For more than 125 years, Americans have been celebrating the Labor Day holiday. For many families, it’s a time to take a day off and enjoy the outdoors before the end of summer. Like many holidays we have been celebrating for decades, the true origin of the day gets lost in the festivities, but Labor Day is meant to honor American working people and the ongoing fight to ensure that we all have fair pay, safe working conditions, and a voice in the workplace.

As someone who has worked my entire life, including for the last two years as a Transportation amintenance employee for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), I know that we have a long way to go to ensure all working people, including people who work for the state, can thrive.  I love my work and am grateful that it allows me to keep my community safe and crisscross our beautiful state.   

I take my job seriously, but sometimes it’s more than I bargained for. People don’t realize that we often act as first responders because an important part of my work includes cataloguing potential safety hazards on our roadways, which means we are often the first to the scene of an accident.  Unfortunately, we don’t have the staff, resources or training to properly do the jobs we are supposed to be doing, much less to do emergency response. 

My coworkers and I are so underpaid, that I don’t know how much longer I can afford to stay in this job. Equally concerning, however, is the lack of proper safety protocols, maintenance procedures, and adequate equipment, which is very old and frequently breaks down.  

People are often surprised by this, thinking that a job with the state means good pay, safe working conditions, benefits, and job security. But that is no longer the case. In fact, after I recently spoke with my state representative, he asked to shadow me at work after hearing how bad things had gotten for state workers. It doesn’t have to be like this. Colorado lags far behind other states when it comes to properly funding and staffing services and has been cutting investment in state agencies and workers for decades. 

The combination of TABOR and tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy has put a stranglehold on state budgets and caused the public sector in our state to deteriorate. As a result, we have some of the highest vacancy rates in the country.  The reality is that state employees and the Coloradans who depend on us are all paying the price.

For many, the pandemic was a stark reminder of how much we rely on state services and the people who provide them. Whether it’s accessing unemployment benefits, housing assistance, or health care, state employees were critical to helping Coloradans in crisis. In many departments, the pandemic has only increased the need for services, stretching already understaffed services to the breaking point and affecting the hundreds of thousands of people who needed us .

That’s why state employees have come together to negotiate a contract with the state to begin addressing the fundamental problems hurting us and the people we serve. We’re negotiating for better staffing, competitive wages and safer working conditions, which will benefit workers and Colorado communities alike. I know firsthand, because I have been a member of a union for most of my life in different states across the country. By having a voice in the workplace, we created safer environments, won better wages, and improved the products we created. 

When state employees have a voice, all Coloradans can be better heard because no one knows our communities like the people who serve them every day.  The pandemic painfully demonstrated how underfunding public services hurts all of us. Let’s remember, on Labor Day, the importance of investing in our workforce and the people who make our state run by ensuring they have a voice in the workplace. By sitting down together to bargain with the state, we can improve our jobs, your services, and the well-being of communities in the state we love. 

Mike Powers is a Colorado Department of Transportation maintenance tech and Colorado WINS member who lives near Livermore.