NMSU-NEA has filed a prohibited practices complaint with the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board, alleging that New Mexico State University stalled contract negotiations for 662 days. The complaint, delivered to NMSU President Valerio Ferme, lists 20 allegations, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The board has not established the allegations as findings.
Among the union’s claims: it waited nearly eight months for a compensation counterproposal, and a family-leave proposal submitted in January 2025 was returned 16 months later with the proposal crossed out. The complaint also alleges that university representatives removed baseline raise increases from negotiations and arrived late to or canceled bargaining sessions, the Journal reported. NMSU-NEA says pay, health care and family leave remain unresolved.
The union has asked the board to order NMSU to bargain in good faith, reschedule canceled sessions, acknowledge violations publicly and pledge not to repeat them. NMSU spokesperson Amanda Wyatt said the university would respond through the appropriate administrative process and remained committed to its obligations and good-faith collective bargaining. She declined to comment on specific allegations while the matter is pending, according to the Journal.
What other board cases can—and cannot—show
The board’s broader record offers context, not a forecast for this complaint. Its 2024 annual report says about 83% of cases filed with the board are ultimately settled or resolved without a hearing on the merits. That general statistic does not indicate how the faculty union’s allegations will be handled or resolved, according to the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board.
A separate NMSU graduate-workers dispute illustrates why a board action should not automatically be read as a ruling on the underlying merits. In 2024, the board sided with graduate workers by default in a case concerning information related to tuition remission because NMSU had not complied with complaint-response rules; it did not decide the merits of their complaint, the Las Cruces Bulletin reported. That case involved different workers and a different dispute from the faculty union’s pending bargaining complaint.
Pay data has limits
Compensation is one of the issues NMSU-NEA says remains unresolved. The New Mexico Higher Education Department’s Fall 2024 statewide faculty compensation report documents variation in salaries across institutions and appointment types, but explicitly does not assess whether pay is adequate. The data therefore provides statewide context, not a determination of whether NMSU faculty compensation is sufficient, according to the department’s report.
