Using CBJ funds to help staff the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center and Recreation Area in response to the reckless elimination of Forest Service employees sounded good…until I paused and realized we are being asked to provide a form of scab labor.

In February the federal government decided most visitor center staff were unnecessary and cut their jobs without warning or planning. An ordinance was introduced last week by the CBJ Assembly to authorize expenditure of $200,000 in passenger fees to pay private organizations to “maintain staffing continuity” at the glacier.

In other words, local money would be spent to bring in replacement workers so the operation will continue to function without its fired workers.

This sounds uncomfortably like the use of scab labor to undermine worker contracts.

According to a Forest Service press release, Discovery Southeast and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida have already agreed to perform replacement work with federal money.

I ask Discovery Southeast — of which I am a member — to carefully consider its involvement in privatization of the visitor center.

And I ask the Assembly not to appropriate money for this purpose.

Catherine Reardon

Juneau