“Mr. Mayor, here comes the union.”
Ronnie Houston, a retired Teamster and lifelong labor organizer, spoke those words Wednesday morning on the steps of the Wellington Webb Municipal Office Building, flanked by dozens of cheering city workers, advocates and members of the multiple unions signing up members in departments across Denver government.
Teamster trucks parked in front of the city government building. A Teamster truck driver honked at the crowd. Organized labor was flexing its muscle at city hall.
In November, voters gave city workers the right to collective bargaining — and the right to strike, starting onJan. 1, 2026.
With mass layoffs likely starting at the beginning of August and union contract negotiations on the horizon for early next year, Denver’s Office of Human Resources is scrambling to revise the city’s career service rules for how layoffs work — now. The goal is to shift from a seniority-based system to a “merit-based” system.
Terrified longtime city workers criticized the proposed rule changes at a Career Service Board meeting where five mayoral appointees were scheduled to vote on the layoff rules.
“I know that they say silence is golden, but silence isn't golden,” said Audra Burgos, a Teamsters Local 17 member and Parks and Recreation employee. “It's time to speak up.”
City employees made their voices heard.
Hundreds of people, many city workers, participated in the Career Service Board’s public meeting, watching online, in the boardroom and in overflow rooms. Dozens spoke in person to the board. More than a hundred submitted comments in writing.
Employees described the proposed change to the policy just ahead of layoffs as “rushed” and “a betrayal.”
Some said they feared retaliation for speaking out from Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration. Several said they were taking furlough days, vacation days or flex time to speak at the meeting, trying to dispel the idea that they were playing hooky from work.
Many workers criticized how the proposal would gut seniority protections and eliminate the right for laid-off workers to return back to a job when the economy stabilizes and positions reopen. They spoke of their love of public service and government work and said they were troubled by how fast the city was moving to change the rules when so much of local government moves so slowly on everything else.
The merit-based system lacks objectivity and allows for favoritism and bias, others said.
Some criticized the city for cramming through new rules just half a year ahead of city workers’ right to collectively bargain for a new contract. Why force this policy shift now instead of waiting for employees, represented by a union, to have a seat at the negotiating table?
The proposal was submitted by the Office of Human Resources. The office is independent of the mayor, although it is overseen by a board composed entirely of mayoral appointees.
The Mayor’s Office characterized the newly proposed rules as “fair.”
“We agree that this change is necessary given our current economic challenges and need to reduce our expenses — 70 percent of which is personnel — while continuing to provide world-class services,” wrote Mayor Mike Johnston’s spokesperson Jon Ewing.
The city will continue to take seniority into account. But the new system will also include skills and performance reviews to determine who stays and who goes.
How those qualities will be weighed is unclear, several board members noted.
Performance metrics are inherently subjective and vary from department to department and manager to manager, employees said.
“We feel that they are looking to replace long-time employees with less expensive, short-term employees,” said Michael Wallin, the president of AFSCME Local Union 158 and an employee of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. “You know, replacing senior employees with a new employee, one who's easier to push around and will act as a yes man. And you know, it's just a means of getting rid of critics, career rivals.”
The layoffs, furloughs and budget cuts of the Johnston administration have wearied many employees. The last-minute proposed changes to the rules enraged others, who want a seat at the table and the right to negotiate their own contract — now.
“They have poked the bear,” said Wallin.
In an overflow room, where city employees watched the Career Service Board hearing online, city workers signed digital union cards.
City attorneys cautioned that changes to the rules come with legal risks.
The safest policy is one based in seniority, said Cathy Pierce, a city attorney who advises the Office of Human Resources.
Creating policies that are subjectively implemented could leave the city vulnerable to lawsuits.
Another city attorney cautioned the Civil Service Board that Denver would need to set aside money to handle lawsuits from laid-off employees and warned the board that it too could be sued.
How much this all could cost taxpayers won’t be known until the mayor decides the scope of layoffs.
The layoffs are coming after city workers navigated years of crises.
The city’s current fiscal crisis follows five years of other crises: a pandemic, civil unrest, a housing crisis, an immigration crisis and now threats of federal funding cuts.
Johnston and other mayors have outspent city revenue, and now he is trying to fill a $250 million budget hole.
The city needs to make cuts by year’s end, with layoff plans coming after Aug. 1.
“Mayor Johnson is balancing his overspent budget on the backs of workers who kept this city afloat through crisis,” former mayoral candidate and former city worker Lisa Calderón said at the rally.
Johnston has said he’s trying to “rightsize” local government.
Calderón said the unions invited her to speak, and Houston endorsed her in the upcoming mayor’s race to the crowd’s cheers. (She told Denverite she’s seriously considering running against Johnston again, though she has made no final decisions.)
The mayor, himself, did not attend the board meeting or the protest.
After four hours, the Career Service Board decided to postpone their vote until early July.
The board members asked the Office of Human Resources to revise the proposal to take into account suggestions from city employees and to clarify how much performance reviews, skills and years of service would be weighed.
If the rules are going to change, that needs to happen as soon as possible, so directors and managers can understand the criteria for whom they should consider cutting, said Kathy Nesbitt, head of the Office of Human Resources.
Some departments will have to cut between 15 and 20 percent of their budget, and that will likely be impossible without cutting staff, city officials told the Career Service Board.
While Johnston has not announced the scope of how many jobs will be lost, officials with the Office of Human Resources and the City Attorney’s Office described the coming “mass layoffs” as “unprecedented,” and “historic” for the city.
The city workers unions’ rising power in Denver government is also unprecedented and historic. And the board’s decision on layoff rules is setting the stage for how workers approach contract negotiations next year.
The mayor who has told his city he wants to deliver “world-class services” — trash pickup, road construction, permitting times, public safety — could soon be at the bargaining table with a discontented workforce that could go on strike.
