The morning is quiet as you turn down a main street, either side of the wide avenue lined with two-story buildings housing shops and restaurants. The small cafe has a few people seated outside but on this Labor Day morning the town center is nearly empty.
The Weld County seat, this northeastern Colorado town challenges the largely rural reputation for its area an hour east of the Front Range city, Fort Collins. Originally named Union City it was settled and financed by its contemporary namesake, newspaperman Horace Greeley, as a realization of his Free Soiler call for northern anti-slavery Americans to go west.
The original town moniker foreshadowed the strength of organized labor in its future. Colorado is a state settled by miners and ranchers, the industry brought along to support their efforts including railroads and power. The state was founded during the end of the industrial revolution, when unions were fighting for dignity for the working class and their members were engrained in the region’s DNA…