NMSUTuesday, November 10
NMSU's faculty union serves a complaint, saying contract talks have dragged on 662 days
The Daily Las Cruces team
On Monday, more than three dozen members of faculty union NMSU-NEA hand-delivered a prohibited practices complaint to the president's office in Hadley Hall. The union says the university has dragged out contract talks for 662 days. President Valerio Ferme acknowledged them briefly, then shut his door.
The faculty union's complaint, by the numbers
- 662 days
- of contract talks, the union says
- 20
- allegations in the complaint
- 891
- university employees the union represents
Sources: Albuquerque Journal, KRWG Public Media
KRWG reports the union wants paid parental leave, better compensation and better health care. English professor Michelle Granger said a first contract in education averages about 400 days. NMSU said it "will respond through the appropriate administrative process."
NMSU-NEA's talks have run well past a typical first contract
Sources: Albuquerque Journal, KRWG Public Media
View as table
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Average first contract (about) | 400 days |
| NMSU-NEA talks | 662 days |
- Who decides: New Mexico's Public Employee Labor Relations Board
- Health care: union says NMSU answered 15 months after its proposal
- Family leave: January 2025 proposal allegedly returned crossed out 16 months later
- Pay: union says the counterproposal took nearly eight months
Graduate Workers United, which represents 170 to 200 graduate student workers, filed its own complaint a week earlier. It says NMSU stopped union dues deductions without members' consent. President Caedmon Ragland said 71 people were affected this semester.
Sources: Albuquerque Journal, KRWG Public Media