THE NEW COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING LAW IN NEW-MEXICO

After seventeen years of public sector bargaining in New Mexico, in 1987 the state's attorney general determined that state employee bargaining was illegal. Although the state supreme court eventually ruled otherwise, labor lobbyists pushed for, and in March, 1992 had passed the southwest United States' first public employee collective bargaining law. This article provides a case history of the circumstances that surround the new law, a review of the components that make up this law, and a discussion of its potential impact on state and local government in New Mexico.