Light-rail and bus service for the metro area may be returning to normal Monday, but officials representing Denver transit workers vowed to launch efforts to give the union more political muscle and a louder voice on the RTD governing board.
The 14-member board unanimously approved a contract with transit workers Saturday morning, assuring the end of a strike that has clogged Denver- area highways and made getting to work a commuting odyssey.
Regional Transportation District drivers and mechanics voted to approve a contract late Friday, with 82 percent in favor.
RTD spokesman Scott Reed said all bus and light-rail services, including the free 16th Street Mall service, will be running at full schedule Monday.
The votes by both sides will enable the 225,000 daily trips on RTD to resume and ease traffic congestion. Parking prices could also return to pre-strike levels.
Now transit workers must shift into anger management – redirecting frustrations into political action, union chief counsel Bill Jones said Saturday.
The settlement yielded less than what many striking workers had hoped for, and union leaders are preparing a campaign to change laws governing RTD – to block RTD from receiving taxpayer funding during any future strike – and also to change the makeup of the RTD board, Jones said.
“I think we did earn respect from this strike. … But there is more to be done in making the law fair for RTD employees,” Jones said. “Is there anger? Yes. But that anger is going to be directed toward political change – so that we don’t wind up in this situation again.
“You can be mad about something, or you can do something about it. … I think most of our members are committed to do something about it.”
Union president Yvette Salazar thanked RTD riders for their patience during the week-long strike and credited workers’ solidarity.
“The lesson I learned this (past) week is that we are unified,” she said.
Money in their pockets
A deal struck Wednesday between RTD and the union appeased many union members by front-loading raises.
“It solved all our concerns,” bus driver Nancy Narrin said of the new contract. “We wanted recognition, we wanted respect, and we got that. But I don’t think we would have without striking.”
Ray Hogler, a Colorado State University professor of management, said that for public unions, political action “is a strategy that works.”
“It’s kind of a rigged game. Nobody rigs it for the workers. That’s the problem … (there’s) a simmering sense of unfairness among workers in the United States, and that matters a lot,” Hogler said.
The 1,700 drivers and mechanics of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 walked off the job after rejecting RTD’s original offer, going against the union executive board’s unanimous recommendation.
Workers will get an immediate raise of up to 50 cents an hour, even though the three- year raise total is still $1.80 more per hour, the same as in the previous proposal.
Workers also will get $20 more per month toward their health insurance.
Kim Lucero, 42, a mall shuttle driver, was among a few dozen transit workers gathered at Colfax Avenue and Broadway on Saturday with “thank you” signs and banners – to convey appreciation for what they perceived as public support.
“We’d all like more. I’d have liked the whole $1.80 (per hour raise over three years) up front. But you can’t have that. We all know that,” said Lucero, adding that she’s glad to head back to work Monday.
Now she’ll be more involved politically, she said, working to get a favorable candidate into the governor’s office. She also noted that there are seats on the RTD board workers will target. She’ll be fighting for “more that are worker friendly” on the board.
RTD manager Cal Marsella said the vote for the compromise indicates workers were pretty satisfied with the deal.
He said he opposes any legislation to block RTD from receiving tax revenue during a future strike.
“The board would have to take a formal position, but I’m sure they’d oppose that,” he said.
As for upcoming elections for eight RTD board seats, worker efforts for new leaders who are more responsive to their interests are certainly fair, he said.
“Frankly, I’ve heard the same on the other side: ‘We want to find candidates that support more-competitive contracting.’ It’s a political process that democracy is all about,” he said.
He said he planned to meet with his workforce soon to talk about the new contract and hear what’s on workers’ minds.
“We have no apologies to make whatsoever about the raises managers received or the salaries that they currently get,” Marsella said regarding executive raises of up to 50 percent that were a source of anger for workers emerging from a three- year wage freeze.
Stable financial footing
Hogler said it’s understandable that resentment over money could lead to political activism.
The RTD position has been that it had no money for increasing pay and benefits for bus and light-rail drivers, mechanics and support staff, but “when they say there’s no money for rank-and- file workers, it translates as: We believe we pay what the market tells us we have to pay, and no more,” Hogler said.
In the weeks leading up to the transit strike, RTD officials had said they needed to show financial restraint when considering new compensation for union workers. But a review of the agency’s books shows the transit agency is among the most fiscally healthy in the country.
Late last week, RTD director Lee Kemp of Broomfield said it was important for the agency to demonstrate financial discipline, especially as RTD embarks on the $4.7 billion FasTracks transit expansion.
And RTD executives and board members insist they held the line on the overall value of the wage package and did not capitulate to union demands for a greater share of a growing pie.
In November 2004, voters in the eight-county area voted to increase the sales and use tax from 0.6 percent to 1 percent to pay for at least six new rail lines and increased bus service over 12 years.
The additional 0.4 percent tax already is generating an extra $155 million a year for RTD. It will fund the most ambitious transit expansion in the country.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib contributed to this report.
