Union will best represent staff

Editor,

I am proud of my education and the two degrees that I have from UNM.

My husband and daughter also have two degrees from this institution and have warm feelings for the place. I enjoy working here and have been employed by UNM for more than 10 years. That doesn't mean that things couldn't be much better, though.

Living wages, full benefits and a fair, meaningful, standard grievance process should be as much a part of running a quality university as the education received by students.

However, with the vast majority of the staff below market in wages and having no power to bargain with the administration over salaries and working conditions, a union is needed to give the staff a voice.

A union is a democratic institution made up of members who vote for or against contracts negotiated with management. This way, employees have a voice in their work lives. Union workers across the country earn about 30 percent more than workers without a union in the same fields.

Some critics would have us believe that voting for union representation on March 22 "will eliminate the individual's power to and right to negotiate annual increase percentages with their supervisors." Do many rank and file UNM employees do this? I don't think so. In my years as an UNM employee I have yet to "negotiate" any raise.

Rather, I have received notice of what my raise was going to be, take it or leave it. I know that higher ups, such as administrators, bargain for their own salaries through negotiation, but, for me, to have any negotiating privilege will require being represented by a union to bargain on my behalf. If I don't like the contract I can vote no.

That's not the case now. If I don't like what the union is doing, I can change the leaders because they are elected by the members. I can't change the administration or the regents. Right now, I have a great boss, but this can change any time without my having any say about it at all. But I can have a say in my union and make sure it watches out for my best interests.

That is why I will vote yes for collective bargaining on Thursday.

Jennifer White

Senior athletics

academic advisor