This is the fourth episode of a five-part series for The Colorado Dream: Happy Birthday! The stories in this series are part of the KUNC podcast The Colorado Dream, airing on Mondays beginning June 29. The podcast is available for download wherever you listen to podcasts and on kunc.org.
Colorado’s workers helped build the state, laboring in its mines, fields and factories. Many did so in dangerous conditions, for low pay and with few protections.
Their stories span more than a century, from the company-controlled coal camps of southern Colorado to the sugar beet fields in Fort Collins and labor debates still unfolding at the state Capitol. The industries and workplaces have changed, but the central question remains: How much power do workers have over their jobs and their lives?
A company-controlled life
In the early 1900s, coal was big business in Colorado. Hundreds of mines operated across the state, employing about one in every 10 Colorado workers. One of the largest coal companies at the time was the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, owned by tycoon John D. Rockefeller. Many of its mines were in remote parts of southern Colorado, far from established cities and transportation networks…