CU Regents face calls to support collective bargaining, end Key Lime Air contract tied to ICE flights

Public comment at the University of Colorado Board of Regents meeting on Feb. 5 focused on two demands: support for collective bargaining for university employees and an end to CU’s contract with Key Lime Air.

“Please support collective bargaining rights for all CU workers, and please stop contracting with the companies that are deporting our neighbors,” said Boulder City Councilmember Nicole Speer, summarizing sentiment in the room. More than 100 protesters gathered outside before the meeting to call for both.

Last month, two University of Colorado regents announced their intention to bring forward a plan to expand collective bargaining rights to CU faculty, staff and student workers, but they need two more regents’ support for the policy to pass. Regents are expected to vote in June. Members of the United Campus Workers union filled the room to urge regents to support the policy, arguing it would help the university recruit and retain talented researchers and teachers, ensure more equitable treatment of workers, improve pay and benefits, and give employees a stronger voice in university decisions as some grants are cut or paused by the Trump administration.

“Everyone in this room knows the vulnerable position of higher education today, and the fact is that in the coming months and years, hard decisions will need to be made by this university if it is to carry on,” said Sam Whitaker, a union member and academic adviser at CU Boulder. “When hard decisions must be made, that is the time to have more voices in the room, not less.”

Speakers included professors, graduate students and staff, as well as United Campus Workers President Jessica Ellis and CWA President Jade Kelly. Murray Smith, a 2015 CU Boulder graduate who is running for the regent District 2 seat, which includes Boulder, also spoke in support of collective bargaining.

At the same meeting, University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz announced an expanded commitment to faculty and staff wellbeing, with new or expanded services across areas like mental health services, public health and employee experience, funded with $2.2 million in one-time funding and $2.5 million in annual funding.

Several commenters also urged the regents to end CU Boulder Athletics’ contract with Key Lime Air, a regional airline that also contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to transport detainees. CU Boulder Athletics contracts with the airline to provide transportation for some of its athletes, including basketball teams. 

“ICE is ignoring judicial orders to uphold Fifth Amendment due process rights, and transporting detainees out of state is part of that,” said David Schwartz, the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, who recently traveled to Minneapolis to protest ICE activity there. 

“I heard directly from folks on the ground [in Minnesota] that a person taken by ICE can be in a plane in the air in as little as three hours after being picked up,” he said. “That’s not even time enough to get an order from a judge to stay the transportation.”

“Maybe it seems to you that it is an ethical policy of neutrality to be disinterested in the other business of your vendors. You need to understand that neutrality is not how it looks to the general public,” he added. “What inaction looks like is complicity.”

The university can end its contract with 30 days’ notice without penalty, but has repeatedly signaled it will not do so. 

“All contracts for the university, including air charters, are awarded through a competitive bidding process,” a Feb. 5 university press release stated, adding that Key Lime Air was selected in a 2023 bidding process and that the contract will renew annually until 2028, when the contract ends.