DENVER — Last week, the Regional Transportation District (RTD) and leaders from the union representing more than 2,000 of the agency’s workers reached a tentative three-year deal on a pay raise, which would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2025.
RTD and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1001 have been negotiating a new contract since last August.
Under the tentative agreement, worker wages would jump 6.5% percent this year, then another 4.5% each of the next two years. That takes starting hourly pay from $25.96 currently to $27.65, then to $28.89 in 2026 and $30.19 in 2027.
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RTD and workers union to enter federal mediation in March
The union represents RTD bus drivers, train operators, mechanics and other clerical transit employees. Recording Secretary Ronald Short called the deal a relief.
“As far as we're concerned, it's a good contract and everyone will profit off of that,” he told Denver7 Thursday. “So we'll see what our membership says.”
Union members still need to vote to formally approve those changes. They had been seeking a 7% pay increase each of the next three years.
Short said workers are still not where they need to be in terms of compensation, but “we're headed in the right direction, by far.”
“People can be, you know, questionable or violent towards — we've had operator assaults,” he said. “So we firmly believe money isn't going to fix everything. But if you have one less worry about how to take care of your family, and you can concentrate on your job more, that makes it a little better.”
The two sides were set to enter federal mediation last week, but Short said union leaders were informed that day the federal mediators had been fired or put on leave. The two sides were able to find a private mediator and come to their deal just one day later, Short explained.
RTD acknowledged the tentative agreement, but would not comment on any details.
The agency did announce Thursday it’s expecting to lift its remaining light rail "slow zones" by next month. Dave Jensen, assistant general manager of rail operations, said it comes after a year with a heavy emphasis on maintenance.
“We did over 50 miles of rail grinding and have replaced almost 10,000 feet of track,” he said. “We've done more maintenance work like this [this year] than ever, maybe combined.”
Jensen said all that work and tighter standards have RTD on track for more reliable service.
“Rather than being in a position where we went in and fixed something once it broke, was trying to get ahead of it, and our inspection methodology changed significantly. The amount of data that we receive has changed dramatically,” he explained. “We've gone from hundreds of data points on our light rail network to thousands, literally thousands of data points that we are now collecting, which has allowed us to be more predictive and to be more granular in our inspections.
“In the future, we don't anticipate this magnitude of a [maintenance] situation, we should be able to get in and redo repairs quickly and get things resolved,” Jensen concluded.
Jensen went on to thank customers for being patient and staff for handling a turbulent year.
“This is a lot of work from for our maintenance employees, day and night, all kinds of weather, and our train operators on light rail, as well,” he said. “It’s really been a team effort, and we're really proud of the performance of our staff.”
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