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New Mexico Utility Workers
Find Their Voice with IBEW

April 14, 2008

In the third National Labor Relations Board election since 1999, gas workers at Public Service New Mexico finally voted for IBEW representation. The IBEW was certified as the bargaining agent for the 262 workers across the state after ballots were counted on April 7.

“It’s a good positive story for anybody who gets their butt kicked regularly that you can go back again,” said Region 4 Coordinator Tim Bowden.

The vote brought to a close months of work by organizers at every level of the IBEW, capped by four weeks of intense house-calling and inoculation from teams spread out across the state. Now the gas workers, whose jobs will soon be transferred to a new owner, will join some 650 of their counterparts in the company’s electric division as members of Albuquerque Local 611.

The pending sale of the gas division was an important factor in the workers’ 127-109 decision to go with the IBEW. Lead Organizer Craig Parkman said the new owner, Continental Energy, has a track record of cutting costs and contracting work out at other utilities it has purchased in Alaska and Michigan.  

While Continental brought in union busters to pass out leaflets to exaggerate the cost of union dues and scare workers into thinking signing authorization cards amounted to surrendering rights, the IBEW staffed up. “I said we can make this happen but we’re going to need some help,” Parkman said. “In some places it looked like there was a lot of support, some places were up in the air.”

Local 611 Business Manager Chris Frentzel loaned the effort several organizers and business office staff while Seventh District Vice President Jon Gardner assigned a couple of International Representatives. The Membership Development Department also contributed staff.

“It was a real good joint effort,” Bowden said.

Parkman said he divided the state into five teams to get to every employee in the unit. The company’s CEO flew across the state for captive audience meetings, assuring workers of the company’s commitment to the utility and asking for a chance to prove itself.

Another election is scheduled for the end of this month for the nearly 100 workers whose jobs are shared with the gas and electric divisions of the Public Service New Mexico.
In 1999, the IBEW lost the election for the gas workers by one vote; in 2001, the union lost 2 to 1.