Staff Contract Impasse Ends

By: Jodie Darrell, Staff Reporter | Photo By: Scott M. Roberts, Photojournalist

Security officers, part-time and full-time faculty members and instructional support staff are very happy to have a formal contract after the long wait, said CNM Employee’s Union President and full-time SAGE instructor Andrew Tibble.

The employee contracts, which were ratified at the September Governing Board meet­ing, had been in limbo since 2008 due to dis­agreements between the union and administra­tion, said Tibble.

The timing of this contract is important, because it means that those groups will now receive the one-time two percent and recur­ring three percent raise that was approved for all employees over the summer, said Tibble.

“We managed to do it. It wasn’t easy and there were a lot of disagreements with the school but we did get them to move on some things and we frankly moved on some things,” said Tibble.

CNM President Katharine Winograd said she was thrilled that the contracts were settled in time for any of the eligible employees to receive the raise. She also said that the hard work from all of the staff throughout the recent years is appreciated.

“I’m grateful for all the work that was done by the negotiating teams on all sides, and I’m grateful that the col­lective bargaining process produced good outcomes for everybody,” said Winograd.

Tibble said negotiat­ing is a big part of the pro­cess to get these contracts settled and choosing the most important clauses like gaining more protection for employees in disciplinary cases played into the process.

“To some degree it’s like a high stakes game of poker,” said Tibble.

Winograd is thrilled with the fact that the contracts being settled did not conflict with any of the eligible employees raises.

Collective bargaining rights are important for employ­ees and the job of the union is to protect rights in the workplace for employee, said Tibble.

“There have been defi­nite improvement in the contracts and just the fact that we were able to reach an agreement with the school is really positive,” said Tibble.