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Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Unions Stand Ready To Help New Mexico
By Arcy M. Baca
President, AFSCME Local 477
The sun has risen once again and we have a new day with new leaders ready to take the helm. My congratulations go out to our new Governor-elect Susana Martinez. The citizens of New Mexico decided to take a new and different direction in the governing of New Mexico. Democrats and Republicans alike must accept the will of the people.
I would like to thank Gov. Bill Richardson and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish for the years they have served New Mexico. My gratitude goes out to all the candidates who ran for office. Regardless if you won or lost or how negative or personal the campaigns got at times, New Mexico is better off because of the courage and hard work you have demonstrated.
I have been carefully listening to Martinez, and we have a lot of common ground. AFSCME has been very outspoken in the last few years about being fiscally prudent. We negotiated a contract two years ago with a zero increase for three consecutive years. Our members have been picking up the extra duties because of the vacancies not being filled at the lower levels.
AFSCME Local 477 has been on the forefront pointing out how top heavy state government is. We see this first-hand because we are located in Santa Fe. It is not only the increase of gov-ex employees, but the increase of middle and upper management. We have some managers and supervisors who are supervising one and two employees. An easy fix would be to mandate that a supervisor or manager have no less than six employees to supervise, if that requirement cannot be met it is time to consolidate bureaus.
Martinez also said something that I have been speaking against since the cuts begin. Across-the-board cuts do not work because you have upper management tasked with cutting who can easily justify their cuts without ever touching their areas. I personally have been told, "We are only filling the crucial positions," so I guess consumer advocates positions are no longer crucial.
AFSCME and I are willing to meet with Martinez to recommend some sensible cuts to the table. In order to reduce the workforce and save money, double dippers that were grandfathered and remain working need to be given a second look along with any employee that has worked the time needed to retire and are still working. Incentives could also be formulated to get employees who are close to retiring to retire. These cuts would be the least painful.
The hiring and promotional practices have been a big issue for the union. We have tried to correct these issues. Martinez was elected by Republicans and Democrats. I would ask her to fit some Democrats into her Cabinet so she can get a complete and objective view on state government and better serve the citizens of New Mexico. I would recommend someone like Jeff Varela to be asked to suspend his retirement and come back and reassemble the State Personnel Office. Varela knows where the Personnel Act has been changed ... and what it would take to bring parity back to the hiring and promotional practices. He would bring common sense back to the State Personnel Office so we could avoid all the litigation and save thousands of dollars.
There is a lot to work to be done. The union is willing to work and be a partner in getting New Mexico back on track. We need an outlet to report corruption and wasteful spending without fear of retaliation. Martinez' main campaign theme was anti-corruption, and here is where the union and the new governor can partner to fight hand-in-hand, and yes you can say we have an interest, our jobs.
I look forward to working with Gov-elect Martinez. I wish her the best of luck in her governorship. The task ahead is very difficult, but as a citizen of New Mexico I trust and support her leadership....
As president of the Santa Fe local of the state employees union I commit to leading my members to continue to work hard to serve the citizens of New Mexico. We will continue to call out wasteful spending and report any corruption we come across.
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