The Graduate Workers United union at New Mexico State University announced a major “win” after years of negotiations with the university.
According to a press release sent out by the graduate workers union at NMSU, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two parties that grants graduate students full tuition coverage.
Caedmon Ragland, President of Graduate Workers United at NMSU, said the reason they wanted tuition coverage was because if you subtract tuition costs from what grad workers are paid, they often fall below the poverty line.
“It was something that was true at the very beginning when we first unionized and now that we no longer have to pay tuition, that is something that we do not have to worry about any more. There are still fees that we will still have to deal with but since tuition will be fully covered, we can start to work above the federal poverty line for the first time,” Ragland said.
This development comes after seven years of negotiations with the university. Ragland described the process as "frustrating" and that there is still more work to do especially concerning wages.
“Grad workers here are currently not making a living wage despite being the people that build the foundation of an undergraduate education. We teach most of the lower level courses that bring people up as they start attending NMSU,” Ragland said.
In addition to higher wages, the union has also been pushing for health insurance, something that both the union here and at UNM are pushing for.
“We have had little to no success working on that with NMSU. We are currently working with our sister union up at The University of New Mexico to push for legislation in the current legislative session that would conduct a study on the feasibility for providing health insurance for all graduate workers,” Ragland said.
KRWG reached out to NMSU but they did not respond in time for comment.
According to the collective bargaining agreement, the Union may reopen negotiations each March.
The union has made no official statement on whether they will go back to negotiate but according to the press release, “it is safe to say that the spirit of aggressive struggle lives on” at the union.
