement workers. We started organizing in our own offices. We have meetings over lunchtime.
People come to learn about the union.
They also come to me to discuss problems and get advice. Over the past few months we've grown from 22 members to 180. Ruiz has gone on home visits. The workers appreciate my taking the initiative to go. They seem more out in the open.