Archives for February 2015

At the CARNM Board meeting on January 27, 2015, the Board unanimously voted to support Jobs for All New Mexico both vocally and financially. CARNM is investing $20,000 in Jobs for All New Mexico, Inc. This contribution is from reserves, not from the general budget. We strongly encourage you to take action.

Click here to read the email which contains all of the pertinent information.

• Visit Jobs for New Mexico, Inc. – Not for Profit (jobsforallnm.com). This is not a political entity, but a website to organize support for the Right To Work effort, led by the business community.

• Read the summary of the issue to understand why this is a critically important conversation and a critically important change for the future of New Mexico.

• Sign the Petition on the Jobs for All NM, Inc. website.

• Donate to help continue the effort to organize and educate.

• Contact Key Senators by calling them to request their support of Right To Work legislation.  Discuss with them the idea that every worker should have the right to choose to participate in a union if they would like to and choose to pay for that union only if they decide to participate in that union. Sending a short message to the 5 senators will take less than 5 minutes.

• “LIKE” Jobs for All NM on Facebook.

For years, people have been watching the vacant former First Baptist Church across the tracks from Downtown Albuquerque, though they’ve been watching it for all the wrong reasons. Graffiti, trash, vandalism and vagrants have plagued the site, as is the case with many vacant structures in this city and others. But these particular seven acres and its current 305,000 square feet of buildings sit at one of the most visible city intersections — Broadway Boulevard and Central Avenue — a spot technically in East Downtown, but from a branding perspective is squarely part of the Downtown corridor.

And it’s Downtown that has Mayor Richard Berry‘s laser focus. Downtown is also on the minds of other public officials, including University of New Mexico president Bob Frank.
But even more eyeballs are on this site now, because its sale last year to UNM makes it the future home of Innovate ABQ — a high-tech incubator initiative between UNM and the public and private sectors. Real estate executives, brokers and developers are now extremely interested in what will be the first phase of the project — one many say the future of Albuquerque’s job growth hangs on.
That’s led to more speculation, as some wonder whether any developers or teams in New Mexico actually have the expertise to tackle a project like Innovate ABQ. Those worries are a reflection of a larger skills-gap problem business leaders say the city and state continue to grapple with, and the stakes are higher than ever. With potential to reinvent entrepreneurship here, as well as be the catalyst that helps Downtown finally turn the corner economically, the impact of finding people who can execute the project’s master plan extend well beyond the walls of the former First Baptist Church.
“I do believe that we in Albuquerque oftentimes think that because someone is from outside of the state, they are automatically an expert or are more skilled than our local players,” said Scott W. Throckmorton, president of ARGUS Investment Realty. “I guess it’s a kind of inferiority complex.”
“I remain very excited about the potential for this project to contribute to revitalizing Downtown and rebuild our economy by focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Dale Dekker, who is the principal of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and a consultant on the project with David Green, who is a planner with Perkins+Will. “It’s part of the puzzle of building an ecosystem that is fundamental to growing a healthy private sector. We’re doing all the right things there, taking our time.”
Dekker said Innovate ABQ is one of the most significant projects his firm has ever been involved in.
Because he is a consultant on the project, Dekker didn’t respond to the Innovate ABQ board’s recent request for interest and qualifications for those interested in development partnerships with UNM, which owns the site. Throckmorton has been one of the more active city developers in recent years, but he said he too did not respond to the Innovate ABQ development request. That request has now closed, and who submitted and will rise to the top should be known soon.
Jim Chynoweth, the managing director of CBRE New Mexico, said the state has very talented developers and real estate service providers. “However,” he added, “the market has not provided much opportunity for experience at the local level for projects like Innovate ABQ. Experience reduces risk, which will be the name of the game. Out-of-state developers typically don’t have much experience in doing projects in Albuquerque; therefore it is likely this project will need a combination of outside and local real estate service providers in order to be successful.”
By: Damon Scott (Albuquerque Business First)
Click here to view source article.

SANTA FE – Following a debate that took combative turns, the Republican-controlled New Mexico House of Representatives has approved a right-to-work bill which also includes a 50-cent-per-hour minimum wage hike.
The legislation, which passed 37-30 Wednesday, prohibits requiring workers to join a union or to pay dues as a condition of employment. It would apply to both public and private sectors.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where the Democratic leadership in the majority has said it’s united in stopping right-to-work legislation. Other states, too, are engaged in the right-to-work issue.
The Wisconsin Senate continued to debate its own bill late into the night Wednesday. The Missouri Senate is expected to consider legislation after a similar measure passed the House there earlier this month.
Like in previous committee hearings on the contentious bill, lawmakers from both parties clashed on what, if any, benefits New Mexico would see by joining 24 other states with right-to-work laws.
Republicans said the bill would bring more businesses to New Mexico. Democrats countered there were few examples of those clamoring to set up shop here if the law is implemented.
Builders, business associations and chambers of commerce leaders have supported the measure, saying it will bring much-needed jobs to the state. Labor and education union leaders and workers have characterized the legislation as misguided and misnamed, contending it will hurt workers by bringing down wages and undermining unions.
The bill is among the handful of hot-button issues that have quickly revealed partisan fissures in a newly constituted Legislature whose makeup hadn’t changed in decades until this session, when Republicans won a majority in the House.
“I really believe in this bill,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan. “It’s essentially about individual worker’s choice. … The worker should have the right to contribute if they so desire, but they ought to have the same right not to contribute if they so desire.”
Roch added that it’s disingenuous to suggest the bill weakens unions.
His legislation passed with an amendment that would repeal the minimum wage hike should the right-to-work portion of the bill be held unconstitutional or be invalidated by a court.
Roch said the amendment was simply to insure that “the deal that is struck is not dismantled by another branch of government.”
Still, Democrats pounced on the amendment, peppering Roch with questions and alternately calling it a “farce,” “pointless” and “breathtaking.”
Rep. W. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, who called the bill unconstitutional, implored Roch not to do an “on the fly floor amendment.”
The amendment is “a public admission of ‘holy cow, that this may be unconstitutional,”‘ and designed to assuage Republicans who cast votes in support of the bill that if right-to-work goes away, the minimum wage increase from $7.50 to $8 an hour goes away too, Martinez said.
About 43,000 workers in New Mexico were members of unions in 2014, or about 5.7 percent of the total workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By: Vik Jolly (Las Cruces Sun-News)
Click here to view source article.