Editor,
I am a steward for the Communications Workers of America Local 7011 and was on the bargaining committee that negotiated raises for UNM employees this year. People keep complaining to me that they do not see the raises they got this year, at least not in the form of real money.
Management at UNM wanted to give a raise of 3.25 percent, but we held out for 4.25 percent. The state Legislature had assigned 4.5 percent for a raise for UNM employees, but management insisted that 4.25 percent was as high as they could go. I was told that the other quarter percent would be used to defray costs to the UNM administration involving higher health insurance fees.
Employees who have the health insurance plans offered at UNM will be paying 8 percent to 11 percent higher fees this year. Employees are now being steered toward UNM health facilities so that the money paid by the insurance companies is returned to UNM Hospital or its clinics.
In addition to this, employees who drive to work are telling me that parking fees are up as much 20 percent - an outstanding and unfair charge to employee pocketbooks when you consider that employees must pay the employer to park their vehicles at work. Inflation is not up 20 percent, and the raise was not 20 percent either, so why have parking fees increased so much?
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If anyone is wondering why they have not seen much of a raise, the above issues might be worth looking into.
Lawrence Curry
UNM staff
