Northern New Mexico College settled a prohibitive practice complaint filed by the attorneys representing a local arm of a national labor union, after the New Mexico Appeals Court overruled an earlier decision reached by the Northern New Mexico College Labor Board.
The parties reached the undisclosed settlement, in November 2016, after the Court reversed the Board’s decision to dismiss wrongful termination complaints the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations filed against Northern’s administration.
The Union filed the complaint on behalf of former Northern New Mexico employees, Mildred Martinez and Lisa Duran.
The women filed individual complaints after Northern’s administration allegedly declined to renew their employment contracts because of their involvement with the Union.
Martinez and Duran were informed via separate memos, on or around May 20, 2013, that their contracts would not be renewed. Both Martinez and Duran filed grievances, which were dismissed because of technicalities in June 2013.
The Labor Board refused to hear their protestations because they filed a level three complaint, instead of the level two grievance, as required. When they corrected the error and filed the required level two grievance, Northern’s former Human Resources director Bernie Padilla informed them the deadline for filing the respective grievances had passed.
According to the original union complaint filed in February 2014, Duran took other steps to remedy her disagreement, but College officials rebuffed her efforts.
“On August 26, (2014) respondents refused to participate in arbitration proceedings for the grievance filed regarding the termination of Lisa Duran,” the complaint states. “This refusal violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
The opinion drafted by Appeals Court Judge Roderick Kennedy concluded the case should go back in front of Northern’s Labor Board because the Board didn’t listen to the merits of the original complaint.
“In its hearing on the Union’s complaint, the Board focused on provision in the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) and the employee handbook that were not mentioned in the complaint instead of addressing the complaint’s allegation of retaliatory termination,” Kennedy wrote in the August 2016 opinion concerning the case. “The Board granted the College’s motion to dismiss the complaint on grounds that non-renewal of Employees’ contract was consistent with the employee handbook and not inconsistent with the CBA. Because the Board failed to address the complaint’s allegations that the non-renewal was retaliatory and violate the Resolution, we reverse and remand for reinstatement of the Union’s complaint.”
Northern attempted to appeal the appellate court’s decision to the New Mexico Supreme Court, but the Court refused to hear the case. Union Attorney James Montalbano couldn’t provide details of the settlement, but he estimates the parties reached the agreement sometime around Nov. 17, 2016.
Since Northern is insured by the state’s Risk Management Division, it is illegal to disclose the terms of the settlement, until six month after parties signed the agreement.
Union President Tim Crone said the court case, which originally started with the Feb. 24, 2014 filing of the Prohibitive Practices Complaint, lasted so long because Northern officials refused to drop the case.
“I obviously think the process should have been sped up,” he said. “The appellate court reversed the decision and that added 18 months. If we had just gotten a decision, it would have lasted about a year.”
Crone said the case drug out so long that Mildred Martinez passed away before it was settled.
“Mildred Martinez died after she was fired,” he said. “Part of the settlement went to family.”
He said when Northern decided not to renew her contract, she lost her medical insurance.
Northern President Richard Bailey and Vice President of Finance and Administration Domingo Sanchez didn’t respond to requests for comment before presstime.