Graduate workers at New Mexico State University have formed a union to address long standing issues including nonexistent medical and tuition benefits and low pay that leaves many graduate workers and their families living below the federal poverty line. Despite the fact that the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board has ruled that graduate employees are public workers and have the right to form a union under existing state law, the NMSU administration is seeking to obstruct our right to unionize by taking the position that graduate workers at NMSU should not be considered employees.  UNM graduate employees are unionized as well as 64,000 graduate workers at public universities just like NMSU across the country.

NMSU graduate workers provide essential labor to the university through teaching, grading, and mentoring undergraduates and are counted on as a vital tool for undergraduate success. We also provide a massive amount of research labor and the productivity of our research is an integral component of securing research funding and helping NMSU attain R1 status as a research institution. Of the 131 universities across the country recognized as a Carnegie R1 institution, the vast majority (126) provide full tuition remission, higher pay, and health insurance to their graduate workers. Over half of graduate workers in a recent survey reported they would not recommend NMSU for graduate school. We want NMSU to be a competitive option for promising prospective graduate students but without health insurance, tuition remission, and livable wages NMSU will fall behind.

Over 500 graduate workers, a strong majority of all graduate employees at NMSU, have joined the union because we believe that we are stronger together and we can negotiate for improvements to our lives, our teaching, and our research. Support us in calling on the NMSU administration to recognize the vital labor that graduate employees provide to the university and community by recognizing the right of graduate employees to unionize.