NMSU faculty moves forward with union, awaits NM Labor Board

Frustrated faculty at New Mexico State University will soon have bargaining power with their employer as approval for unionization moves forward with the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board in Albuquerque.

As first reported by local and state media outlets, nearly 400 union cards out of a potential bargaining unit of nearly 800 system faculty, had been collected and taken to the Labor Board for approval on March 8.

Per the Labor Board the cards must be verified for authenticity by the Board in a process that usually takes less than 10 days. That process is followed by an official public notice which must allow another 10 days for counter representatives to come forward who wish to represent the faculty group which will be known as NMSU-NEA.

In the latest update, Thomas Griego, executive director of the Labor Board, provided the Sun-News with a copy of the public notice expected to be published March 22, but did not provide further details.

Efforts to start a faculty union are not new and come as faculty at NMSU’s main and branches campuses unite for enhanced classroom resources, competitive pay and greater influence among the university's top leaders.

“While the upper administration at NMSU is often in flux, faculty in the NMSU system demonstrate their commitment to the mission of the university by working there for decades,” said long-term history professor Jamie Bronstein in a news release. “If we really want to build a robust university system, we must strengthen the collective voice of the faculty who support student success. Our working conditions are their learning conditions.”

At NMSU's community colleges, the same sentiment goes. Tanya Allred, an English professor at NMSU-Alamogordo, said in the same release that a union would provide an avenue to influence any NMSU system-wide changes, especially restructuring. In recent years, those decisions have solely been made by executive leadership and the Board of Regents. An example of this was seen in 2020 with the decision to eliminate branch campus president positions and decision to hire two top leaders for the NMSU system rather than one to replace President Gary Carruthers.

“Unionizing will help ensure that faculty at the community colleges have a voice in how we restructure with consideration for how each restructuring option may impact students, faculty, and staff at our various colleges,” Allred said in the release.

When the union gets approval, NMSU faculty are likely to experience bargaining challenges of their own like NMSU graduate students and faculty and staff at the University of New Mexico. Last month, NMSU graduate students took a complaint to the labor Board who ruled NMSU must comply with union requests in a timely manner.

And on March 20, UNM graduate students reopened negotiations for the spring semester to call on UNM administration for higher wages that are equal or above the federal poverty line. Graduate workers said in a news release, the average annual income is $17,500, with 85% going toward living expenses.

“In the last bargaining session, we expressed interest in working with the university to request increased funding from the state government, earmarked for graduate worker wages. They declined,” said UNM UGW Chief Steward Dominic Oddo. “Instead, we took our case directly to lawmakers in Santa Fe and won approximately $2 million in state funding ourselves. About half of these funds will be routed to UNM, the other half going to institutions around the state.”

Despite the ongoing wage and tuition reimbursement battles at both universities, NMSU-NEA told the Sun-News they were confident in their case when asked if unionization would realistically address their concerns.

“In light of the numerous legal battles that NMSU has lost and the fruitlessness of its efforts to challenge the formation of the graduate student union, we trust that upper administration will waste neither time nor taxpayer dollars contesting the authorization of the faculty union and will instead move forward into recognition," NMSU-NEA said.

As for what’s motivating faulty to support union efforts in comparison to past years, NMSU-NEA explained that now is the time to work alongside the university especially during a period where it has no permanent president, and a five-year strategic plan is set to expire next year.

“The frequent turnover in central administration has hindered the development of a cohesive long-term vision for NMSU. We believe that our experienced faculty members are uniquely positioned to collaborate with upper administration in shaping policies that benefit our academic community as a whole. This belief serves as the driving force behind our campaign,” NMSU-NEA said.

Union organizers plan to celebrate the official launch of NMSU-NEA at noon March 28 on NMSU’s main campus at the Corbett Center Student Union outdoor stage.

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: New Mexico State University faculty unionize