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Negotiations between the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) and the Amalgamated Transit Union 1774 (ATU) have reported conflicting reports about how well negotiations are going. Critical issues such as drivers’ pay and housing affordability are...
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The first two rows of a RFTA bus is closed off to give the bus drivers distance from passengers due to the coronavirus on Thursday, March 12, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times) RFTA lead mechanic Will Fabela, right, and Patricia Rosales Trigo disinfect a bus at the Aspen Maintenance Facility on Thursday, March 12, 2020. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times) The union representing bus drivers at Roaring Fork Transportation Authority will ask management Friday to provide hazard pay for work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ed Cortez, president and business agent for the Amalgamated Transit Union Lo...
A Mountain Rescue Aspen member, who declined to provide his name, vaccinates Lisa Kilby with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine alongside Jackie Lapid, right, and dog Freya in their car at the vaccine tent in Aspen on Friday, April 9, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times) Top officials with the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority are disappointed a $500 bonus for employees who get the COVID-19 vaccine has not spurred more action. As of Tuesday, 212 out of 385 employees for the public transit agency had been fully vaccinated, Jason Smith, RFTA’s safety and training manager, informed the board ...
Peter Magierski has been working for RFTA for a year and a half and continues to drive a bus amid the pandemic. For years, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority has been the valley’s annual lifeline for millions of workers, skiers and people without vehicles. And that didn’t stop with the pandemic. The public bus system never shut down when most of the rest of the world came to a screeching halt March 14. It was a sense of pride, duty and simple survival for many drivers, including 36-year-old Peter Magierski, an operator for one-and-a-half years. “We keep coming. We keep coming no ...