Southern Colorado Labor Council

09/05/2026

Great news out of Rocky Mountain Steel Mills this week! USW Locals 2102 and 3267 just ratified a new five-year contract covering about 900 workers in Pueblo.

Substantial wage increases, more than $10,000 a year per member in guaranteed attendance bonuses, a bump in pension benefits, and full healthcare coverage kept at zero premium for members and their families.

These two locals won a seven-year strike two decades ago just to get their jobs back. Today they're setting the wage floor for manufacturing across Pueblo and Southern Colorado, not just meeting it.

Congratulations to Locals 2102 and 3267. When Pueblo steelworkers win, Pueblo wins. Check the full story in the comments.

📸 Pueblo Steelworkers rallying during Oregon Steel Strike c. 1998-2000

09/05/2026

09/02/2026

In September, we recognize Su***de Prevention Month. The construction industry faces a crisis, with a su***de rate 4x higher than the general population. Let's band together for change.

08/31/2026

Aaron Gutierrez is going to be on the right side of the real fight in the Colorado Senate: expanding collective bargaining rights to more of Colorado's workers. At our candidate forum, Gutierrez backed the Worker Protection Act and public sector bargaining, which would help more workers organize and get a union contract, and he's committed to it without hedging on where his endorsements come from.

That's not a new posture for a Pueblo legislator. It's the standard our delegation has set for over a decade, and it didn't happen by accident. Leroy Garcia and Daneya Esgar carried the bill that gave Colorado's classified state employees the right to organize and bargain for the first time in state history. Esgar came back and did it again for county workers, sponsoring COBCA, the law that protects county employees from retaliation for organizing. Angela Giron did the same from the Senate a decade earlier, as a cosponsor of SB13-025, the 2013 law that gave Colorado firefighters, including Pueblo's, the right to organize and bargain collectively.

That's the standard Southern Colorado Labor Council holds Pueblo's legislators to, and it's why we're proud to endorse Aaron for Pueblo for Senate District 3.

An endorsement from labor isn't a party label or a district line. It's earned, race by race. If a name is missing from our list this cycle, that's why.

Vote Aaron Gutierrez, Senate District 3.

08/30/2026

You know what a union label on a product means: someone got a fair wage, worked in a safe shop, and had people standing behind them making sure of it. The Union Town endorsement works the same way for a candidate.

It's not a rubber stamp. Union members read the questionnaires, sit through the forums, dig through voting records, and ask the hard questions before any name makes this list. A Union Town endorsement means a candidate earned it, standing up for collective bargaining, pensions, higher wages, safer job sites, real benefits, and workers' basic rights, not just when a camera was in the room or when they walk in a parade.

If a name isn't on our list, that's not an oversight. It means they didn't earn it, whether they came up short or never bothered showing up at all. Working people built Pueblo, and we don't hand our name to whoever asks nicest. Wannabe millionaires and out-of-town donors can buy plenty in this town. They can't buy this.

And if you ever see the Union Town name or logo attached to a candidate who isn't actually on our list, that's not a gray area. That's someone borrowing credibility they didn't earn, off the backs of the dues-paying members whose work built this endorsement in the first place. Call it what it is: stolen valor, dressed up as an endorsement.

Check the list before you vote. www.uniontownco.org

08/29/2026

The Aspen Acres Fire burned over 102,000 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 850 structures, making this one of the worst wildfires in state history. Today, with Beulah, Rye, and Colorado City rebuilding, we want to say thank you.

Thank you to IAFF and Pueblo's firefighters, who fought this fire while some of their own members lost their homes in it. Thank you to every public servant who worked evacuation, sheltering, and cleanup, including the Colorado WINS members at the Department of Agriculture who took in evacuated livestock at the State Fairgrounds, the Department of Transportation workers who kept roads open for emergency vehicles, and the dispatchers and firefighters at the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

And, thank you, especially, to Working Families Friend, the nonprofit that exists to get cash into union families' hands fast when disaster hits, with no red tape, no waiting on paperwork, just help.

Southern Colorado Labor Council and so many of our affiliated unions: IBEW Local 12, IBEW Local 111, IBEW Local 68 - Ultimate Electricians, SEIU Local 105, Teamsters Local 455, AFT, United Steelworkers Locals 2102 and 3267, Colorado Education Association, Pueblo Education Association Public Page, Pueblo County Education Association - PCEA Local Union #58 Plumbers, Pipefitters & HVAC. These locals and dozens of individuals raised over $180,000 for impacted families, with more than $120,000 already in members' hands. This sort of response is what a labor council is for.

To everyone who donated, volunteered, opened their home, or checked on a neighbor: this is what Union Town looks like when we take care of its own.

08/28/2026

Congratulations AFSCME ✊

AFSCME members choose organizer and proven fighter Patrick Moran as AFSCME President. Nicole Pollard elected AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer. Together, Moran and Pollard will grow worker power and protect public services. They are ready to take on the fights ahead.

08/28/2026

America’s unions are proud to endorse SBWorkersUnited's boycott of stand-alone corporate Starbucks stores.

Workers are fed up with unchecked corporate greed, and we’re standing with them in their fight for a fair contract.

No contract? NO COFFEE! ✊
https://www.boycottstarbucks.net/

08/27/2026

Huge news out of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office: IBPO Local 837 signed their first-ever contract today.

First. Ever. Contract. Pueblo County Sheriff's deputies won a seat at the table for the first time in the department's history.

This didn't happen by accident. Southern Colorado Labor Council backed Allen Medina for Pueblo County Sheriff in this year's primary because he showed up to our forum and talked straight about labor relations and employee morale and he won. That's the kind of accountability labor built in Pueblo County this year, and it's not stopping here.

Congratulations to every deputy who signed a card, organized, and stuck with this fight. And thank you to every working family that showed up, rallied, and voted to get our deputies to this point. This is what happens when workers stay together.

08/22/2026