Negotiations for the Boulder County Employees Union have begun after a judge denied a motion seeking to delay the process. Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) and Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) filed the motion last month asking to pause bargaining until the suit — filed by the county, BCPH and BCHA — seeking to exclude BCPH and BCHA from the union is decided. The court found that BCPH and BCHA failed to demonstrate that irreparable harm — the legal standard for a stay — would occur if negotiations proceeded. “The court challenge by Boulder County, BCPH, and BCHA continues,” county spokesperson Gloria Handyside wrote in an email. “Boulder County is not contesting the existence of the union itself or the results of the election for Boulder County employees, but rather the discrete point where Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) interpreted Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act to include BCPH and BCHA employees in the bargaining unit.”Editor’s note: This article previously stated that the county, along with BCPH and BCHA, filed the motion to pause bargaining.