September 2022September 30th: During today’s negotiations we made progress in our effort to secure a gaurantee that all graduate workers receive appointment letters and job descriptions at least two weeks before the start of their assistantships. We signed a tentative agreement on protections from unfair discipline. We then presented our economic proposals for full tuition coverage, annual pay increases for every graduate worker, coverage of the international student health insurance fee, paid time off, and more. Read the full update here.
September 15: Graduate workers, undergrads, faculty, and alumns spoke up at the regents meeting calling on the NMSU regents to end the crisis and commit to full tuition coverage. Check out the news coverage here.
August 2022August 21st – State Representatives Angelica Rubio and Joanne Ferrary and State Senator Carrie Hamblen published an op-ed supporting full tuition coverage for graduate employees. Read it in the Las Cruces Sun News here.
June 2022We have sent NMSU admin a letter formally requesting a start to union negotiations. To win our demands as quickly as possible we need an overwhelming show of strength on the tuition petition, a big rally on June 9th, and an elected bargaining committee ready to fight for our proposals.
Also, NMSU grad students! Submit your story here! Highlighting some of the serious issues graduate workers are facing (health insurance, unfair treatment, discrimination etc) is very powerful and gives us ongoing material to present to the administration.
May 2022After 4 years of effort, our union has been certified! The next step is to bargain a union contract and win better pay, health insurance, tuition coverage, and work protections.
We’re calling on the NMSU administration to bargain with us immediately for tuition coverage for Fall of 2022. Because time is of the essence, we’re preparing a petition to be delivered when the admin inevitably refuses or attempts to delay the process until it’s a moot point. We know tuition is a crisis that is forcing many grads to consider leaving NMSU. Anyone can sign this!