Denver City Council aides are the often-unseen workers who help keep the city’s legislative branch running.
They work the same long, inconsistent hours that their elected bosses do. They take meetings with frustrated neighbors. They craft bills and research policies that often become law.
And now, they’re hoping to form a union under Legislative Workers of Denver.
“We have a ton of institutional knowledge, and you hear council members say it all the time, that sometimes when council members move on, some institutional knowledge is lost — same with aides,” said Elise Bupp, chief of staff for Councilmember Paul Kashmann.
The aides are hoping for voluntary recognition.
Conversations about unionization started about a year ago. Aides discussed shared experiences, finding that job titles, responsibilities and working conditions varied across each council office. Some are salaried, some are hourly.
“We do think that that variability could be addressed with some clear process and rules because a lot of it is just sort of open-ended as far as authority and what goes down in each office,” said Zach Burley, a senior lead for at-large Councilmember Sarah Parady.
The lack of consistency has led to high turnover rates across council offices, according to union organizers. Megan Ives, a senior aide for Parady, said since she joined the staff in 2023, she’s watched over 30 aides leave their jobs across all council offices. Depending on vacancy rates, there are between 40 and 50 aides employed at once.
Turnover isn’t the only issue union members hope to address.
“We're interested in improving the processes for our workplace, whether that be grievance or anything like that, [so] we are able to have a formal organized process that we are able to take part in and shaping our own futures,” Burley said.
Council aides have tenuous job security. If their boss is voted out of office or is termed out, their employment with the successor isn’t guaranteed. Council aides say that makes their positions significantly less protected than other public sector employees.
Of the roughly 40 people eligible for the bargaining unit, a “significant majority” have committed to forming the union, organizers said. The union already has enough union authorization cards to win an election and is asking Denver City Council to voluntarily recognize it.
Council aides would be among the first city employees to take advantage of newly expanded collective bargaining rights.
Denver voters overwhelmingly approved a measure granting labor rights to public employees in 2024. Firefighters, police and teachers already were afforded the right to unionize.
But so far, only Denver Public Library workers have announced plans to unionize.
Similar concerns drove legislative aides at the Colorado statehouse to unionize in 2021. Since then, aides have gained benefits like health insurance, paid holidays, transit passes and more.
Denver aides said they’re treated better and paid more than their peers in other legislative offices. However, they said the city can still improve and act as a guiding light for other municipalities.
Denver is a rarity in Colorado — while public employees at the state level and in Denver can now bargain collectively, most cities don’t have full union rights for their entire workforces baked into city law.
Council members were informed Monday.
The new union delivered a letter requesting voluntary recognition shortly before council meetings began for the afternoon.
Council President Amanda Sandoval said she was supportive of the union, but said a slew of other worker groups also are in the queue for negotiations.
“I’m happy for them, totally support whatever needs to be done, we just have to work with our person in HR who’s assigned to labor,” Sandoval said.
Councilmember Amanda Sawyer said it’s “fantastic” to see the aides take advantage of new bargaining rights approved by voters.
“I think it’s going to get very complicated because of some of the specifics of the way council offices work, but that’s their right and I’m here for it,” she said.
