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A Colorado law passed in 1943 amid intense big-business and white-supremacist campaigns to block worker organizing has suppressed unionization in the state, according to a new report.

Jennifer Sherer, deputy director of state policy and research at the Economic Policy Institute and the report's co-author, said state lawmakers have an opportunity to level the playing field at a time when a growing number of workers are looking to unions to improve working conditions, wages and address rapidly growing economic inequality.

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"Colorado is one of the states in the country that still has a very old law on the books that creates obstacles for workers who want to form unions," Sherer pointed out. "This year, the Legislature is looking at finally repealing that very old law."

Under current law, if Colorado workers vote to unionize, they must then call a second election and win by a supermajority of 75 percent, in order to negotiate a contract with their bosses. Senate Bill 5 to repeal the old law has 392 registered lobbyistsand fewer than one in four support the bill that cleared the Senate and now heads to the House.

Sherer noted requiring two elections means Colorado workers face extra obstacles to unionizing, on top of opposition from what has become a union-busting industry. Employers have been charged with violating federal labor laws in four out of 10 union elections.

"Too often, employers are stepping over the line and illegally disciplining, firing, threatening or retaliating against workers when they try to organize," Sherer explained. "There are very few consequences when employers do that."

Colorado's union membership is now 22 percent below the national average, in line with antiunion states with so-called right-to-work laws in place. Sherer added the effects of low unionization rates on Colorado workers are also similar.

"Workers end up with lower wages, fewer benefits, less safe workplaces," Sherer outlined. "As union membership has declined in recent years, income inequality across the state is increasing at a really rapid pace."