For Immediate Release
May 16, 2024
Adrienne Enghouse
enghousea@yahoo.com
503-810-4489
N.M. 2nd Judicial District Court Denies Hospital’s Request to Stay Union’s Request to Bargain
SANDOVAL, N.M.—The United Health Professionals of New Mexico won an important court round when New Mexico Judicial District Court Judge Joshua Allison issued an order denying a request by the University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center to stay the union’s request to bargain.
UHPNM won the right to form a union more than two years ago, but UNM Sandoval has refused to come to the bargaining table. UHPNM filed a suit asking the court to compel the hospital to bargain.
Judge Allison ruled Wednesday that the medical center did not properly make its request for a stay of UHPNM’s request to bargain and denied the hospital’s request. He noted that the medical center has since brought another request for a stay, for which he will rule when he makes his next order, which will determine whether UNM Sandoval must actually bargain unconditionally.
“Nurses and other healthcare professionals need a voice at the bargaining table so that issues that directly affect patients are dealt with, including improving staffing levels, seriously facing safety concerns and raising wages to retain and recruit talented professionals,” said Adrienne Enghouse, RN and the union’s lead organizer. “UNM Sandoval is ridiculously litigious, constantly wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fight the workers, who are simply trying to improve patient care.”
Enghouse added: “Every day that UNM Sandoval refuses to meet at the table is another day that places patients and community members in jeopardy. Quality patient care is the union’s bottom line, and it’s unconscionable that the hospital is fighting us every step of the way to ensure safe conditions.”
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