Terminated Core Transit employee tells board that frontline workers are ‘screaming for help’

An international union representative told the Core Transit board at its May 14 meeting that he suspects a well-known employee who worked at the Vail Transportation Center was terminated earlier this month because of her connection with efforts to unionize the regional transit authority’s frontline staff.

Stephanie “Sunshine” Samuelson worked as an employee for ECO Transit for 10 years. She became a Core Transit employee in August 2024 after ECO Transit’s services and employees were absorbed into Core Transit. In May, Samuelson’s employment was terminated. 

Mike Harms, an organizer with the Amalgamated Transit Union, attended the May 14 meeting of the Core Transit board and asked the board to reinstate Samuelson to her former position.

“We believe Stephanie was targeted for union activity and deprived of her constitutional rights to have a fair and a partial hearing,” Harms said. “I would like to see cooler heads prevail and Stephanie get her job back, but if we have to, we will take appropriate action.”

Core Transit declined to comment on the matter, citing its policy not to discuss employee-related issues publicly.

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Core Transit workers may be unionizing

According to its website, the Amalgamated Transit Union is “the largest labor union representing transit and allied workers in the U.S. and Canada.”

Harms was in town helping Core Transit workers “ensure workers are treated fairly and have their voices heard,” he said. “While we are in this organizing drive, we are going to continue to work and fight for the workers. They do need a voice.”

This was not the first time the board had heard of complaints from Core Transit’s frontline workers, which have been delivered by a proxy, Avon resident Tim McMahon, for months.

“I’ve been bringing up for nine months now how morale has been tanking for the operators, and there’s a distrust of management,” McMahon said. “Repeatedly, I was told I was wrong — that if operators have issues, they should bring that to you. Judging from the fact that they have been organizing a union, they wouldn’t do this unless they had issues with management and felt they couldn’t resolve these without outside help.”

Samuelson herself spoke to the board, drawing its attention to what she described as a discrepancy between the story she heard from frontline workers versus from Core Transit’s administrative staff.

“Welcoming, dependable, rewarding and accessible sound marvelous, but when these core values are not practiced internally, they fall short of the goals set forth by this board and staff to be the employer of choice of the valley,” Samuelson said. “Members of this board, please reach out and listen to the frontline staff. They are screaming for help and looking into other avenues to protect themselves, lest you all actively participate to change the current trajectory of their work experience.”

Samuelson seeks reinstatement

Samuelson was well known for her work as an information services representative for ECO Transit and then Core Transit at the Vail Transportation Center, where she greeted passengers and provided them with transit-related information.

Samuelson said on April 28 that she was placed on paid suspension from Core Transit “pending investigation into three complaints that had occurred in three weeks, and until that moment, I was only aware of one.”

During the week of May 5, she said she was asked to attend a meeting with Aryn Schlichting, Core Transit’s director of people and culture, and Dayana Herr, Core Transit’s marketing, communications and customer relations manager, at the organization’s headquarters in Gypsum. 

During the meeting, Samuelson said she was told that Schlichting had conducted an investigation into her entire career at Core Transit and found 20 incidents. According to Samuelson, she was told it was this discovery that led to Core Transit’s decision to terminate her employment.

“Please note that my last review at the end of January and February mentioned none of these incidents, and it was a glowing report,” Samuelson said. She said she had “a clean slate for 10 years with ECO Transit and then, in nine or seven months, 20 incidents that I have incredibly limited knowledge of ended my career of service to the public, a career that inspired me to wake up each morning excited to show up and be of service to others.”

McMahon spoke in support of Samuelson’s reinstatement.

“Sunshine’s level of customer service and dedication to our community is the true definition of above and beyond. For almost 11 years, her commitment to anyone at the VTC (Vail Transportation Center) was truly remarkable,” McMahon said. “Working for a few years at La Cantina, I saw this firsthand. She has fed the transient traveler with food and kindness numerous times. She has created calm from chaos and been a friend to many. Every time this winter, she was there when the highway was closed down, she would stay late making sure everyone was getting home.”