Denver transit strikers win up-front raises

Workers in the 1,700-strong Amal gamated Transit Union Local 1001 voted on April 7 by 82 percent to 18 percent to accept a new contract after a five-day strike. The new contract provided higher raises at the front end of its three-year period than the one the workers rejected by a vote of 55 to 45 percent on April 2.

Amalgamated Transit Union 1001 President Yvetta Salazar, center, and her son, Jason, are hugged by union members in Denver on April 7 after she announced their strike victory.

Instead of the first offer of a paltry 15-cent-an-hour raise the first year—their first raise since a wage freeze began three years ago—the workers will receive 50 cents an hour more up front. After three years they will have gotten a $1.80-per-hour raise. In other areas the contract had changed little.

In the deal, the Regional Transpor tation District (RTD) raised its contribution to the health and welfare fund from $436 to $456, and an additional $250 bonus the workers would have received is to be put into that fund. When the workers went in to vote for the contract, they had not yet learned all its details.

On April 5, the RTD called in a private security firm with the excuse that this firm would provide security to RTD operations centers. RTD said it needed the security because workers were threatening riders. These accusations are familiar to those used in New York City to try to intimidate the transit workers during the TWU Local 100 strike in December. In New York, the MTA, the capitalist politicians and the corporate media were more belligerent, calling the TWU workers “thugs” and other racist terminology.

The demagogy used against the TWU workers blamed the workers fighting the bosses for the strike, to try to make the union appear greedy. Meanwhile the MTA had a $1 billion surplus. In New York, many commuters supported the workers, who were fighting fare hikes and other work rules that put riders at risk. This tactic didn’t work in Denver either when RTD bus drivers, light rail operators and mechanics struck.

The New York situation has still not been resolved, although the union members are all back at work.

The Cleveland-based International Management Assistance Corp., the security firm, came to the RTD armed with cameras, which they used to videotape workers at picket lines. This outfit’s goal is to use the tapes to single out certain workers and to attack them in an attempt to break union solidarity.

It cost the city $27,000 to fly the teams in and out of Denver and $30,000 a week for pay and expenses. Private security goons have a long history in this country and especially Colorado. In the past, the Pinkerton agency was used extensively to attack miners in Colorado and was respon sible for many massacres of workers, most notably the Ludlow massacre.

Governor Bill Owens has laid out the RTD’s long term plan to privatize the public transportation system. Already, 45 percent of RTD work is contracted out to private companies. Many of these workers are not unionized.

Owens showed his disdain for unionized workers when he blamed the union leadership for causing the strike, even calling them “union management.”

Owens and the RTD salivated because the union leadership had not wanted a strike, and in fact tried to force binding arbitration on the workers, so that it could avoid a strike. However, the workers spoke out and struck back and took to the streets, and they received a great deal of community support.

The bus drivers talked of the conditions of performing their jobs, of having to drive for 90 consecutive days without a day off, and some have had to take their sick days just to rest. They must keep on time, no matter the road conditions, have to make transfers to get riders to their destinations, and when they do take a sick day, they are written up for being late. They are worried about fatigue and their riders’ safety.

Patricia Stephens, an employee for eight years, said, “If they are number one, we made them that way.” RTD is considered one of the best transit systems in the country, even though the workers labor under bad conditions, and the workers made that eminence possible. All they asked for was an upfront raise that accounted for the rise in cost of living, but RTD, which had voted for huge raises for the executive board, averaging over 40 percent, wanted to withhold that raise.

The real fight has just begun. The ATU workers say that they sent a message to RTD that they will fight privatization and will need community support in this burgeoning battle.