Rosendo Najar stops at construction sites to check the tags on the trucks parked outside. Too often, he says, those trucks sport tags from Arizona or Texas, not New Mexico, and that means local developers are bringing in labor to do jobs trained New Mexican laborers can do.
Najar, who is a leader with the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters Local 1319, rallied with more than a hundred skilled union workers from his local, the laborer’s LiUNA Local 16, plumbers and pipefitters from the UA Local 412 to announce a $20 million pledge to expand apprenticeship and training programs those unions have been building for years. The pledge comes from PNM and Blackstone, the company seeking approval from the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) to purchase PNM. They noted that the company could spend as much as $10 billion over the next decade to build out renewable energy generation and transmission infrastructure needed to help PNM archive the 100% carbon-free energy requirements of the State’s Energy Transition Act. Blackstone representatives say the investment is contingent on approval of its buyout plan currently under review by the PRC.
Business Manager of the Southern California District Council of Laborers
(SCDCL), speaks at an event with PNM, Blackstone and local laborers in Albuquerque (Sara Atencio-Gonzales, The Paper. June 17, 2026)
The group gathered Wednesday morning at ACE Leadership High School in the Sawmill Neighborhood north of Downtown Albuquerque where students are already learning skilled trades and graduate into an apprenticeship program. A Blackstone spokesperson told The Paper. that the firm’s application to buy PNM included an open commitment to future job creation programs, but today’s program provides more detail on their specific focus on building skilled labor and investing in the next generation of New Mexico workers.
