America’s economy and democracy are out of balance, with too much power in the hands of corporations, billionaires, and self-serving politicians who have rigged the system against working families. Yet, hope is on the horizon. Union approval rating is at the highest level since the 1960’s and workplace organizing in response to the pandemic indicates the rise of a fighting spirit among union and non-union workers.
The rights of working people are fundamental to a healthy society. The opportunity to join a union — no matter where we work — is the best way to raise wages, ensure safe working conditions, create family-sustaining jobs, and begin to fix the rigged economy. When we have good union jobs, our economy and democracy are stronger and our communities thrive.
It will take huge fights to win any improvement to the lives of working class people. An organized working class is the only force capable of winning these fights. We demand policies that allow all working people the freedom to form a union without employer interference. We will stand with and fight for all working people across all sectors when they organize a union or other form of worker organization, including healthcare workers, home care workers, airport workers, and public employees.
We value, uplift and protect the humanity and human dignity of all working people, whether white, black or brown no exceptions. We recognize that for too long, we’ve let a powerful few divide us against each other in order to keep wages down and pad their own profits. We need to unite across our racial differences to build strong, thriving communities where we take care of each other and everyone contributes to their full potential.
We’ll fight for inclusive policies that address long standing economic barriers faced by people of color, repair historic harms, and end systemic racism. We’ll support hardworking immigrants who are contributing to our economy, by supporting policies that empower the immigrant community and keep families together.
Working families must be able to afford their housing in safe, thriving communities, without the fear of being forced to move because of soaring rents and housing prices. We’ll fight for policies at all levels of government that address the rising cost of housing by raising wages, stabilizing costs and addressing systemic inequities.
To build an economy that works for everyone, we need to increase public investments in education and other vital services and infrastructure. But right now, Wall Street and big corporations are swelling their profits by rigging the tax system. We’ll fight for policies that require the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.
Economic security is a basic human right. Big corporations use their power to hold down wages and benefits. Instead, corporations should honor workers as people and serve the public interest.
We believe in a worker-led economy that values work and lifts people up. Working families are the engines of the economy and will drive the recovery. We’ll fight for higher minimum wages with no exceptions as well as other policies to raise wages including sectoral bargaining rights.
Now more than ever we know that we are all at risk when any of us lack access to affordable healthcare and paid leave to be able to prevent illness, and care for ourselves and our families when we do get sick. We need a system of guaranteed healthcare that prioritizes the well being of working people over profits, and ensures people have bodily autonomy, the right to have children, or not. We’ll fight to protect the Affordable Care Act, and support policies that make quality healthcare more affordable and accessible.
For all of us to thrive, the planet must thrive. We demand a truly just transition to an economy where working families and our environment thrive in tandem, with clean energy powered by good union jobs, and adequate support for displaced workers and impacted communities. Keeping our posterity in mind we will fight for policies that transition Colorado to clean energy, with union jobs and support for impacted workers and communities.
Gender and sexuality make up major centers around which social inequality is organized. Gender and sexual minorities face prejudice, stigma, discrimination and abuse even in settings where legal frameworks should protect their rights. While we have seen progress made in recent years, we must be diligent in our efforts to maintain that progress for all.
We value justice and equity for all working people regardless of their identities. We will fight for policies to ensure that people of all genders and sexualities can participate in their workplace with dignity, free from harassment and violence.
By Colorado. For Colorado.
We are building an inclusive movement in support of these priorities. All around the state, people are raising their voices to demand that our government and our economy work for all of us, not just the very wealthy and big corporations.