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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

This week we talk with Austin Sauerbrei about his debut graphic novel Trouble at Coal Creek that tells the story of a rarely told piece of east Tennessee labor history. The book is available from Haymarket Books.

On this episode of the Labor Exchange we talk with Caroline Nutter with the Colorado Fiscal Institute about the Special Session of the Colorado General Assembly addressing budget shortfalls related to the Trump administrations budget bill.

On this episode we remember Sheila Ivy Traister, a leader with SAG-AFTRA and the AFL-CIO who passed away recently. We listen back to a conversation with her from 2023 about the work of an artist, the importance of unions in the entertainment industry and the Screen Actor Guild Awards. This is a special extended version of our radio interview. 

On this episode of the Labor Exchange we hear the most recent Labor Radio Podcast Weekly, a digest of the top labor radio from across the country. 

We talk with Adam Fox from the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative about what Trump's budget bill will mean for health in Colorado including cuts to Medicaid and the effects on access to healthcare in rural areas and across Colorado.