The Homestead Office building in Albuquerque. (Photo courtesy of CWA Local 7076)

Hayley Peterson recalls coming in to work on the morning of May 5 and stepping off the elevator to the third floor of her office and immediately smelling natural gas.

“It just smelled like gas, like crazy, in the building,” she said.

Peterson, an epidemiologist at the New Mexico Department of Health and a union steward with Communications Workers of America Local 7076, works in the Homestead Building, a state government office building in Albuquerque.

She told Source NM her coworkers in nearby cubicles also smelled the gas that day.

“Other people had gone to talk to building staff about it smelling like gas, and they were basically told it’s not possible, and they were just dismissed,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.

At least a dozen workers reported the smell over the next few days, the union said in a news release, but management didn’t try to investigate the smell’s source or secure the workers’ safety.

A frustrated CWA member called New Mexico Gas Company, whose inspectors found six of the building’s 10 furnaces were leaking, the union said.

DOH closed the building for four days starting on May 8 as a result, New Mexico Health Department Communications Director Robert Nott said.

“The New Mexico Department of Health takes these concerns very seriously,” Nott told Source NM in an email. “We value the lives and contributions of all our employees.”

The Health Care Authority issued Source NM a similar statement and said HCA “coordinated closely with the Department of Health to ensure staff safety after a gas leak was reported at the Homestead facility.”

“HCA staff members were removed from the building as a precaution while repairs and safety inspections were completed,” HCA spokesperson Marina Pina said. “We appreciate our team’s patience during this incident, and we remain committed to the safety and well-being of all state employees.”

When workers returned to the Homestead building on May 14 and immediately smelled gas again, the union said management ignored their complaints until May 16 when DOH Human Resources Director HC Hawkins sent an immediate evacuation notice via email.

A leak that had been repaired the first time needed to be repaired again, Nott said. Management sent the workers home a second time that morning, and they returned to work on May 19, he said. HCA confirmed to Source the building was closed May 8, 9,12,13 and 16.

CWA 7076 Executive President Megan Green on June 5 elevated her grievance with the department to Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie.

“Our union is deeply concerned that the New Mexico Department of Health has systematically endangered its workforce through willful negligence, engaged in active retaliation against workers who report safety concerns, provided false or misleading statements to enforcement bodies like OSHA, and fought against the labor rights of your staff,” Green wrote in the grievance. “Hundreds of NMDOH and HCA workers were forced to work in a building with an active gas leak for several days on two separate occasions.”

‘My coworkers and I were being poisoned’

Many workers in the Homestead building did not receive the first evacuation notice, Peterson said, because leadership sent it using an incomplete email listserv. “I had coworkers in my area that only knew to evacuate because I told them,” she said.

According to a survey of 68 workers the union conducted after the first gas leak, 44% of respondents said they received the evacuation notice and other building closure notices. A third said they did not receive the notices and approximately 23% were not sure.

One person who didn’t get the notice was Marcia Carroll, a DOH management analyst who didn’t become aware of it until 40 minutes later.

“I stayed in that building for 40 additional minutes after an evacuation order,” Carroll told Source NM in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

When the building was first closed, the owner contacted a local plumbing company to repair the leaking furnaces, Nott said.

This photo taken by a CWA Local 7076 member shows plumbing workers parked outside the Homestead Office building while it was closed due to a gas leak. (Photo courtesy of CWA Local 7076)

“We have since contracted with DC Environmental Inc. of Albuquerque to conduct an environmental assessment of the building to ensure the safety of the entire facility and its occupants,” Nott said. “We are awaiting DC Environmental Inc’s report.”

Peterson said those are great first steps, but she questions if the outside evaluation will present a complete picture without input from workers impacted by the incidents over the last two months.

“This initial gas leak endangered hundreds of lives in our building,” said Carroll. “When I sit back and think about it, for four days my coworkers and I were being poisoned. Our lives and health [were] jeopardized. Why? Because we were told there was nothing to worry about and multiple calls of concern were ignored.”

Peterson, Carroll and the union say the problems at the Homestead building began earlier in April, when they breathed in toxic chemicals from a maintenance mishap.

Peterson said a maintenance worker sprayed a stain sealer on the ceiling 10 feet away from her, and she and other workers nearby started coughing. She immediately started feeling a headache and nausea, and walked out of the building.

“There’s no way to ventilate the building, because the windows don’t open,” she said.

The stain sealer that workers say was sprayed inside the Homestead Office building during work hours in April without prior notice, alongside the chemical’s warning label. (Photo courtesy of CWA Local 7076)

Carroll, who said she has a scent sensitivity, said it was irresponsible for the department’s lease manager to allow a maintenance worker to spray the chemical during work hours.

“Management did not promptly respond to this health emergency,” she said. “We were not provided any information. None.”

More than a dozen employees experienced symptoms such as vomiting, nausea or aspiration, the union said. Three sought emergency medical attention, Green wrote in her grievance.

“It really wasn’t acknowledged to us by anyone in leadership for a week,” Peterson said.

The union said DOH reported the incident to the state Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, but presented a one-sided and biased report without speaking to any injured workers. Source NM asked the bureau for comment at the end of the day on Tuesday and will update the story as needed.

“NMDOH has refused to provide written notification of the hazards to which workers were exposed, or provide any actionable guidance on how they can be safe from these hazards in the future,” Green wrote.

Peterson said as a health scientist, she thinks it’s inappropriate that DOH never informed its employees what they had been exposed to in the three incidents, because they would have no way of knowing what to say to a doctor if they see one.

“We’re Department of Health and Health Care Authority workers: we work for the health of New Mexicans, and so we want our leadership to also care about our health,” Peterson said.

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This post was originally authored and published by Austin Fisher from via RSS Feed. to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.