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Thursday, March 21, 2019 | Vo l u m e 1 2 3 | I s s u e 5 2
UNM recommends labor board reject union’s petition By Kyle Land
@kyleoftheland Editor's Note: The University's official response submitted to the labor board can be viewed in its entirety here. The University of New Mexico has recommended the UNM Labor Management Relations Board reject a petition signed by over 900 faculty to create a union, according to their official response submitted to the board. UNM said the bargaining unit, United Academics of UNM (UAUNM), was not defined appropriately and should be ordered to submit another petition with UNM’s recommended changes. UNM’s response — delivered to the labor board Monday afternoon — was written by Loretta Martinez, chief legal counsel for UNM. President Garnett Stokes has previously said the president’s office is in charge of drafting the position. The University was required to meet a March 18 deadline for the response, which was extended from March 1. According to the response, “UNM explicitly denies that the petitionedfor bargaining unit is appropriate.” Most of the arguments made by the University concern disputes about what type of faculty are allowed to join a collective bargaining unit.
The labor board ultimately decides who can be a part of the bargaining unit. The board consists of one representative from management (Charlotte Lamont) and one from labor (Marianne Bowers). Both Lamont and Bowers were appointed at last week’s Board of Regents meeting, and will now have to agree on a third person to serve on the board. The response also states that department chairs should not be included in the bargaining unit, citing a labor law that dictates those in managerial and supervisory roles cannot join the unit. “Community of interest” is a legal term that defines participation in a collective bargaining unit, taking into consideration what the interests, job requirements and work conditions are for those involved. If the labor board determines the differing faculties have little to no “community of interest,” those faculties will not be allowed to organize together. The response gives the opinion that tenure track and non-tenure track positions at UNM “are more appropriately identified as separate bargaining units.” When the Daily Lobo asked for the University’s position on the union following the release of the statement, a UNM spokesperson gave a URL address to a series of pages on the president’s website, not the
By Danielle Prokop/ @ProkopDani/ Daily Lobo
UNM faculty wear shirts showing their support for a union at the Board of Regents meeting on March 11, 2019.
University's official response given to the labor board. When the webpages were first published, none of them mentioned the official response submitted by Martinez, nor any of the specific argument she makes in it. When asked why the document
was not included on the website, spokesperson Cinnamon Blair said the website went online around the same the document was filed. She did not rule out putting the document on the site in the future. "I don't think there's a reason we can't put it up there," Blair said.
Stokes said she believes the University has been transparent so far in the unionization process. "I believe we have released information as it has become available," Stokes said.
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ASUNM votes against new senate seats ASUNM forum focuses
on campus resources
By Justin Garcia @Just516garc
It was big. It was radical. It was something that had come up a number of times before. And it would have restructured undergraduate student government. But, it wasn’t ready. At least, that was the consensus of the Steering & Rules Committee of the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico, who voted down a package of legislation that would have added up to 10 (possibly appointed) seats on the Senate. The package, which included six separate bills, would have added between five to ten seats to the senate. The seats would have been filled by either representatives from resource centers, such as the Veterans Resource Center or the LGBTQ Resource Center, or colleges, such as the College of Arts and Sciences. Whether these students were appointed or elected by their organizations was unclear in the legislation, which was sponsored by S&R Chair Mohammad Assed. Assed and Holly Gallegos are running for President and Vice President, respectively, of ASUNM for the next academic year. While this package failed, many members of ASUNM present at Wednesday's meeting said they thought the idea was something to continue pursuing. “The intention of the bill package
By Justin Garcia/ @Just516garc/ Daily Lobo By Justin Garcia/ @Just516garc/ Daily Lobo
From left to right, Holly Gallegos, Madelyn Lucas, Mohammad Assed and Adam Biederwolf during the 2019 Presidential Endorsement Forum.
ASUNM Senator Mohammad Assed during the Steering & Rules Committee meeting as his reform legislation was killed.
was to better represent (the student body). It’s something that we’ve been talking about since before any of us have been in Senate,” Assed said referring to similar discussions of Senate bodies in the past. ASUNM President Becka Myers and Senator Madelyn Lucas (also running for Vice President) said the intent of the bill was good. Lucas said it was “something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.” Before the bills were voted down, President Pro Tempore Jacob Silva and Assistant Director of Governmental Affairs Jac Hoswell voiced their opposition to the package. Silva said the legislation was
“too simplistic” and needed to be more cohesive. “It seems like I have fallen into the trap that others before me had fallen into,” Assed said as the meeting adjourned. Members of S&R then had a twenty minute conversation after the meeting adjourned, discussing what might be done to further the goals of this package. Justin Garcia is a staff reproter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers student government. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo. com or on Twitter @Just516garc.
By Justin Garcia @Just516garc Resources and how to access them dominated the discussion at Monday’s Associated Students of the University of New Mexico endorsement forum. The forum, mandated by ASUNM governing documents, gives student organizations a chance to endorse candidates, as the name suggests. The event doubles as a forum, where Elections Commissions Director Jordan Montoya and Assistant Director Christian Ojeda moderated the candidates.
“I don’t think the endorsement forum is useful,” Montoya said. “(The forum) doesn’t mean people will vote.” This Presidential Election comes after a Fall semester Senate election that saw record-low turnout. Just over 1,000 undergraduates voted, according to the Elections Commission. That's about six percent of the undergraduate student body for Fall 2018. This election, which begins on Monday March 25 and runs until Wednesday March 27, will decide who will become ASUNM president and vice president. The candidates for these two
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