Advocates speak up for workers’ rights and against Key Lime Air at CU Regents meeting

By Jack Armstrong and Don Davis

Public comment at a meeting of CU Boulder’s board of Regents last Thursday became an outcry for two different local movements – one advocating for CU athletics breaking its contract with known immigration detention transporter, Key Lime Air, and the other pushing for CU staff to gain expanded collective bargaining rights.

Over the last few months, KGNU has reported on different actions at the CU Boulder campus including United Campus Workers’ demands for expanded collective bargaining rights and the call of local immigrant rights activists demanding the university cut ties with Key Lime Air. Groups representing both movements spotlighted their issues during public comment at CU’s Board of Regents meeting yesterday.

Outside the meeting before public comment, Elizabeth McKinney from United Campus Workers (UCW) gathered support for those in favor of their effort.

“ We’re gonna show support for the idea of collective bargaining, and we’re gonna explain what it means to each of us,” said McKinney. “We’re gonna have speakers from all different classifications, from all four campuses, and we’re gonna show that this is, again, not a crazy idea. It’s not a couple of weird little rabbit holes.”

In January two regents said they would propose a plan to expand collective bargaining rights to CU faculty, staff and student workers. To pass the vote in June, the policy would need support from two more regents.

“We’re out here organizing for everybody. And we’re gonna show what it means to each different person, and why they need to start this conversation. And they need to vote, and they need to vote yes,” said McKinney.

McKinney was among the dozens of voices that spoke on the need for expanded bargaining rights Thursday, standing with UCW. At a bargaining rights protest in November of 2025, UCW’s Chloe East told KGNU that though the University of Colorado is a state-funded venture, with federal and state funds supporting university campus workers on all four of CU’S campuses, workers don’t have the right to have a representative majority to argue for solutions to worker issues.

“This is generally a state by state or locality by locality decision,” said East. “And the state of Colorado is actually the only state that has a Democratic governor and a Democratic-controlled legislature that doesn’t have collective bargaining rights for higher education workers.”

During Thursday’s meeting, CU Chancellor Justin Schwartz did announce a financial commitment to faculty and staff well being, with large sums of one-time and annual funding dedicated to mental and physical services, and improvements to employee experience.

Back in regents hall, advocates were speaking in solidarity on both the issues of expanded collective bargaining rights and the desire to have CU Athletics sever its contract with Keylime Air. Reporting from Colorado Newsline confirmed Key Lime operated 83 flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in September of 2025. That sparked protests at CU as Key Lime partners with CU Athletics for athlete transportation.

Dana Miller is a co-lead at Denver’s Immigration Partnership Team. “We’ve been emailing you every week with information about Key Lime and also about the contract,” said Miller, addressing the regents.

“Now you know that the trust in CU is on the line that your athletes, your students, the community, will probably not be happy to know that you all decided not to sever this contract. So now that you know all that, when will you drop the contract?”

Though the university has telegraphed that it does not plan on ending its contract with Key Lime, the Boulder Reporting Lab said that the University can end its contract with the airline without penalty given 30 days notice.

Kenneth Nova is another frequent organizer in the Boulder community, and is also an alumnus of CU Boulder. As one of the closing speakers during the public comment period, he said that the need for CU to end their Key Lime contract goes beyond moral issues regarding immigration and politics, saying the CU regents should also consider basic safety concerns.

“In September 2023, five Key Lime pilots resigned, and they raised concerns about Key Lime’s unresolved mechanical issues, pressurization failures, defective landing gear, and faulty autopilot and GPS system,” said Nova. “Along with alleged retaliation against those pilots plainly, you should not allow CU student athletes to fly on Key Lime. Please terminate the contract with Key Lime.”

Though further outcry has cropped up around the CU campus and the greater Boulder area, the university has not formally announced any changes to their contract with Key Lime.

This story aired on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. Click here to listen to other episodes of the Morning Magazine.