State workers should take back the union
Did my fellow General Government Unit members read the administration's latest offer to its supervisors? The offer is basically the same offer that our union, Alaska State Employees Association, accepted, except for two very significant points.
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One, is a 6.7 percent pay increase on April 1, to compensate them for working a 40 hour work week, "which many of them claim they already work and are not getting paid for." Two, instead of the longevity steps that we have 2-2-5-4 years respectively and then indefinitely, GGU supervisors are being offered longevity increases every two years, without end.
The significance of point two above is the association originally asked for this very stipulation during contract negotiation. So why didn't we get this in our contract? Because once again the association "folded like a lawn chair" and backed down, just like they originally demand a 37.5 percent cost of living allowance and accepted a lousy 10 percent.
So now we are stuck with a contract, where the terms of the agreement were based on what has proved to be out-dated financial data. In May, when negations concluded, oil was selling for $70 per barrel and being taxed at 22.5 percent. But, now, oil is selling for more than $90 per barrel and being taxed at 25 percent.
One has to ask; why would our union conclude negotiation in May, for far less than their original demands, seven months before the legislators even get to consider funding it? Is our union leadership really that stupid? Incompetent? Gullible? Naïve? You pick one. Or, could it be something else altogether that, they "sold GGU down the river" for?
It couldn't have been to stave off a decertification drive or could it? Do the GGU workers know that when the association first mailed them a letter stating their intention of trying to decertify, the association began spending the GGU's dues money to the tune of $54,000 on legal fees, to keep GGU members from voting to decertify them? Why would the association spend their money to keep them from voting? Well quite frankly, the association knew that if they had to stand on their record they would lose hands down.
Now is the time to take back your union, seven out of the 11 statewide executive board seats are up for election. Let's vote out the incumbents and put in a board that is more concerned with the welfare of the members than the welfare of the union.
Michael Lavering
Juneau