UNM Sandoval nurses demand wages, claim leadership received bonuses

RIO RANCHO — Nurses from University of New Mexico Hospital and UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center are demanding higher wages following their claims that university and hospital officials received wage increases and bonuses for themselves.

The United Health Professionals of New Mexico, which represents SRMC, and District 1199NM, which represents UNM Hospital, went before the UNM Board of Regents Aug. 19 after saying they received information about the wage increases from public information requests.

“Somehow, management found the money for raises (and) bonuses,” union member and registered nurse Adrienne Enghouse told board members. “But when it comes to the very people at the bedside, the ones keeping patients alive, keeping families informed, keeping New Mexicans safe, suddenly there is no money.”

Enghouse added, “Raises for managers don’t improve patient care; safe staffing does.”

Their comments come during a protracted dispute over collective bargaining between the two unions and UNM. In June, a judge ruled that the SRMC violated workers’ labor rights by refusing to bargain over layoffs in 2023. Enghouse said that the case is part of a pattern of what she and other health care workers see as a mistreatment of the union by UNM.

She said the record requests came following bargaining discussions earlier this year with hospital and university officials, who allegedly told the health care workers they had no money in the budget for wage increases, Enghouse said following the regents meeting. The workers, she said, were skeptical given what they had heard about spending.

UNM Hospital spokesperson Chris Ramirez disputed many of the unions’ claims in an email.

Ramirez said it was false that UNM Hospital managers received wage increases and bonuses while nurses had been told there was no money available for them. Ramirez clarified that all UNM Hospital staff and managers were provided wage increases during fiscal year 2025 and had done so in the last five prior years.

However, no wage increases or bonuses were budgeted for the following fiscal year for either management or staff since the hospital’s profit margin was negative $32 million as of May 31, Ramirez wrote. Additionally, the month before, UNMH deleted 52 leadership positions, including Jamie Silva-Steele, the SRMC’s president. The only exception for bonuses, Ramirez wrote, was UNM Hospital CEO Kate Becker, who received a pay increase scheduled for FY26 that was included in the contract she signed in June 2024.

Ramirez wrote that UNMH “reinvests all profit margins into its people, equipment, and spaces.”

“UNMH has demonstrated this commitment year after year during more financially stable times,” Ramirez wrote. “But this year, health care across the country has taken several financial hits with changes to federal reimbursements, rising costs of supplies and pharmaceuticals, and, in UNMH’s case, a growing patient population.”

Ramirez concluded, “We continue to work towards financial improvement and look forward to continued dialogue with NM1199 at the negotiation table.”

In an interview following the regents meeting, Yolanda Ulmer, CEO of District 1199NM, criticized Becker’s pay increase.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for ... the employees to get a raise?” Ulmer said. “They’re the ones keeping (UNM hospital) running. They haven’t had a raise, and they deserve it.”

Ulmer denied Ramirez’s statement that no wage increases or bonuses were budgeted for for either management or staff during FY2026.

While United Health Professionals plans to present a memorandum of understanding calling for wage increases for its health care workers, 1199NM presented its own plans Aug. 28, leaders with both unions said.

Enghouse said the union plans to “escalate our concerns” to create public awareness, but she declined to elaborate further.

Ulmer said she was not confident her union would get higher wages, but “we continue to fight for the people, we continue to fight for what’s right for the employees.”

“We will fight this to the end,” Ulmer said. “We are not going away.”