Two months of contract negotiations between UNM and the union representing more than 1,000 University staff employees have resulted in an impasse over salary proposals.
At a Tuesday night meeting, members of United Staff-UNM voted 30-3 to accept a wage- increase proposal drafted by union leaders, thereby rejecting three options offered by UNM to increase staff pay.
The union represents staff employees, with a majority of its members being University administrative assistants.
Specifics of the non-economic portions of the union's contract with the University have been finalized and accepted by both sides, said Donald Burge, a UNM General Library employee and the union's chief negotiator.
"I think we've got a pretty good contract and both sides can be proud of what was done there," Burge said. "I think we can do the salary side of it too. It's not a question of (whether) the union is going to beat the University or the University is going to beat the union."
He added that the latest offers, which represent the most compromise by both sides, are less than $1 million apart.
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The union's proposal is to establish a step-in-grade system with 15 steps in which employees would automatically move up one step each year until they are at the top of the scale, said Harry Norton, a UNM admissions officer and president of the union.
After the first 15 years, Norton said, employees would receive no less than the average pay raise for other UNM employees each year.
"The advantage of step-in-grade is that it provides you with an automatic raise next year," Burge said.
The current pay system, Burge said, is based on merit, earned during years when an employee has received positive performance evaluations. First-level increases are set at $3 a month and second-level increases at $5.50 a month.
"To call that merit is almost an insult," he said. "The way the system works is to take money from one person and give it to another," which creates inter-office tension in settings where there are only a few employees.
The University offered three options for wage increase in its proposal: a raise based on how many years an employee has worked continuously at UNM; a 3 percent annual raise; and a
Susan Carkeek, UNM vice president for Human Resources and the official University representative for the negotiations, said she has not officially heard of the union's rejection of the UNM proposal and declined to comment on the matter.
"It has been my experience that our negotiations are more successful when conducted between the parties and not on the pages of the newspaper," she said.
Carkeek also said there was an agreement between the parties not to discuss the negotiations until they were complete.
Burge said the rules of the negotiations state that either side can disclose information to the media provided that an impasse had been reached, which happened Tuesday.
"(Carkeek) would have known that if she had been at the meetings," he added.
John Martinez, a local contract-negotiation specialist and UNM's chief negotiator in the matter, did not return phone calls Wednesday from the Daily Lobo.
The potential for impasse "has been building for awhile because we feel the step system is the only way to fix the salary inequities of the University and, contrary to what management says, there is enough money in the system to fix this," Norton said.
Federal and state employees, nurses working at UNM Hospitals who are represented by a union and employees at places such as Sandia National Laboratories are paid on a step-in-grade scale, he said.
The system "is common - it's not like we're asking for something over the top," he said.
Union representatives have contacted the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to send in an expert in contract and legal disputes to help hammer out the salary portion of the contract, Burge said.
The mediator will talk to both sides separately and then make suggestions on how a middle ground can be reached, he said.
"If mediation fails, under UNM's impasse procedure, this will go to the Board of Regents," Burge said.
Norton said he expects mediation to begin in the next two weeks.
