Why Librarians, Nurses, and Adjunct Professors Want The Right to Collective Bargaining

The King Soopers strike last month showed Coloradans what organized labor can accomplish to improve working conditions… but what about public workers, who don’t currently have the right to collective bargaining under state law? That’s where the Communication Workers of America (CWA) 7799 comes in. They’re a coalition of workers at Denver Public Library, the University of Colorado, Denver Health and UC Health who are working with state lawmakers to beef up Colorado’s labor laws and, they say, strengthen our public institutions in the process. Adjunct professor Alex Wolf-Root and library worker Liana Kiddy-Gan join host Bree Davies to talk about why collective bargaining is so important for public workers like themselves.

To find out more about CWA 7799 and ways to get involved in the fight for collective bargaining rights, visit their website: www.cwa7799.org 

Wolf-Root mentioned that collective bargaining tends to help close race and gender gaps in the workplace. A true academic, he passed along a few links to relevant research after the interview: “How today’s unions help working people” and “The Union Advantage for Women.” 

Colorado House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar explains her support for their campaign in this editorial for The Gazette: https://gazette.com/denver-gazette/we-owe-public-employees-collective-bargaining

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