The Labor Exchange on KGNU

KGNU Labor Exchange - Solidarity & Organizing at Boulder Public Library with Michael Serrano and Rachel Garfield-Levine

On this week’s Labor Exchange we talk to Boulder Public Library workers Michael Serrano and Rachel Garfield-Levine. Workers at the library have formed a union and are seeking recognition and a contract. 

KGNU Labor Exchange - Bonus MLK Jr. holiday conversation with Adrian Rodgers AFSCME Local 1733

On this bonus episode of the KGNU Labor Exchange we talk to Adrian Rogers, President of AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis Tennessee. 
The local famously gained union recognition in the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike which was the for civil rights and union rights for Memphis City Workers. It was during his support for this strike that the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr gave his final speech titled I’ve Been to the Mountaintop and was assassinated soon after. 

Labor Exchange - A message for the new year and interview with Austin Sauerbrei

With a special new years message, we listen back to our episode with artist Austin Sauerbrei about his book Trouble! At Coal Creek. 

KGNU Labor Exchange - Kate Beister, social studies teacher and Sheridan Education Association President

We talk with Kate Biester, a high school social studies teacher and Sheridan Education Association President. The Sheridan School District has refused to honor the educators  collective bargaining agreement and educators in the small school district south of Denver are fighting for recognition and a fair contract.

The Labor Exchange PBS documentary Make a Circle with Jen Bradwell and Academy Award winner Todd Boekelheide

We talk to filmmakers Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide, winner of an Academy Award, on their film Make a Circle about the challenges around early childhood education and solutions that help families and early childhood educators. Watch it on Rocky Mountain PBS using PBS Passport.

KGNU Labor Exchange - Casa Bonita United with Michelle Mendenhall (IATSE) and Riley Holmes (Actors Equity)

We talk about worker solidarity at Casa Bonita, a theme restaurant in Colorado, as workers join together to demand a fair contract. Contract negotiations are ongoing following a strike over the Halloween holiday weekend. We talk to Michelle Mendenhall (IATSE). She started at Casa Bonita behind the bar and is now on the entertainment crew. Riley Holmes (Actors Equity) plays Black Bart and the Sheriff as part of the "dry crew" of entertainers. 

Labor Exchange - Hard Hat Riot with Filmmaker Marc Levin

NYC 1970. Construction workers and anti-Vietnam War student protestors violently clash in what became known as the Hard Hat Riot. Marc Levin's new film on American Experience digs deep into this tumultuous history with archival footage and interviews with people on the ground in 1970. Listen to his interview with Labor Exchange Host Robert Lindgren. 

Labor Exchange - Minimum wage in Boulder County with Alejandra Beatty

With a poverty rate above the state average and a higher median wage, Boulder is at a crossroads around the minimum wage and affordability. We catch up with Alejandra Beatty, President of the Boulder Area Labor Federation about an effort to lower the rate of the minimum wage in Boulder County and wider fights around what tipped workers should be paid. 

Labor Exchange - Remembering Leo Gerard, longest serving President of the United Steel Workers

Legendary United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard passed recently at the age of 78. We talk with Joel Buchanan, a longtime member of the United Steelworkers about the work and legacy of President Gerard. 

Labor Exchange - Challenges to Colorado's budget and a solution

We hear from Chris deGruy Kennedy from the Bell Policy Center and Joel McClurg from the Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger about challenges in Colorado's state budget and a proposed solution with a graduated income tax.