NM Government Restructure Task-force and Info to Know
May 26th, 2010
On May 24th and 25th, CWA Exec. VP, Thomas Espinoza and CWA Steward Glen Carlberg attended the Government Restructuring Taskforce meetings in Santa Fe.
Thomas and Glen offered public comment, encouraging the committees that their work needed to be transparent and also expressed concern that the state's front line workers were not in anyway involved in the committee process. Despite assurances, Labor has been offered no permanent seat at the task-force table. (We can get on the agenda)
Our local is very concerned about what recommendations the taskfoce may come up with. The documents being used by the taskforce hold New Mexico up in a bad light, demonstrating how our per-capita government workforce is too large when compared with what surrounding states report.
We fully expect a large scale attack on the size of NM State Government during the next legislative session. Our Local would support efforts to streamline government, and the possible consolidation of certain state agencies. HOWEVER, what form will the trimming of state government take?
Today, Front Line state employees enjoy a 20-25% vacancy rate and over 1,000 vacant positions have recently been eliminated. This has left rank and file union members performing the work of two or three jobs without any hope of relief to come.
MEANWHILE, management and supervisory positions are all full. In one state facility you can find two or three manager / supervisors for each front line worker.
Again, if a majority of these Manager/Supers were working supervisors, assisting with the ever increasing case load, then it would not be an issue. Sadly, this is not the case. Time after time we hear from state employees on the front lines, reporting on managers and supervisors forever behind shut office doors, meeting amongst themselves, attending trainings all over the state, and enjoying the perks of authority. Recently, one DOH employee was called into work sick, so that the manager would not have to cover and miss a training in another part of the state.
During the next few weeks Union members will be called upon to write letters and contact their elected leaders. Demand that they include front line state employees in the decision making process to streamline state government and take our voices seriously.
It does not take a genius to connect the dots and realize that without our strong presence, the old guard will remain entrenched, budget cuts will target the foundation of state government, and the fat will continue to go untrimmed.
Read the linked documents below, look around your agency and consider where the REAL savings can be had in state government. We'll be sending out a survey tool and initiating a letter writing effort in the coming weeks. WATCH FOR IT!
In Solidarity
Click Here for many documents posted and used by the taskforce
