The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) has warned that the 2026 na­tion­al bud­get risks wors­en­ing cost-of-liv­ing pres­sures and erod­ing the re­al in­comes of work­ers, es­pe­cial­ly those in low­er-in­come and in­for­mal sec­tors.

In a de­tailed analy­sis, the union said the gov­ern­ment’s con­tin­ued deficit spend­ing and grow­ing debt bur­den could “crowd out cap­i­tal and so­cial spend­ing,” while new levies—such as the elec­tric­i­ty charge and land­lord busi­ness tax—would ul­ti­mate­ly pass costs on to or­di­nary cit­i­zens.

“The cit­i­zens are no longer in­ter­est­ed in promis­es made but prop­er gov­er­nance from the hands of the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion who have glar­ing­ly showed the coun­try they did not care,” the CWU said.