About half of the parking pay booths at Denver International Airport will be automated by mid-February, forcing 38 people from their jobs.
“We are working within the seniority-rights clause in the union’s collective bargaining agreement,” said Mike Wolf , chief administrative officer of parking contractor Standard Parking.
“We run a variety of privately owned parking garages throughout Denver, and to the extent that we can, we will try to relocate the ones who are being laid off,” Wolf said.
The parking attendants’ union, the Service Employees International Union, did not respond to requests for comment.
The automation switch began in 2010 , and staff reductions were done through attrition, Wolf said. “What has happened now is that customer utilization of the new system has increased and the need to staff has dropped faster than the rate of attrition.”
The new system requires a motorist to pull into a lane, put a parking ticket in the reader that calculates the fee and the motorist swipes a credit card to raise the gate.
Of 43 payment lanes, 23 will be credit card-only. Parking rates remain the same.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
