Posted at: 06/26/2009 7:02 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

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Part of union cries foul over Chavez endorsement

Albuqerque Mayor Martin Chavez

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, is the large union representing city employees, but it made up of smaller union groups called locals—and the blue-collar workers’ local says nobody ever asked them who they wanted for mayor.

The blue-collar union represents about 1,000 city workers—the physical backbone of the city workforce, and blue-collar leaders say they got a raw deal in the endorsement business.

Last month, AFSCME endorsed three-term mayor Martin Chavez after he crafted a city budget with some raises and no layoffs, despite a recession-driven revenue shortfall.

“It should have been done by a survey - pretty much polling all the city employees - asking them who they wanted to endorse for mayor - because we are a member-driven union and that's the way it should have been done,” said David Ortiz with the union. “They did not do it that way - they went out on their own and they decided to endorse Martin Chavez on their own." Fellow union member Jerry Sanchez said, “We want to make it clear to the membership that we are gonna poll the members and we will do this by next week - we will have this poll done by next week and we will get back with the rest of the membership—“ in order to see who the blue collar workers really want.

Blue-collar members said they predict a vote of support for Richard Romero, like Chavez, a democrat.

Some say Richard “RJ” Berry seems like a congenial guy that they could work with, but union support for a republican is unlikely.