In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), establishing the right of workers to join together and bargain with an employer for better wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRA also provided freedom from employer interference in the relationship between workers and their union.

In 1971 the Alaska Legislature, through the Public Employees Relationship Act (PERA), extended the federal rights of unionization to state employees.

The GGU bargaining unit, whose existence is authorized under PERA, has further memorialized the freedom from employer interference in its Collective Bargaining Agreement with the state. Article 3, the Union Security Clause, states that "the employer agrees that it will not in any manner, directly or indirectly, attempt to interfere between any bargaining unit member and the Union."

You might ask why all this stuff matters. As Mother Jones said, "Educate yourself for the coming conflict."

Slightly more than one year old, the administration has a well-established record of limiting consensus and taking ideological positions at the expense of the state.

State employees have been excluded from the policy making process. Alaskans have fewer benefits and services resulting from dramatic layoffs, budget cuts, office closures, and centralization, reorganization, reclassification, and privatization programs.

Your Contract Negotiating Committee is also witnessing a disturbing approach in the collective bargaining process. At the table we are not seeing substantive proposals about wages, benefits, or working conditions—the usual issues addressed at the bargaining table.

What we have seen is this: a proposal that interferes with our right to collect dues, a proposal that would limit our ability to meet with new members, and a proposal that would hamstring our grievance/arbitration process.

Make no mistake about this: Your basic rights as a union member are under assault. The trends illustrated in the public policy of the Murkowski administration are now being pressed upon the employee contract. We need to acknowledge this threat and defend your rights.

In Solidarity,
Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson is a Business Agent in the Fairbanks Office and the staff liaison to the Contract Negotiating Committee. The opinion expressed is his and is not an official opinion of ASEA/AFSCME Local 52 nor the Contract Negotiating Committee.