How would I go about proposing new legislation in terms of revising Colorado's labor laws? Do I just write letters to my state senators and officials and hope they hear my voice, or can an ordinary citizen like me make a proposal for change? It seems as though the current CO Labor Code is very rarely in favor of the employee. In most instances it seems as though the employer can take advantage of the fact that they are not legally bound to provide certain provisions.

Law writing is not a do it yourself job. Write your Congressman or State Represenative

Agree. New laws must be propsed by the appropriate legislator.

Anybody remember "How A Bill Becomes A Law" from 4th grade Civics class? Or do they do that any more?

SChoolHOuse Rock I rememeber. Did I just show my age:o

SChoolHOuse Rock I rememeber. Did I just show my age:o

No, panther, you're showing MY age. I LOVED Schoolhouse rock. :D

How would I go about proposing new legislation in terms of revising Colorado's labor laws? Do I just write letters to my state senators and officials and hope they hear my voice, or can an ordinary citizen like me make a proposal for change?

Your best bet is to lobby the elected officials.

You contact (email, letter, in person) the legislators. Given this is an election year, you should be in contact with all of those running for state senate and state representative. Layout the issues and listen to their responses. After the general election, contact them again, particularly if the ones elected told you that they support your position.

It works better if you have others doing the same in your district and in others.

Legislators can ignore a one or two letters on a very specific issue, but are likely to pay attention after that unless the campaign is orchestrated by a registered lobby. Even then, the legislator must consider how many constituents pay the lobbyist to represent their interests.

You don't have to come up with the proposed bill. The legislator and the legal aids in the State House can do that. Often, they can steal (err, borrow) language from the laws of other states.

Do a reality check, though. Do you want something that does not exist in any state in the Union? Gotta figure a pro-labor bill will have poor odds in a state dominated by Republicans. You can waste time, effort, money on a hopeless cause or lower your sights to something achievable.

In your effort to recruit partners in the lobbying effort, collect real life stories that help demonstrate the need for the bill to be passed into law.

Before you invest a great deal of time in this endeavor, I would recommend that you research the political contributions your elected officials have accepted.

If you are seeing biased contributions, you will have a real uphill battle.

I would also take the time to circulate a petition... virtual or otherwise.

The last thing you want to appear is a single voice crackpot. Getting a few thousand signature will go a long way into getting your voice heard.

Some states have ballot initiatives, if that is the case you want to bring it up to a group of like minded people preferably with the money to launch a ballot drive (State labor Council, affiliated Unions ,etc,etc).
JoeC

No, panther, you're showing MY age. I LOVED Schoolhouse rock. :D

Loved Schoolhouse Rock too and I am too young to feel old:P