 Recent News
Got a Great Idea?
It Could Win You $5,000
SEIU members have a lot of smart ideas for improving public services. When we're able to run with them, it benefits the public, helps out employers, and improves our jobs. Everybody wins. Do you have a new idea you think will really improve the quality of public services? If so, please enter your idea in the "Everybody Wins" contest for a chance to win $5,000. For more information or to enter your idea, CLICK HERE. Contest entries must be submitted online or postmarked by April 4, 2008. CAPE Joins Forces with AFSCME and AFT to Form Colorado WINS
Governor Supports Partnership with
State Workers
| |  Sign the
Partnership Petition | | The governor has said he wants to work in partnership with us. Now it's time for us to make clear that we also want to work in partnership to improve state jobs and services.
» Sign the Petition |
Gov. Bill Ritter recently spoke out forcefully about a partnership with state employees to improve the reliability and accountability of state services. On Mike Rosen’s conservative radio program, the governor described the his desire to partner more with employees this way: “It’s about a whole host of things, and it’s trying to really form this partnership that says we value you, we value your input, we value your voice, and we think we can run state government a better way… “We had snow plow drivers when we came into office who were ready to revolt... There’s a huge turnover at Motor Vehicles. It’s frighteningly high if you ask me. We have millions of dollars of failed computer systems that we inherited and a lot of that could have been, would have been, different had employees been involved in a different way in state government.”
 Additional excerpts from the Governor's remarks.
Watch Gov. Ritter talk to CAPE members last spring
about the need to work together.
Watch CAPE members deliver 1,000 ideas to Gov. Ritter
to improve state government.
CAPE Helps Launch Broad New Coalition for Health Care Reform in Colorado
Kathleen Chitty, Denver RN, speaks to media. |
CAPE, SEIU Local 105, and the SEIU Nurse Alliance together with Kaiser Permanente, the Colorado Medical Society and a diverse grouping of nonprofits and trade associations held a news conference to officially launch the "Partnership for a Healthy Colorado" coalition. The new coalition will promote change through a public awareness campaign.
Read the story in the Denver Business Journal.
Go to the Partnership for a Healthy Colorado web site
CDOT Employee Roger Hessler Explains Why Partnerships Work
Roger Hessler
CDOT employee
|
In the Sept. 15 edition of the Rocky Mountain News, CAPE member Roger Hessler stood up against the handful of extremist lawmakers who have been attacking state employees and our partnership approach by articulating why state employees need an independent voice, and why we should have the same freedom to vote to form a union or association that all employees who work for Colorado businesses already have.
Roger and his co-worker Bill Ertle also recently invented a tool to improve productivity and reduce workplace injuries. Watch a video about the tool Hessler and Ertle invented
CAPE Facilitates Employee Feedback Sessions in Department of Regulatory Agencies
Marcie Rivera
DORA employee |
Recently CAPE members launched an effort in the Department of Regulatory Agencies to improve communications between employees and management. More than 200 employees participated in the feedback sessions. CAPE produced a report that summarizes employees’ ideas on how to improve jobs and services at DORA.
Read more about the CAPE initiative
Read the executive summary of the CAPE report.
CAPE and CDOT Form Partnership for Quality
and Innovation
CAPE and the Colorado Department of Transportation have formed a partnership to improve jobs and services, and tap the energy and creativity of frontline employees to solve problems and promote quality and innovation. A joint survey is being distributed to employees to collect their suggestions, and joint labor-management committees will meet to help identify and implement the best ideas. The CDOT Employee Council will also assist with the survey.
Read CDOT Director Russ George's memo on the
CAPE-CDOT Partnership.
Submit your ideas for the CAPE-CDOT online survey.
Download and print a copy of the survey.
CAPE Members Call for Comprehensive Health Care Improvements
 CAPE members made some progress in the legislature, winning the largest compensation package for state employees in five years. But it clearly isn't enough.
Without the ability to negotiate better a better health care deal with the state, insurance companies increased state employee premiums again, underscoring the need for comprehensive reform and for state employees to have a seat at the table.
How much state employees would be paying for our health care without the money secured by CAPE members.
CAPE's health care reform plan for all Coloradans.
Download a flyer about the pay & health care changes.
CAPE Secures $16.8 Million for Health Care and Biggest Raises in Years to Offset Premium Hikes
Following what one lawmaker called,"the biggest lobbying effort seen by state employees in years" CAPE members helped secure $16.8 million more for health care to offset insurance premium increases.
More than 150 CAPE members met with lawmakers at the capitol and thousands signed the CAPE petition for better health care.
CAPE members also took action to help win the largest compensation package received by state employees in five years, prompting the Denver Post to declare state employees as one of the five biggest winners of the legislative session. State employees will receive an average 3.7 percent salary survey pay increase with additional money set aside for achievement bonuses.
Read the Denver Post story, "State workers, prisoners come out ahead in budget."
CAPE and SEIU Announce Health Care Reform Plan for All Coloradans
CAPE and SEIU's "Better Health Care for Colorado" proposal calls for a path to health care coverage for all, a move away from institutional long term care and accountability provisions to ensure quality care.
The CAPE and SEIU proposal provides a platform to extend affordable coverage to more than 95% of Colorado residents.
Find out more about the CAPE and SEIU plan.
Read the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post stories.
Update: SEIU plan is one of 4 plans chosen by the Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform for further study. Read more.
More CAPE News
In an effort to bring all state employees together to create the strongest possible voice for state employees and the essential public services we provide, CAPE-SEIU members announced today that we're joining together with AFSCME and AFT to forge a new, unified organization called Colorado WINS (Colorado Workers for Innovation and New Solutions).
Go to www.ColoradoWINS.info to watch the online announcement of our new organization by IT specialist and CAPE-SEIU member Dave Growley along with other videos that seek to tell the real story about the efforts of state employees to win improvements for ourselves and the people we serve.
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“Employee partnerships 
Read comments from and watch video interviews with state employees and legislators. 
The Quiet Crisis in Colorado State Government: A Looming Loss of Skilled and Experienced State Employees Threatens to Undermine Services and Increase Costs. 
Have an Idea for Improving State Services?
Harry C. Reese Scholarship