DENVER (KDVR) — Despite a rally by Denver city employees on Tuesday morning, the Denver Career Services Board voted 4 to 1 to change how Denver’s layoffs are enacted.
City employees, alongside a coalition of labor unions that represent city workers, say the rule change “will endanger the livelihoods” of Denver’s city workers. The rule change means that a longstanding seniority-based system for determining layoffs will be replaced with a “merit-based” approach.
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“Today’s vote was an insult to the workers who show up every day to keep this city running,” said Mike Wallin, President of AFSCME Local 158. “We fought hard to stop these changes and we did force the City to at least add back in some measurement of tenure. But ultimately, the City decided to betray both us and Denver residents with this decision.”
Only Ashley Kilroy, the board’s co-chair, voted against the rule change. Stronger Denver, which represents Teamsters Local 455, Teamsters Local 17, SEIU Local 105, IATSE Local 7, the Denver Area Labor Federation, CWA and AFSCME Colorado, said that Kilroy called the new layoff framework “arbitrary and capricious,” and said she warned of potential favoritism…