Local union members give nod to Romero, AFSCME says it doesn’t reflect majority

A group of City of Albuquerque blue collar works gathered on Civic Plaza mid-afternoon last Friday to give a symbolic endorsement to mayoral candidate Richard Romero.

Although Local 624 comprises the biggest subset of City workers, it is just one of several AFSCME locals that make up the city’s workforce. Their statement doesn’t reflect the viewpoint of the majority of workers in the city who belong to their union–AFSCME.

And the AFSCME organization as a whole–statewide–has an official process for making endorsements that does not include individual Locals making their own endorsements.

The official endorsement of AFSCME as a whole went to incumbent mayor Martin Chavez.

Romero accepts symbolic endorsement of AFSCME union members

The Executive Board of Local 624 voted early last week to publicly announce the outcome of an election they held at their union local back in July.  At that election, just over 10 percent of the Local’s 853 members cast their votes for the mayoral candidate of their choice. Out of 91 votes cast, 86 went for Romero.

At Friday’s press conference, Romero thanked the blue-collar workers for their courage in going public with the outcome of the vote.

AFSCME statewide leaders, though, said that Romero sought the endorsement of the union earlier in the year, but  didn’t receive it.

Josh Anderson, political coordinator for AFSCME, gave a statement to the press shortly after Romero sent a notice of the media event Friday morning saying it was “disingenuous” of Romero to announce he had the endorsement of Local 624, because he knew he had not received it.

Romero said he didn’t think it was disingenuous to accept the endorsement because the official endorsement of Chavez was a result of the “political machine” Chavez has implemented at City Hall, and that AFSCME did it to avoid lay-offs.

Lawrence Rodriguez, Vice-President of AFSCME Council 18–the parent organization of all Locals in the state, flatly denied that was the case. All locals in the state are faced with the possibility of lay-offs or furloughs, he said, due to the recession.

Chavez has campaigned on the fact that he managed to avoid lay-offs of city workers despite the deep recession.

AFSCME Council 18 President Andrew Padilla disputes validity of Local 624 Romero endorsement

At the event on Friday, AFSCME Council 18 President Andrew Padilla said Local 624 was part of the official process made by the union that resulted in an endorsement of Chavez, and that this characterization of their support for Romero as an endorsement by Local 624 undermines the endorsement the union as a whole gave to Chavez.

Both Padilla and Rodriguez are former rank and file members of  AFSCME.

“They don’t have the right to say they are giving an endorsement,” Padilla said. “We have one endorsement that flows collectively. It doesn’t happen through individual members.”

Earlier this year when the issue first erupted among Local 624 members, Padilla said he was “very sure” that the majority of AFSCME members wanted to endorse Chavez.

Local 624’s members were polled along with all other AFSCME workers who live in the city limits and are regular city voters. The president of 624, Steve Griego, represented the Local on the political committee that made the official decision to endorse Chavez, after hearing from the three candidates for mayor. Griego was not at the press conference.

Padilla explained to the Independent earlier in the summer that  the union is prohibited from using union funds for political activity without specific permission from individual union members. He explained that the union’s PEOPLE committee, which made the endorsement, is a standard AFSCME fixture through which the union does political work. Members choose individually to support the PEOPLE committee.