Towards Justice recognizes extraordinary leadership in the fight for economic equity with two Wage Justice Champion Awards. This year we recognize labor leader and organizer, Sandra Parker Murray, and Executive Director of Denver Labor Jeffery Garcia. Join us at Just Wages on October 27 to celebrate our award winners and all our partners’ important contributions to our shared project of leveling the playing field for workers.

 

Sandra Parker Murray

Sandra is a labor leader, organizer, worker, and fighter for worker justice. She is a telecommunications worker and platform delivery driver, and she is on the executive board of CWA Local 7777, and a worker leader with Colorado Independent Drivers United. She’s organized and fought for better wages and working conditions, successfully fought for key legislative reforms, and spoke out boldly for economic and racial justice. In 2019, she served on the Paid Family and Medical Leave (FAMLI) task force and organized for the historic passage of the 2020 FAMLI ballot measure. She is currently supporting the FAMLI Act’s implementation with her involvement in the rulemaking process. She embodies the very best of Colorado’s labor movement.

 

Jeffery Garcia

Jeff is the Executive Director of Denver Labor, within the Denver Auditor’s Office. He’s charged that agency through a massive expansion as it has taken responsibility for enforcement of Denver’s pathbreaking minimum wage law. Denver Labor’s enforcement has brought critical relief to workers who are victims of wage theft, including recovering over $1 million in unpaid wages and penalties for workers. Together with expanded enforcement at the state level, Jeff has served as a critical component of the reshaping of Colorado’s public enforcement landscape, which is absolutely essential because of all the impediments workers face to private enforcement.