State employee union readies for strike

ANCHORAGE -- The Executive Board of the Alaska State Employee Association/AFSCME Local 52 authorized strike preparations last week in response to what ASEA business manager Jim Duncan called "stalled negotiations with the Murkowski administration."

"We are preparing for a strike vote," Duncan said "We hope that doesn't happen; we prefer to use mediation."

ASEA declared impasse with the state on March 12, requesting that a federal mediator be assigned. The mediator would go back and forth between the two sides in an attempt to find common ground for a contract. The teams would no longer meet in the same room, according to Duncan. The state's negotiation team did not agree to declare impasse, so a hearing with the Alaska Labor Relations Agency took place in the first week of April to determine whether negotiations between the two have indeed stalled. ALRA has yet to reach a conclusion on the impasse, and has not indicated a date for when that decision will be made.

"We do not have a time-frame for when it will be out," said a representative of ALRA.

If and when impasse is determined, the two teams will next meet with a federal mediator in an attempt to negotiate an acceptable contract. If an agreement is not reached and ASEA's current contract ends, the union could strike. ASEA represents more than 8,000 state employees, with 368 represented employees working in the Valley at various state agencies such as the Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Fish and Game and the Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to ALRA filings, both the state and ASEA negotiation teams have filed Unfair Labor Practice complaints with ALRA. The state charges that ASEA has engaged in a repeated effort to restrain and coerce the state in its selection of a bargaining representative, while ASEA charges that the state has committed a ULP by restricting negotiations to Juneau.

Duncan said ASEA does not want a strike, but said that because of the possibility, the union must prepare for such a vote.

"The process lasts some time," Duncan said. "If need be, we expect a strike vote in mid-May with results back from the vote in mid-June."

The union would be required to wait until July 1, when the current contract ends, to actually strike.

Duncan said that even if ALRA decides the two teams are not at an impasse -- meaning the teams will once again meet face to face to try to negotiate a contract with out a mediator -- it may be only a matter of time before an actual impasse is declared.

"Unless the state is willing to make some compromises, we will end up back at the table and disagree again," Duncan said. "We've already compromised as much as we can."

Contact Jen Ransom at jen.ransom@frontiersman.com.