NM Public Employee Labor Relations Board sides with NMSU Graduate Workers Union in grievance case

The graduate workers union at New Mexico State University celebrated a ruling from the New Mexico Public Employee Relations Board on Tuesday, Feb. 6, which found the university hadn’t responded to an information request in a timely manner in accordance with a collective bargaining agreement.

Graduate workers and supporters gathered in front of Hadley Hall, the university’s administrative building, to emphasize frustration with school leaders for not living up to their end of the agreement.

Workers in attendance spoke up about the on-going struggle to negotiate solutions for improving the quality and compensation of graduate student employment. Those in attendance said it has been nothing but a challenge since the agreement was adopted two years ago.

“We really do want to work together, we really do want to better work conditions and make progress, and that has to be done together, right? We can't do it alone and neither can they, so that's got to be a unified thing,” said Alexander Allison, president of the union.

Adam Smith, another graduate worker who has fought with the union since 2020, spoke about the lack of cooperation in bargaining meetings specifically regarding complaints. He said the union’s concerns have been dismissed with school leaders ending meetings abruptly and walking out.

“The whole goal is to find a solution and that's not the reality. That is not how this administration has treated these agreements meetings. They expect us to provide all the evidence, they don't give us anything. They treat the entire meeting as if it was an appeal to their authority, to give us a handout,” Smith said. “They walk out of the room while we're still talking to them, we will be mid-sentence, and they'll just say this meeting is adjourned and walk away.”

“Sometimes later, they'll send us an email, handed down from above, a decision about whether or not a violation even occurred, let alone what the solution would be, if anything,” Smith continued.

Workers at the protest were most upset with the timeliness of their requests and complaints being addressed by the university. The state public employee labor board had the same qualms when discussing a failed response to the union’s 2023 complaint during a Feb. 6 meeting.

New Mexico labor board issues ‘default’ to NMSU

Under the collective bargaining agreement, complaints may be escalated to the state employee relations board as a last resort if either party has not made a reasonable effort to solve them. Per the board’s rules, the required timeframe to submit a response after a complaint has been filed is 15 business days. However, an October 2023 complaint, pertaining to the union asking for scholarship information for its members, did not receive a response from the university until Feb. 6, 2024, when one was submitted to the labor board minutes before it took up the case.

“There are some interesting questions raised in that answer (even though it was late) and as to what they (the university) are able to provide to the union under various other applicable law. That will at some point, I believe, have to be addressed even if the default determination is entered as an order of this board,” said Board Director Thomas Griego.

Attorneys representing the union and NMSU were given the chance to comment during the meeting. Both presented differing sides to the complaint with the union’s attorney Margo Nikitas arguing that it was a simple failure on NMSU’s part to follow the bargaining agreement.

NMSU’s attorney Jeffrey Jensen argued the university is still trying to accommodate for the bargaining agreement despite decentralized staff handling the union’s requests. He also noted some complexities with graduate student workers holding dual classifications for payment/scholarship purposes.

“I think present for not only us, for union representatives but also maybe this board, are some unusual aspects because of the representative members having sort of dual status, which is the case with graduate assistant unions across the country. Obviously, for our university and the people managing, this has been challenging,” Jensen said.

Nikitas, responding to Jensen’s argument, reiterated that NMSU still did not comply with the necessary procedures to address requests and complaints in a timely manner.

“As you all know, under the board's rules, there are 15 business days that the respondent has to answer a complaint. That did not occur in this case, and in fact, did not occur until this morning,” Nikitas told the board. “The union's position would be that this answer should be stricken as untimely, and the default judgment should be affirmed by the board today.”

Ultimately, the labor board affirmed the default ruling with Griego explaining that in his long tenure with the board, he had only been required to submit a default twice.

Because of Tuesday’s ruling, NMSU will be forced to comply and provide the union with the requested information in the coming weeks.

NMSU responds to graduate workers union claims

The Sun-News reached out to the university for comment regarding the graduate union’s claims of untimely responses to requests and abrupt walkouts during bargaining agreement meetings. Like other media outlets requests for comment, the university issued the following statement.

“New Mexico State University continues to negotiate in good faith with our grad student union. The information the union requested was delivered last month. Unfortunately, because that information is gathered across multiple, non-connected platforms, and because the teams tasked with gathering this information have been operating shorthanded in recent months, that information wasn’t delivered as quickly as the university would have liked. We’re confident this information will be gathered and shared with the union in a more timely manner going forward,” the statement read.

Ernesto Cisneros is a reporting fellow with the UNM/NM Local News Fund program. He covers education for the Sun-News and can be reached at ECisneros@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter at @_ernestcisneros.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: NMSU Graduate Workers Union takes grievance to state labor relations board