Denver Gazette’s Deborah Grigsby reports on Denver city unions and employees vowing to drag Mayor Mike Johnston into battle over proposed layoff rules, as 7,000—or soon-to-be—unionized workers prepare to bargain next January .
The Bullet Point Brief
- Merit vs. seniority: The Career Service Board fast-tracked changes to Rule 14, ranking layoffs by performance, skills, and abilities—then using service length only as a tiebreaker—torpedoing the old bump-your-buddy system.
- Bumping ban: Employees can no longer dodge pink slips by “bumping” less-senior coworkers into unemployment; unity through chaos, anyone?
- Retirement safe zone: If you’re 90 days from retirement, congrats—you’re essentially untouchable, while the rest of us pick up the slack.
- Union fury: Teamsters and SEIU members—backed by a 51-year veteran labor organizer—promise “the fight he wants,” accusing the mayor of “abuse” and rule-changing ahead of the newly approved bargaining window.
- Unfunded headache: All this administrative juggling falls on local governments and volunteer instructors’ budgets, just like every other “progressive” mandate that never comes with a check.
My Take
Look, these are government employees—paid by your tax dollars—to serve the public, not to unionize into adversaries demanding more of the same pot you’re already pouring from. Now they’ll negotiate over who gets laid off first, based on “merit” (aka, please don’t cut my cushy desk job), while city coffers hemorrhage. If tenure, DEI seminars, and mandatory sensitivity workshops haven’t been enough, now they’ll leverage collective bargaining for bigger pensions and early-retirement perks—on your dime.
Here’s the kicker: they argued “merit” is insulting, as if showing up and doing your job without union muscle is beneath you. Meanwhile, the rest of us juggle real budgets and make ends meet without demanding golden parachutes. Government employees shouldn’t be allowed to unionize—not when the endgame is more taxes, more fees, and more rule-tweaking from behind the podium. But this crap will continue until the great suburban normie wakes up from their Netflix-‘n-chill-slumber and realizes just how royally they’re being hosed.
