CWA Members Step Up the Fight Against Disability Discrimination

Earlier this month, following a contentious hearing at the Interim Legislative Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee meeting, members of CWA Local 7076 sent a letter to New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham demanding she address ongoing issues with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations at state agencies.

At the hearing, legislators on the HHS Committee heard the stories of multiple disabled state employees whose civil rights had been violated by the state not providing appropriate ADA accommodations or adequate workplace accessibility. During the presentation, Overdose Prevention Coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) Sarah Bowman testified that “it took over six months before [she] received any formal response” to her ADA request.

Other ADA violations presented by union members included inappropriate, discriminatory, and unprofessional comments by state human resources staff and supervisors; a lack of emergency safety procedures to protect the public and workers; and retaliatory threats of rescinding “off-the-book” accommodations.

In April, Governor Grisham vetoed HB 120, “Accessibility of State Agencies,” saying, “I wholeheartedly support the efforts to ensure that our state buildings and websites are accessible to everyone, regardless of disability. This is why my administration is already complying with the applicable ADA standards.”

CWA Local 7076 represents thousands of state employees at 13 agencies under the executive branch. In a survey of employees with a disability conducted by the union, 80 percent of respondents said they had considered quitting due to the difficulty of receiving adequate ADA accommodations.

“Our stewards are flooded with reports of abuse and discrimination and pleas for help,” said Sunny Gonzales, CWA Local 7067 Steward at DOH and Chair of the Local’s Disability Justice Committee. “We started the Disability Justice Committee in September 2024 because we were seeing patterns of discrimination and likely ADA violations across the agencies we represent.”

---

This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.