** For Immediate Release **
###Media Contact:
Megan Green
megan.green@cwa7076.org
(505) 216-6691
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — “Permanently temporary” workers at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) are one step closer to winning collective bargaining rights already enjoyed by their colleagues in the State’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). Pilar Vaile, Executive Director of the Public Employee Labor Relations Board, issued a recommendation on March 11 that DCA and the State Personnel Office (SPO) cease and desist violating the Public Employee Bargaining Act (PEBA) by preventing these NHCC workers from joining Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7076. It is now up to the Labor Board to uphold the Director’s recommended decision in their next meeting.
“It’s appalling that DCA and SPO have been exploiting people at the NHCC for years,” said CWA Local 7076 President Megan Green. “These workers love their jobs serving the community so much that they have been willing to stay in these so-called temporary positions, some for decades. Having their paid time off taken away in 2024 was the last straw. Managing illnesses without sick leave and employer-provided health insurance has been a struggle.”
DCA and SPO have been misclassifying certain job positions at the NHCC as temporary (“EXOT”), repeatedly hiring workers for one-year contracts with one day in between so that the State could claim they are temporary workers and deny benefits, pay raises, and Union membership. Vaile states in her recommended decision that “the ‘EXOT’ position is a contrived mechanism that is not reasonably warranted, justified, or required by legitimate business determinations and has the effect of impeding access to PEBA rights.”
“We hope that the Labor Board will do the right thing and uphold Director Vaile’s recommended decision,” said Green. “It’s clear from her decision that these workers are regular employees under PEBA, with the right to join a Union and negotiate benefits.”
CWA Local 7076 represents thousands of state employees at 13 agencies across the State of New Mexico.
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