And worker safety advocates have winced at attempts federal safety regulations that they say will leave workers facing unnecessarily dangerous conditions.

All are examples of the new uncertainty surrounding federal policy since President Donald Trump returned to office last year. Colorado’s Democratic legislative majority already had sought to insulate the state from Republican priorities that are at odds with their own — resulting in laws that have enshrined protections for immigrants, abortion, voting and more in state law.

And now lawmakers are turning to areas where the federal government has pulled back under Trump. This year, Democrats have already unveiled a suite of bills that would give the state more say in authorizing vaccines, would grant it more authority to enforce workplace safety and would aim to better protect students with disabilities, among other legislation.

In all cases, the backers have cast the efforts as the state stepping in where an unreliable federal partner has stepped back.

“We have never had to question whether or not the federal government is a reliable partner, and now we do need to,” said Heather Tritten, the CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign and a backer of the disability rights bill. “When we think about the programs like civil rights in education, or even in Medicaid or TANF (the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program) or education, we’re seeing that the money and partnership we could always rely on just isn’t there. And that means we need something here that can take up that space.”

House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, says it’s not a posture unique to Colorado.

She recalled that during a meeting with legislative leaders from other states last year, there was “a desire to really assert state authority in this moment.”

“So many of the issues that I think we’ve looked to the federal government to resolve are now falling to the states to grapple with,” McCluskie said.

It remains unclear how assertive Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, is willing to be when it comes to passing such laws, which have drawn opposition from Republicans and, in some cases, business groups. Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Polis, said the governor will review every bill that reaches his desk individually.

But he also understands the legislative priority.

“It is not surprising that the legislature is trying to fill gaps being created by the federal government and congressional inaction on some of the hardest problems facing the country,” Maruyama said in a statement. “Regardless of federal chaos, the governor is focused on delivering on better education, more housing options Coloradans can afford, less expensive healthcare, and protecting our Colorado for all.”

Months of silence from federal office

One new piece of legislation is aimed at helping families like Sutton’s.

Her high school-aged daughter lives with serious medical conditions — the type of things where, without specific care, she could lose the ability to walk or risk organ shutdown, Sutton said. At the beginning of the school year, the family sought and received a 504 plan, a federal designation meant to guarantee that people with physical disabilities have the same access to education as their peers.

It didn’t take long for Sutton to suspect that the accommodations required by the 504 plan were not being met. She said she raised her concerns to Palmer Ridge High School officials in October, then to the school district before she escalated it to in December.

Three months later, Sutton said she’s heard nothing beyond an acknowledgement her complaint has been received.

Her daughter, meanwhile, has faced new diagnoses and has spent more time in the hospital. All the while, school work has piled up as her accommodations aren’t met, Sutton said. Sutton declined to discuss some aspects of her daughter’s situation, as well as some details of her medical conditions, with The Denver Post because of a pending legal complaint and to protect her daughter’s privacy.

“We’re in the thick of it right now,” Sutton said. “Beyond the emotional effect it’s had on my child, it’s had real academic harm for her. The implications are very real. For our students, depending on what their post-high school goals are, are we setting them up for success — especially when they already have to do so much to overcome their existing disabilities? I don’t think so.”

In a statement Friday, Rick Frampton, executive director of student services for Lewis-Palmer School District 38, didn’t address Sutton’s situation but said the district “believes in implementing all 504 plans with integrity and a commitment to ensuring that students with disabilities receive equal access to education.”

“We follow a structured process and work closely with families to implement and develop those plans,” Frampton said.

Stories like Sutton’s spurred Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat, to introduce . Last March, the federal Office of Civil Rights laid off more than half of its staff and closed more than half of its regional offices, .

The office also “deprioritized” its usual work of investigating civil rights complaints, such as those filed by students with disabilities, according to the think tank.

SB-125 would give the state similar power and authority that was previously left in the hands of the federal office. Kolker says the goal is to recreate what had previously been accepted practice at the state level.

As it stands now, 504 plans are solely the purview of federal enforcement and outside the scope of state offices.

“The cases (the federal office) investigates are very important for these families to have someone look into what is happening,” Kolker said. “This is just a fundamental right for our disabled community.”

Madi Ashour, a policy advisor with the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said the goal is to make it so there’s “no wrong door” for families looking for recourse when their children’s needs aren’t being met.

Advocates also hope the bill, if it becomes law, would give families needed support even if the Trump administration, or the next president, reverses course. Ashour estimates the bill would require the addition of three attorneys at the Colorado Department of Education to help families navigate and seek support for their 504 plans or other accommodations. Legislative analysts haven’t yet released a fiscal note.

Paying for the bill��is one of its bigger hurdles, Kolker said. Advocates estimate it may cost about $500,000, though nonpartisan fiscal analysts have not yet released their analysis. Kolker has introduced other bills that may produce budget savings that he hopes to leverage to pay for SB-125, but nothing is set in stone.

For Sutton, she sees the bill as vital to making sure families can get the support they need and avert the stress her family has experienced. Delays of even a few months represent time no one can get back — and for children, it����ap especially formative time that could be key to their education.

“Parents shouldn’t have to become experts in civil rights law just so their child can receive the accommodations their school has already approved,” Sutton said.

Money worries loom over ambitions

Other proposals this year are intended to give the state some enforcement power in places typically covered by the federal government. But how to pay for the enforcement remains a hurdle in a particularly cash-strapped year.

The sponsors of seek to enshrine federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards — those intended to keep workers safe — in state law. But because the state doesn’t have money for new programs, it would rely on labor unions, individuals and state agents by giving them the ability to sue over violations.

The bill has drawn staunch opposition from business groups.

Sponsoring Reps. Manny Rutinel and Elizabeth Velasco, both Democrats, said they hoped to expand the proposal in future years to include direct state enforcement. But with the Trump administration threatening to rescind OSHA’s — an umbrella regulation that requires generally safe workplaces — for “inherently risky professional activities,” they felt urgency to act now.

“If I had the magic wand, of course, I would want to have a state OSHA, a state entity or department that could be protecting workers and doing this rulemaking and looking at all the things that need to be done to hold bad actors accountable,” Velasco said. “But with our budgetary environment — with the barriers we are seeing — we believe that this is one good avenue to start with this issue.”

The Colorado Chamber of Commerce contends that the bill would create duplicative enforcement and regulatory systems. Meghan Dollar, the chamber’s senior vice president of government affairs, also expressed concern about it expanding civil liability for employers.

“It could lead to conflicting legal standards with multiple levels of overly complicated rules, creating confusion over how state and federal enforcement interact,” Dollar said in a statement. “Regarding filling hypothetical gaps in OSHA enforcement, there are more effective ways to address issues that arise with changes to federal rules — layering separate state standards and creating new litigation risks will only increase costs, uncertainty and regulatory complexity for business.”

HB-1054 cleared its first hurdle at the end of February, passing a narrow 7-6 vote in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee. It now heads to the Appropriations Committee, where voting members will determine if the state has money to push the matter.

That question may not be resolved for a month or longer, as state budget writers look at how to shave nearly $800 million in planned spending for the upcoming year to close the state’s gap.

“When the Trump administration decided to gut our health care, Medicaid — to the tune of almost $1 trillion — it gutted OSHA in the process,” said Rutinel, a Commerce City Democrat who’s running for Congress. He was referring to the omnibus spending package that Trump signed into law last summer. “(The administration) did it all to give tax breaks to his corporate donors and to pump billions of dollars into immigration enforcement.

“Colorado is having to step in and find ways so that, despite our budget concerns, we can still find ways to protect our most vulnerable workers”

‘Trying to insulate Colorado’ on vaccines

A similar motivation is behind recent vaccine legislation at the Capitol.

Asturias, the Children’s Hospital Colorado doctor, said that over the past year, he’s seen a huge amount of anxiety among families that are trying to navigate changing federal guidelines and do what����ap best for their children.

Since Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long trafficked in about vaccine safety, to head the federal health agency, Kennedy has moved to change the recommended vaccine schedule.

“We have seen a huge amount of patients and families and parents being confused now,” Asturias said. “Even parents who are health care providers are now reaching out and saying, ‘Can you give me a good explanation of what’s changing?’ ”

To calm those concerns, Asturias is supporting . If it becomes law, the measure will give state health officials the authority to use immunization guidance from medical professional organizations, and outside of the federal advisory committee steered by Kennedy, when approving vaccine schedules. It would build off prior efforts by the legislature and the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment to maintain vaccine access in Colorado.��

Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat and emergency room nurse by trade, doesn’t see vaccines as a partisan issue. But when he brought the bill to the floor for debate in February, he was direct in his diagnosis.

This bill, Mullica said, is about “trying to insulate Colorado from some of the dysfunction that we see coming out of Washington, D.C., and with Secretary Kennedy.”

That wasn’t meant as a partisan jab at a Republican administration, Mullica said, but was him “calling balls and strikes,” just like he would if a Democrat was doing something he disagreed with.

“I think that it’s just the facts,” Mullica said. “They are doing things … that just do not follow the science and do not follow the experts and what we should be doing.”

He said it was time for state policymakers to “step up.”

But the bill nonetheless has caused substantial bristling among Republicans. None voted for the measure when it passed the Senate, with several raising concerns about liability for people harmed by vaccines.

Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, an Alamosa Republican, said the vaccine bill was interesting enough to warrant consideration. But starting the conversation with a posture of opposing the Trump administration “certainly slanted it a little bit.”

“As the minority leader, and a lifelong Republican, these are probably opportunities for some level of thoughtful engagement and conversation,” Simpsons said. “But it starts from that place of the influence national politics might be and are having on the conversations here.”

He said he’s been approached about supporting other measures that he substantively agrees with. But language that’s designed “to put a stick in the eye of the federal government” keeps him from signing on.

“We should, where we can, be thoughtful and avoid those kind of conversations, and just focus on what����ap good for Colorado and the reasons why — and not what the current administration makeup looks like,” Simpson said.

Prospect Ranch LLC, which operates Prospect Valley Dairy east of Keenesburg, faces $132,406 in penalties after OSHA cited the company for failure to protect workers from atmospheric hazards, failure to communicate the hazards in writing and failure to train workers on how to detect hazardous gases,

Fiske faces $99,306 in fines and HD Builders faces $14,897 in penalties for failure to protect employees from atmospheric hazards and failure to provide hydrogen sulfide detection training. HD Builders employees were present during the incident, but were not harmed.

Fiske, based in Johnstown, is a construction and consulting company that provides equipment for dairy farms and other industrial services. HD Builders, based in Windsor, is owned by Agrifab Colorado, according to county records, and is a construction company specializing in agricultural equipment and structures.

OSHA’s investigation into the Aug. 20 incident found that a pipe in Prospect Valley Dairy’s manure management system had disconnected and released manure water and hydrogen sulfide gas, according to the news release. Contractors from Fiske, doing business as High Plains Robotics, and HD Builders had been hired to work on the system.

Hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas, but is also produced from decomposing manure, according to OSHA. In low doses, it is mildly irritating to eyes and lungs, but in high doses in a confined area it can quickly become deadly.

A Fiske employee and a Prospect Ranch employee attempted to stop the flow of the gas but died due to the exposure, according to the investigation. Three more Fiske employees and one Prospect Ranch employee entered the pump room where the gas was leaking and also died.

Weld County Chief Deputy Coroner Jolene Weiner confirmed the identities of the six victims as Oscar Espinoza Leos, 17, Carlos Espinoza Prado, 29, Noé Montanez Casanas, 32, Jorge Sanchez Pena, 36, Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40, and Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, 50.

, including father Espinoza Cruz and his sons Oscar Espinoza Leos and Espinoza Prado. They were related to Sanchez Pena by marriage, who lived in the employer-provided housing. The family worked in machinery repair for multiple dairy farms in the area.

A Fiske spokesperson confirmed that its four employees who died were Sanchez Pena, Espinoza Cruz, Espinoza Prado and Espinoza Leos, according to a High Plains Robotics news release.

The men were a service manager, two service technicians and the youngest, Espinoza Leos, was an intern being trained by the older men.

In a statement Kevin Fiske, owner of Fiske, said that the company has cooperated with the OSHA investigation. Fiske said that the four men who died were not only hard-working and valued employees, but also pillars of their families and communities.

“While we disagree with the findings and are reviewing our options to determine next steps, we are focused on doing what is in our power to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again,” Fiske said in a statement.

The companies have 15 business days after receiving their citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest the findings, officials said.

County records show the dairy farm is owned by Prospect Valley Dairy and Colorado business registrations show a Bakersfield, California, address for the owners of Prospect Ranch.

The man was working for United Airlines and was involved in a vehicle crash that resulted in his death, United spokesman Russell Carlton said. “We are working with the employee’s family and coworkers to provide them support during this time, and we are investigating the circumstances of the accident,” Carlton said.

DIA officials declined to provide information.

A preliminary Denver Police investigation found that two employees were driving separate cherry-picker-type lifts in the 7400 block of Vandriver Street on DIA property, according to Sgt. Jay Casillas. One of the lifts stopped for an unknown reason, and the second crashed into the first, trapping the operator of the first lift. He ultimately was freed and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police are still investigating, Casillas said.

U.S. Occupational Health and Safety officials will investigate the fatality, agency spokeswoman Tiffany Koebel said. Company officials “have six months to complete .”

First responders reported the fatalities at the Prospect Valley Dairy outside Keenesburg on Aug. 20 were possibly associated with exposure to high levels of , known as H2S, a colorless, flammable and corrosive gas that smells like rotten eggs.

Hydrogen sulfide naturally occurs in sewers, manure pits, well water, oil and gas wells and volcanoes. It’s also produced in a number of industries, including mining, tanning, oil and gas refining and certain types of agriculture.

Its effects depend on how much of it a person breathes in and for how long.

Low levels of H2S can produce headaches or eye, nose and throat irritation. But higher levels can cause nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath and loss of consciousness. At extreme levels, hydrogen sulfide can kill a person in just a few breaths. There is no known antidote.

“Hydrogen sulfide is definitely (a) killer,” said Dan Neenan, director of the

Weld County authorities have released few details surrounding the deaths of the six workers, which included four family members, one of whom was a local high school student. The coroner’s office said the deaths are being investigated as a possible gas exposure within a confined space. At the scene, first responders noted finding men with possible high levels of hydrogen sulfide, according to archived radio transmissions.

Experts said the fact that the incident occurred in a confined space lends itself to more dangerous conditions. The , which is also investigating the deadly incident, has , but the agriculture industry is exempt from those regulations.

Though H2S initially has a pungent, rotten-egg odor, prolonged exposure knocks out your sense of smell, leading to a false sense of security, experts said.

Neenan said dairy workers and other people working with hydrogen sulfide should wear monitors that can detect the toxic gas and alert them when the fumes reach certain levels. It’s not clear whether the Prospect Valley Dairy laborers had these monitors.

His organization runs training sessions and classes around the country for both agricultural workers and first responders. They do an hour of classwork, followed by rescue simulations that mimic the conditions of a manure pit.

One of the most important rules when dealing with H2S, Neenan said: Don’t try to rescue people yourself.

What often happens is that one worker falls unconscious from the fumes and their coworkers or family members rush in to try and help them. But a person cannot hold their breath long enough to extract people from a manure pit, Neenan warned.

“I know it’s counterintuitive,” he said. “If it’s a family member, I want to help. But if I go in and pass out, the fire department is not sure which pit to go to, and I’m not helping at all. I’m even making it worse.”

Hydrogen sulfide deaths around the country

This exact situation played out in Fort Morgan last year.

In May 2024, one worker died and four others were hospitalized due to hydrogen sulfide exposure in an underground pump house at the Western Sugar Cooperative. One worker became overwhelmed by the H2S gas, while another employee was also overexposed while attempting a rescue, . That individual also lost consciousness and was later found unresponsive.

Data shows incidents involving hydrogen sulfide are relatively uncommon — but can often be deadly when they do occur.

There were at least 389 incidents involving 459 individuals between 1975 and 2019 involving livestock waste,��according to a in the National Library of Medicine. Fifty-nine percent of these were fatal. Forty-nine rescue incidents involved a total of 119 secondary victims, meaning more than a quarter of the victims were secondary victims, including first responders, the study found.

Purdue University in 2024 tracked that year involving agricultural confined spaces, including 22 fatal and 29 non-fatal incidents. That represented a 38.6% decrease over the 83 cases in 2022, and a 7% decrease since 2023.

In 2016, a Wisconsin farmer from a manure pit. Five years later, while performing maintenance in a manure pit. Last year, after they fell into a manure tanker and were overwhelmed by the gases at a farm in New York.

‘There can never be enough training’

But two agricultural safety experts told The Denver Post that in their decades of work, they had never seen six people die from hydrogen sulfide in the same exposure incident.

This shocking and tragic story should spur legislators to take action to protect farmworkers from similar dangers, said Hunter Knapp, development director with , a Colorado organization dedicated to advancing food worker justice issues.

Potential solutions could include adding protections in state statute related to confined spaces and requiring workers dealing with hydrogen sulfide to wear gas monitors, he said.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment previously said it is not aware of any state certifications or training required for people who work in areas with potential high exposure to hydrogen sulfide.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said it does not enforce any statutes related to the training or regulation of the toxic gas.

Ultimately, it’s important to increase awareness and training so workers can prepare themselves for these workplace dangers, said David Douphrate, associate director of the at Colorado State University.

“When it comes to the protection of human life,” he said, “there can never be enough training.”

The federal investigation��marks the first major multi-site probe brought by the in more than a decade, the agency said in a last month. OSHA’s investigation into ergonomic safety issues is unprecedented, experts say, due to a lack of established legal standard for this type of workplace danger.

The , which began in summer 2022, alleged Amazon exposed warehouse workers to a high risk of lower-back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders. Employees at 10 warehouses — including facilities in Aurora and Colorado Springs — were subjected to awkward twisting, bending and extending themselves to lift items, a high frequency of lifting packages and long hours to complete assigned tasks.

“Workers face immense pressure to meet pace of work and production quotas at the risk of sustaining musculoskeletal injuries, which are often acute,” federal investigators wrote in a letter to Amazon in its Aurora citation.

OSHA in 2023 proposed against the e-commerce giant of $15,625 apiece for violations of ergonomic safety requirements at warehouses in and . The department also proposed fines over similar complaints in New York, Florida, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New Jersey.

As part of its agreement with Amazon, OSHA withdrew citations and fines for nine of the facilities, including the ones in Colorado. The company accepted the $145,000 penalty for violations at one Illinois warehouse.

“This corporate-wide settlement agreement focuses on improving conditions for several hundred thousand Amazon workers nationwide,” Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas L. Parker said in a statement. “The agreement requires Amazon to assess ergonomic risk across its facilities, including through annual updates, and investigate and implement controls to reduce ergonomic risk. The ball is in the company’s court.”

The agreement will apply to all Amazon fulfillment centers, sortation centers and delivery stations and provides for an alternative dispute resolution process designed to address and correct ergonomic hazards brought up by Amazon workers.

The company agreed to meet every two years with federal officials to discuss data and elements of Amazon’s corporate ergonomic program.

“(The) agreement acknowledges our progress and notes that we should keep implementing and following our existing comprehensive ergonomics policies and procedures,” Amazon said in a . “There isn’t a claim of wrongdoing on Amazon’s part for the withdrawn citations, nor a directive to adopt new safety controls.”

Amazon contends the settlement agreement memorializes initiatives that the company was already doing.

Amazon still faces a into whether the company engaged in a fraudulent scheme to hide its true injury rates at warehouses around the country.

The company, in a statement, said it believes the government’s legal theory “lacks merit.”

Numerous studies and federal data show workers at Amazon facilities are injured at rates far above the national average.

A 2023 from the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois Chicago found 41% percent of workers report being injured while working at an Amazon warehouse. Nearly 70% of workers said they had to take unpaid time off due to pain or exhaustion from working at the company in the past month, the report found.

Amazon, in a statement, said the survey was conducted by groups “with an ulterior motive.” The company pointed to data that shows the company is above average in some areas and below average in others.

Another released last year by the National Employment Law Project found Amazon accounts for 79% of U.S. employment at warehouses with at least 1,000 workers, but 86% of all injuries. Amazon’s injury rate last year was more than one-and-a-half times that of TJX (which owns T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other large stores) and almost triple the rate of Walmart, the report found.

Updated 10:30 a.m. Jan. 7, 2025: This story was updated to incorporate further response from Amazon.

Workers at the meatpacking plant in Greeley stand along a production line, responsible for trimming fat from beef as it moves along the line.

When the meat arrives in front of them, workers — many of them from Haiti — hook it with one hand and slice it with a knife held in their other hand.

But the meat comes at such a rapid pace — some 430 head of cattle per hour — they can barely keep up. Some cut themselves with their knives while trying to trim fat. Others clutch the hooks for so many hours that they can’t even open their fingers, permanently stuck in a claw-like position. Bathroom breaks are rarely allowed.

“We’re just asking to be treated like a human being,” one Haitian worker said, speaking to The Denver Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job at JBS.

The employee described that workplace environment in a charge filed Friday with the , alleging JBS — the world’s largest meatpacking company — intentionally discriminates against Haitian workers by subjecting them to poor working conditions.

“What’s alleged here is a level of corporate greed and cruelty that we can’t allow to stand,” said David Seligman, executive director of , a legal nonprofit, and one of the attorneys representing the worker in his EEOC claim.

“Last quarter, JBS reported profits of over $300 million, and yet in search of even more profits, it’s targeting hundreds of Haitian workers, right here in Colorado, with grueling and outrageous working conditions, seemingly because they’re vulnerable and easy for JBS to exploit,” he said. “That’s prohibited by our bedrock employment discrimination laws.”

JBS representatives did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment

The worker arrived in Colorado in March 2024 after hearing about the JBS job from a friend. He paid $320 to a recruiter for application fees, two weeks of stay at a Greeley motel and transportation from the airport.

The recruiter sent him to the Rainbow Motel in Greeley, where JBS had an agreement to house new workers. The conditions were “extremely bad,” the worker said. Five of them were supposed to share the room with just one bed. The room, meanwhile, reeked of smoke mixed with other putrid smells, he said, forcing the workers to sleep with blankets over their heads.

The motel would sometimes be without heat or water, the last month. Workers cooked meals on hot plates on the carpet.

The worker took the “B shift” at JBS, working 3 to 11 p.m., alongside some 500 other Haitian laborers.

The line moves so fast, the worker said, that before he’s done with one piece of meat another has already arrived. Workers are stuck between moving so quickly they risk cutting themselves or being disciplined for not keeping up.

“It’s definitely dangerous,” he said.

Since Haitian workers arrived at the Greeley facility, JBS has accelerated the so-called “chain speeds” on the production line, the worker’s EEOC charge alleges. The 430 head of cattle per hour mark a substantial uptick from historical chain speeds and that of the “A shift,” when speeds are often around 250 to 300 head of cattle per hour, the charge states.

Workers are paid hourly, so faster line speeds allow the company to process the same amount of meat at a lower cost.

“But it also poses extraordinary human costs,” the EEOC filing reads.

JBS also limits workers’ bathroom breaks, rarely permitting Haitian laborers to leave production lines, the worker said. One worker even urinated in her pants on the production line while processing meat because her supervisor wouldn’t let her go to the restroom, the charge alleges.

Other employees — who are not Haitian — are allowed to use the restroom right away, the worker said.

Many laborers are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, he said. They know they cannot go back to Haiti, so they try and make the best of a difficult job.

“I decided to see if we can get better treatment or something good can come out of this,” he said.

Employees have long complained about the working conditions at Greeley’s JBS facility.

Last month, a union representing workers at the plant called for federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory bodies to hold the company accountable.

The union, UFCW Local 7, accused the company of human trafficking via TikTok; charging workers to live in squalid conditions; threats and intimidation against workers and their families; dangerously high production line speeds; and withholding mail from workers.

“What has happened to these workers, who came to our country legally in search of a better life for themselves and their families, is completely unacceptable,” UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova said in a statement.

In 2021, JBS after the EEOC found the JBS plant in Greeley in the evening during the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan.

That same year, the U.S. Department of Labor JBS for exposing employees to safety hazards at the Greeley facilities, following the death of a worker. The fatality occurred after several other incidents at the same facility, including a worker who suffered an arm amputation, another worker who suffered laceration injuries and a worker who was exposed to a thermal burn hazard.

And at least seven workers at the JBS plant in Greeley died during the COVID-19 pandemic, part of a wave of worker deaths at meatpacking facilities around the country. The deaths prompted a congressional investigation into the largest meatpacking companies.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued JBS a $15,615 fine for those COVID-19 deaths.

The location at 5910 S. University Blvd. was cited for not providing adequate safety training to its forklift operators and failing to inspect the lift trucks, according to a Wednesday morning news release by the Labor Department. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration discovered the safety hazards during an inspection of the Colorado location in December.

Trader Joe’s was also fined for “repeatedly blocking and rendering inaccessible electrical equipment with boxes,” the news release reports.

“Employers must comply with all federal safety standards, including forklift safety training and keeping areas around electrical equipment clear to help prevent serious injuries and fatal incidents,” said OSHA Area Director Chad Vivian. “We will continue to cite companies that fail to implement the measures necessary to protect their employees from these hazards.”

These are two issues that the grocery chain has previously received citations for, with forklift violations also recorded during three other inspections in Pennsylvania, Maine and Massachusetts. The blocking violations occurred in Maine, New York and New Jersey.

The Greenwood Village store counts as one of eight locations statewide and more than 550 stores across the U.S. A corporate spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The strike that began Sunday night was set to last through the day Monday, with some of the striking workers rallying outside DIA’s Main Terminal at 10:30 a.m.

Around three dozen of the striking workers showed up to Monday’s rally, walking around the plaza entrance by the Westin Hotel wearing SEIU sweatshirts and holding signs that read “Swissport Cargo Workers On Strike Over Unsafe Working Conditions.”

“It’s a big ask to get people to risk their job in this way, even though it’s legally protected,” said Andrew Guttman, who works as a cargo agent for Swissport. “People are nervous about it. Doing more than one day would’ve been a lot to bite off.”

Cargo workers were expected to be joined by other airport workers, community members and elected officials supporting their fight for safer working conditions, according to a Monday news release from the Service Employees International Union.

While the cargo workers are not part of the union, they reached out to it for help after their Swissport strike notice gained 80 to 90 workers’ signatures.

Swissport handles airfreight and airport ground services at DIA, and the strike only should affect Amazon packages coming in and out of the airport, not commercial flights, Guttman said.

According to , the company has provided airport ground services and managed an air cargo warehouse at DIA since 2006.

The DIA media relations team confirmed airport operations are expected to remain normal during the strike in an emailed statement to the Denver Post on Monday.

“We want management to take our concerns seriously, so hopefully this is a way to get that to happen,” Guttman said. “If it’s not, we’ll keep working to get them to pay attention. We want to organize this because it matters to us.”

Guttman said the strike is an escalation of petitions that management hasn’t responded to — the first being circulated a year ago in December 2022 and the most recent being filed in August.

The petitions called out faulty and broken equipment, dangerous working temperatures at facilities, heaters not functioning during winter weather, and inadequate safety training.

“We’re trying to get their attention, and we knew we had to go bigger in some way,” Guttman said. “After the second petition was circulated in August, we gave them a deadline of the following month to respond. When that didn’t happen, we had never stopped talking to each other and this strike just felt like the next natural thing.”

Earlier this year, Swissport workers at DIA alleged a warehouse fire broke out after a loading truck struck a floor heating machine that was exposed without any protections in place, according to SEIU’s Monday release.

“I’ve just seen too many of my coworkers get hurt and be put in dangerous situations at work over the past year,” Guttman said. “We’ve delivered petitions, filed multiple OSHA complaints, and Swissport has refused to address the real safety concerns that are putting our lives at risk on the job.”

Denver workers aren’t alone in these issues.

Last December, Swissport workers at the Chicago O’Hare airport also went on strike to call out unfair labor practices. In June, Swissport workers at .

In a statement, Swissport officials said the company is “unwavering” in its commitment to following operating permit requirements and labor regulations while “fostering a workplace that values the rights and well-being of our employees while maintaining operational compliance with industry standards.”

“Most of our employees fulfilled their scheduled hours and did not participate in the work stoppage,” Swissport officials said in a statement. “Swissport continues to proactively address any issues or concerns raised by our team, reinforcing our enduring commitment to cultivating a positive and supportive work environment.”

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The vapor was released from a pump that was not functional and had not been used or properly inspected in seven years, according to the report detailing the ‘s investigation into the accident. The fire burned for six hours.

The report, obtained by The Denver Post through a federal Freedom of Information Act request, said the likelihood of injury had been higher because “employees were exposed to the hazards for nearly 7 years without the equipment being inspected properly.”

Suncor was fined $15,625 — the maximum allowed — in June for a serious violation of federal safety standards in connection with the fire at Colorado’s only oil refinery.

Most of the 1,090-page report was redacted, but it still revealed some new information about the circumstances surrounding the Dec. 24 fire that burned one person’s face so badly that he was hospitalized. A second worker was injured but did not need hospitalization, according to the report.

OSHA officials could not be reached to explain why so much of the investigative report was withheld from the public.

In response to a Denver Post inquiry about the investigation, Leithan Slade, a Suncor spokesman, wrote in an email, “Suncor has repaired and replaced the equipment related to the fire and is identifying, inspecting and testing all dead legs in the unit where the December 24, 2022 fire occurred. That work will be complete by the end of the year.”

The OSHA investigation raises questions about how Suncor manages its inspection of “dead legs,” an industry term for pipes that are no longer used and are shut off from liquids and vapors.

The explosion took place after a cold front rolled into the region, causing an extreme and fast temperature drop, on the afternoon of Dec. 21. The deep freeze caused extensive problems, and Suncor officials over the course of about a week shut down the refinery.

The Commerce City facility remained closed until early April while it was being repaired, fueling a more than 50% jump in gas prices in Colorado.

The cause of the shutdown was shrouded in secrecy with Suncor revealing little information about what had happened. Since then, details have been emerging in bits and pieces.

At a Nov. 16 meeting of the Air Quality Control Commission, state air regulators gave a briefing on Suncor’s operations and their efforts to enforce environmental regulations at the refinery. That briefing included an update on the December shutdown, which remains under investigation by the state’s .

The extreme weather caused instruments to freeze and the refinery was unable to make steam, said Shannon McMillan, who manages the air division’s compliance and enforcement program. Other equipment also needed to be shut off because of freezing and thawing issues.

“There were also two people that were injured during the initial days of the shutdown, which obviously further elevated the concerns about what was going on,” McMillan said.

However, her division does not investigate injury accidents. Instead, the air division is looking into air pollution violations that occurred during the shutdown. The refinery exceeded the amount of hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and visible emissions��allowed under its air permits and exceeded the benzene limits allowed in its water permit. That investigation is ongoing, McMillan said.

The Suncor refinery has more than 200,000 flanges and valves that require inspection, according to the air division’s briefing.

Suncor gave OSHA a copy of its dead leg inspection program but it was redacted in the copy of the report provided to The Post.

John Jechura, a Colorado School of Mines professor��in the chemical and biological engineering department, described a dead leg as being like a garden hose that is turned off at the spigot and has the valve closed on the nozzle.

“If it gets water in it and there’s a deep freeze, it freezes and expands,” Jechura said. “You don’t really know it until it thaws out.”

The report shows the pump that exploded was a backup and rarely used, Jechura said. It would make sense for the refinery to have a system of backups in place so that operations would not be interrupted if one failed.

Jechura, who reviewed the OSHA report for The Post, said too much information was blacked out to determine whether there were oversights that led to the explosion or what Suncor could have done to prevent the accident.

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The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a $15,625 fine on June 7 for what inspectors labeled a serious violation at the refinery, according to . The report said the refinery violated standards for “process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals.”

Guidelines on OSHA’s website said those standards are in place to prevent unwanted releases of hazardous chemicals, especially into locations where employees and others could be exposed to serious hazards.

However, the online inspection report does not provide a summary of the incident or details about the specific violation that was cited.

An OSHA spokeswoman confirmed the fine was related to the Dec. 24 fire at the refinery, but told The Denver Post to file a Freedom of Information Act request to receive a written report. The Post filed the request, but it could take months to receive a reply.

Efforts to reach Suncor officials for comment were unsuccessful Friday morning.

The Commerce City refinery experienced major malfunctions starting Dec. 21 after a sudden and extreme cold front swept across the Front Range. The cold forced Suncor to shut down the three plants where it refines crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and an ingredient used to make asphalt.

The two employees were injured when a vapor release sparked a fire around 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Suncor has never released an update on the severity of its employees’ injuries or how their recovery is progressing.

The cold snap and various malfunctions at the plant also caused the refinery to release harmful pollutants into the air and into Sand Creek. The refinery was closed for almost three months.

A $15,625 fine is the maximum penalty that OSHA can levy against a company for a single violation, according to a January news release. The penalties are intended to be a deterrent to prevent workplace safety hazards.

Suncor, which is headquartered in Canada, reported $2.7 billion in net earnings in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to its most recent .

In September 2020, JBS USA was fined a similar amount after OSHA determined the managers at its Greeley meat processing plant failed to provide a safe workplace during the coronavirus outbreak. Six workers died and nearly 300 got sick after a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant.

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