As part of a nationwide “May Day Strong” day of action, all three NMSU unions and other sister unions gathered Thursday evening on the NMSU campus. Scott Brocato has more.
The various unions gathered in front of Milton Hall on the NMSU campus to build solidarity to stand against what they feel are attacks on labor, universities, public education, and communities. All three NMSU unions were there: Graduate Workers United, NMSU-NEA, and AFSCME 2393. They were joined by sister unions CSEC-LC, NEA-Las Cruces, and USW 9424.
Caroline Klocksiem, who was there representing the NMSU Grad Workers Union, explained why she thought the gathering was so important for her, and for all workers.
“I feel like we are so intentionally divided, sort of as a tactic on all levels,” she said. “We are all getting so squeezed. And now we’ve had a hundred days of being squeezed so tight, and there’s more on the way. We cannot let that allow ourselves to be divided.”
NMSU history professor and spokesperson for faculty union NMSU-NEA Jamie Bronstein, stressed the importance of unions showing solidarity and getting their point across, particularly on campus while dealing with difficult situations such as federal grants.
“Research is a lot of what we do here at this R1 institution,” she said. “And when grants are revoked arbitrarily and capriciously, it means that research projects have to stop in the middle; grad students can no longer work on those projects. It is really to the detriment of the pursuit of knowledge.”
After speeches were made by members from the various unions, there was a special screening of the film “Union” in the Milton Hall Theatre.
