As a 10-year employee of Alaska Airlines I have seen many changes to the industry. Being that it is our second round of negotiations since my hire date in 2007, I have recently become passionate about collective bargaining. What does this mean for me as an employee and my future with Alaska Airlines?
As a new hire in 2007, I was unaware of the effect that negotiations might have on me, not just my financial future but also my well-being. This passion, as I call it, is not selfish. It is brought on by a will to voice what I feel is my duty to get a fair wage apart from a pension that has been lost and gone the way of the 401(k), as well as job security. All of which should be a given, yet they are not. How to place value on an employee’s job is more than just monetary; it also involves the intangibles: pride, appreciation, integrity, etc.
In economic globalization there has been a shift in the specialization of labor. It has gone from know-how to cost-driven economics. Lowering costs short-term has not necessarily produced long-term savings. How to better this? It’s called strategy. However, this strategy is internal. Educate your employees, give them the tools they need to grow and be competitive in every growing industry. This means job security, good pensions and fair pay as starters and a basis, so they can lead healthy productive lives.
Sir Richard Branson said it best: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
I believe that our jobs are meaningful and give dignity to the employed. However, when it comes to the bargaining table, how do you reach to the other side and help them understand that it’s people’s lives that are being negotiated? Each dollar up in pay means much more to someone struggling to make ends meet, while one dollar less means how much more of a bonus to those on the other side of the negotiation table. It’s not complaining; it’s seeing what’s fair to those who are left wondering why that unattainable glass ceiling had chosen not to increase their pay, or offer them a pension, or have job security. How can you ask the very best of us and still not see how important these are?
Loren Garcia,
Anchorage
Vote Hughes, Collins, Edwardson for Assembly
We urge Juneau seniors, and everyone who believes in fairness and wants to see positive change occur in Juneau, to vote for Andy Hughes, Chuck Collins and Rob Edwardson for Assembly. These gentlemen support returning the senior sales tax exemption removed by the Assembly beginning last year. When seniors were required to purchase new tax exemption ID cards we were told the purging associated with those new cards would be sufficient for city coffers. City government reneged on that within a few months, and seniors and Juneau businesses have suffered since.
There are additional compelling reasons to put these new people on the Assembly. City government operates many enterprise funds, among them two indoor swimming pools, a hockey rink, a ski area, three libraries, commercial greenhouses, an arboretum, a museum, a bus business, a hospital, and an airport. Many lose money. We very much depend upon state government, and just a short time ago Alaska was supported by a $25 billion oil industry. Now we have an $8 billion industry, trending toward $7 billion, and fish, tourism and minerals mining seem unlikely to make up the deficit in time. No amount of taxation can insulate Juneau from the inevitable rebalancing of state product and consumption. So we need an Assembly that sees higher priorities than a Paris climate agreement, and that doesn’t first look to taxes and to seniors when economic circumstances change.
We need an Assembly that listens to Juneau retailers and restaurant owners. Hughes, Collins and Edwardson will bring this needed perspective, and none too soon. By the way, Andy Hughes is a write-in candidate; please darken the circle and write in his name. Absentee and early voting begins Sept. 18.
Tomas Boutin,
Juneau