Aspen Public Radio News presents On the Ground: A Nonprofit Spotlight.
This is the first installment in a new radio series highlighting solutions to local and global issues from Roaring Fork and Colorado River valley organizations.
Lindsay Fallon, operations director at Towards Justice sat down with reporter Regan Mertz to talk about what needs the nonprofit is trying to address across the state, who they’re helping, particularly local J1 visa holders and immigrant workers, and where the organization hopes to go in the future.
The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length.
Regan Mertz: I’m in the studio with Lindsay Fallon, operations director at Towards Justice.
Towards Justice works to defend workers and their rights through impact litigation and policy advocacy in Colorado, including right here in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Lindsay, what needs is Towards Justice trying to address both at the state level but also at the local level here in the valley?
Lindsay Fallon: Yeah, I think our ultimate goal is to level the playing field for workers. We have a policy director in Denver who's working on state legislation. There's a variety of bills that we're working on this year. One, for example, is a heat protection bill. So, providing workers support if it gets too hot, there's mandatory break requirements, and they need to have access to water, and then if it's too cold, sort of similar protections for workers. We also have worked to support allowing like local municipalities to have the authority to raise their own minimum wages. But if you look at, you know, living wage calculators, it's much too low for workers, especially if you start to look where we live, right in the Roaring Fork in Colorado river valleys, the cost of housing is dramatically increasing, and wages is not following that suit. So that's another issue that we're working on.
Mertz: How does Towards Justice sort of tailor to these different populations that you help?
Fallon: We really defer to community. We are not like an organizing organization. We think of ourselves as supports for the movement, sort of lawyers for the movement, but we really defer to what community needs and asks of us. And every community is different. I think it's easy sometimes to say like, oh, we'll just take this one issue and plop it right into Glenwood Springs, when it's a very different dynamic here and different community. And so really, we defer to to what community brings to us and how they would like support.
Mertz: Also with recent crackdowns on immigration under the Trump administration and ICE raids occurring across Colorado, has Towards Justice seen an influx in helping these immigrant workers?
Fallon: We have seen an influx of workers who have reached out to their employers and asked for, you know, their full pay, or asked for some other, you know, sort of labor protection and have been retaliated against in that the employer responds by I'm going to call ice on you. Don't ask me for the rest of your wages. If you do that again, I'm going to submit you to ICE, which is a real fear for our community members.
Mertz: And we’re at a really unique place here in the valley because of its J1 visa holders that work at local ski resorts, hotels and restaurants and things like that, so how does Towards Justice work with these employees?
Fallon: I would say, if A J1 visa worker reaches out to us, we definitely engage. We haven't done any direct outreach to them, I would say. But we are aware of sort of the J1 visa Worker Program and all that entails.
Mertz: One of my last questions is just where you are hoping to see Towards Justice go in the future?
Fallon: Yeah. I mean, I would love to put ourselves out of a job. You know, Colorado has really strong workers rights and laws in place, not perfect, so we're still advocating for improvements there. I think it's really where rubber hits the road is the enforcement of the laws and making sure folks are held accountable if we have bad actors. I think where I'd like to empower individuals is as consumers, we have a lot of power, right? Where we spend our dollars, where we eat, who we hire, how we hire, and I encourage individuals and our community to ask questions. You know, if you hire somebody who has a subcontractor, asking the workers, Hey, are you getting paid on time? It's really simple questions that can have a big difference knowing that we're sort of all part of the solution.
Mertz: Well thank you so much for coming in and talking with me Lindsay. This has been really great.
Fallon: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Support for this Nonprofit Spotlight series comes from the Aspen Community Foundation.
