Three AFSCME Council 18 members hand out free t-shirts during a 2008 civic plaza protest against cuts in wage increases (Photo by aflcio2008/Flickr)

Three AFSCME Council 18 members hand out free t-shirts during a 2008 civic plaza protest against cuts in wage increases (Photo by aflcio2008/Flickr)

ALBUQUERQUE — The president of the City of Albuquerque’s blue collar workers’ union refused Wednesday night to tally the ballots members had cast to determine whether or not to endorse Mayor Martin Chavez in this year’s mayoral race.

Steven Griego shut down a meeting where nearly 100 votes were supposed to have been certified and where members could have seen for themselves if there was ample support or not to endorse another term for the mayor.

“It’s gotten out of hand,” Griego said, referring to his fellow union members. Some of those members shouted angrily at Griego as he walked out of a large conference room without acknowledging their taunts.

The meeting was held at the American Federation of State County Municipal Employees Council 18 building on Pennsylvania Street NE.

The local’s vote was viewed as a test for the mayor, who received an endorsement from the local’s parent union, AFSCME Council 18, in late May. But some blue collar union members protested that decision and demanded a vote to gauge members’ sentiments.

The vote wouldn’t have amounted to an official endorsement, or lack thereof, by Local 624, but it would have allowed members to express themselves on the mayor’s race.

“I said let’s get the members, let them have a voice,” said local 624 treasurer Lawrence Mora.

“It’s our local. They’re shanghai-ing this thing,” Jake Romero, another member, said referring to Council 18.

Several members of Local 624 interviewed Wednesday night described being angry at the Chavez administration for what they said were smaller raises for the blue collar union than for other unions.

It has become a common refrain from the blue-collar union, some of whose members believe the mayor favors other unions at their expense.

The vote became such an emotional issue that police were called last Thursday to the union hall to respond to an incident involving Griego and the local’s vice president, Jerry Sanchez.

Sanchez blamed Griego for trying to impede the vote, and for hitting him in the head, according to a police report. Griego told police that “he gently patted Mr. Sanchez on the back and invited him outside to discuss the matter.”

That resentment appeared palpable Wednesday night as Griego and a few others faced off against fellow union members over whether to count 91 votes that had been cast. That tally was more than the 10 percent of the local’s 850-member membership required to make the vote official. Fewer than 10 percent of members casting ballots would have voided the vote, according to minutes from a July 1 executive board meeting of Local 624.

When Griego shut down Wednesday night’s meeting, it left some seething.

“We’re here to certify a vote. That’s why everyone is mad,” said an unidentified union member.

Griego said a few minutes after shutting down the meeting that he didn’t know if another meeting would be called to tally the votes. “That’s for the (union’s executive) board,” he said.

Then Griego asked a reporter to leave the premises and had him escorted out.