{"id":16696,"date":"2025-09-02T19:51:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/workers-over-billionaires-labor-day-protesters-gather-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:59:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:59:58","slug":"workers-over-billionaires-labor-day-protesters-gather-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/workers-over-billionaires-labor-day-protesters-gather-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Workers over Billionaires\u2019 Labor Day protesters gather in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators from across Montezuma County line Main Street in Cortez in front of the Cortez Welcome Center for the Labor Day Workers Over Billionaires demonstration.Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Jennifer Magnuson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u2018Workers over Billionaires\u2019 Labor Day protesters gather in Cortez<\/p>\n\n

Protesters appeared Monday evening along Cortez\u2019s Main Street for a show of unity, a call against oligarchy and a banded voice of discontent with actions taken by the federal government.<\/p>\n

Similar to the \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies held in June, the Labor Day protest, attended by several dozen people about 5 p.m. included many critical of the administration of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The hourlong rally was hosted by Indivisible Montezuma County, a group with ties to the League of Women Voters Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

Patty Coen, a member of the Indivisible Montezuma County steering committee, described the core message of the protest as \u201cFascism is at our door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I hope people will also see is that if they\u2019re starting to get fed up, then they\u2019re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, protesters likely attended for slightly different reasons, said co-organizer, Joellen Dickey.<\/p>\n

Dickey expressed concerns about various impacts from changes made by the federal government that could in turn lead to people in the community suffering. Offering examples, Dickey mentioned possible detainments by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, loss to health care access and rising food insecurity.<\/p>\n

Attendees were also asked to bring donations for Good Sam\u2019s Food Pantry in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are organized to talk to each other like this, then we hope we can help people that are hurting,\u201d Dickey said.<\/p>\n

\"Organizers
Organizers gathered food donations for the Good Sam Food Pantry.Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Jennifer Magnuson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Protesters held up signs and chanted as cars passed by. Many vehicles honked.<\/p>\n

But not everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast time, there was the pickup trucks go by with the diesels and do big black clouds on everybody,\u201d Dickey said.<\/p>\n

Dickey said police would be on the lookout for such drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen it today,\u201d she said of the black diesel clouds. \u201cThose guys are all drinking beer somewhere and having a good time. They\u2019re not bothering us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators from across Montezuma County line Main Street in Cortez in front of the Cortez Welcome Center for the Labor Day Workers Over Billionaires demonstration.Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Jennifer Magnuson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators from across Montezuma County line Main Street in Cortez in front of the Cortez Welcome Center for the Labor Day Workers Over Billionaires demonstration.Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Jennifer Magnuson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Demonstrators
Demonstrators from across Montezuma County line both sides of Main Street in Cortez in front of the Cortez Welcome Center and Veterans Park for Moinday's Labor Day Workers Over Billionaires demonstration.Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Jennifer Magnuson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The Jeter Family, of Cortez, stands on the corner of E. Main St. and S. Mildred Rd. with a pro-Trump flag amidst the crowds of demonstrators participating in the Labor Day Workers Over Billionaires demonstration. They said they were there because they, \"love God and fight for Trump.\"Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal
The Jeter Family, of Cortez, stands on the corner of E. Main St. and S. Mildred Rd. with a pro-Trump flag amidst the crowds of demonstrators participating in the Labor Day Workers Over Billionaires demonstration. They said they were there because they, \"love God and fight for Trump.\"Jennifer Magnuson\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Jennifer Magnuson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protesters voice disapproval of the Trump administration\u2019s actions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16696"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20341,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16696\/revisions\/20341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16696"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}