Douglas County officials violated state labor laws during an attempted union election process earlier this year, according to a report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
A local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which describes itself as the world’s largest organization of law enforcement officers, filed the complaint against the Douglas County Board of Commissioners and sheriff’s officials in May, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
In a department report released on Nov. 1, state labor officials found that Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly, Undersheriff David Walcher and commissioners George Teal, Abe Laydon and Lora Thomas violated the Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act, which was passed in 2023.
COBCA prohibits Colorado counties from discouraging employees from becoming members of a union but says “the expression of any personal view, argument or opinion by an elected official” doesn’t automatically violate the law unless it is threatening or coercive.
State labor officials ordered the county in its report to stop all anti-collective bargaining actions, distribute the determination letter to all employees and post a notice informing employees about their rights under state law.
The county commissioners and sheriff’s officials collectively appealed the decision on Tuesday, according to a Douglas County news release. They also filed a request to stop the enforcement actions until the appeal is resolved.
“As the sheriff, I stand firm that we did not violate the law,” Weekly said in the release. “We did not threaten or coerce our staff. We simply shared accurate information so they could make an informed decision.”
However, state labor officials said in their decision letter that the sheriff’s officials and county commissioners’ actions discouraged employees from unionizing and were “coercive and official in nature such that they were not expressions of personal opinion” and therefore not protected.
A Colorado chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police began collecting signatures from Douglas County sheriff’s deputies and sergeants early in 2024 to support a representation election, according to the state’s report.
Throughout the process, organization representatives repeatedly told employees that they had met with Weekly and that he had “expressed his continued support” for the organization, according to emails documented in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s report.
In response, Weekly sent employees more than 10 emails where he opposed collective bargaining, highlighted his various successes fighting for pay and benefits for his employees and called out the Fraternal Order of Police for spreading false information about Weekly supporting unionization efforts.
He called collective bargaining “absolutely unnecessary” and said it would make “all the work” he and Walcher had done to build relationships within the county “irrelevant,” according to the labor department’s report.
Weekly provided none of the emails to state investigators when they asked for all documents and written communications referencing collective bargaining and union organizing, according to the state’s report. The Fraternal Order of Police provided copies of Weekly’s emails to investigators.
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According to the state report, county commissioners Teal, Laydon and Thomas used federal funds to publish a YouTube video that also spoke out against the collective bargaining effort.
“In Douglas County, we oppose the notion that outsiders would think they know what’s best for our community, our sheriff’s office employees and your safety,” the commissioners said in the video.
Weekly also appeared in at least two YouTube videos where he urged employees to vote “no.”
Walcher sent multiple emails to all Douglas County deputies where he told employees they could vote “no” for union representation and wrote about how “disappointed” he and Weekly were “with the underhanded and dishonest manner that the FOP went about tricking our employees into signing authorization cards.”
The undersheriff also hung campaign posters in the office featuring Weekly next to the words “VOTE NO ON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING,” according to the state report.
The Fraternal Order of Police withdrew its unionization petition shortly before the election, which was scheduled for April 29.
Douglas County officials said the county has already filed two unrelated lawsuits challenging Colorado’s adoption and application of COBCA.
The first challenged COBCA’s redistribution of all county employees under the authority of the board of county commissioners and the second claimed COBCA abridged personal and local government rights guaranteed under the constitution, county officials said. Both these actions remain pending.
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