Unions give state earful at protest

WASILLA — Neither rain nor the removal of a state House bill from consideration in the Legislature could keep local union members from protesting at Wasilla Lake Monday against attempts to limit unions’ bargaining rights.

Members of the school unions — the Classified Employees Association and Mat-Su Education Association — joined with food service and electrical workers’ unions to express their distaste for Palmer Republican Rep. Carl Gatto’s bill that would have stopped unions representing public employees from bargaining for changes to health care benefits. They carried signs with slogans like “Gatto’s Gotta Go.”

Gatto has defended his legislation, saying there are tough fiscal times for the state ahead and Alaska needs to save money where it can. He added that unions bargain with elected officials, who can’t make unpopular moves cutting union benefits and expect to win re-election. He pulled his proposed legislation Thursday, according to the Legislature’s online records.

Larry Bell, a Valley resident and business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Local 1547, said he doesn’t think he’s seen the last of Gatto’s bill.

“We view it as a testing of the waters for what workers in Alaska will tolerate,” Bell said. “We’re here regardless.”

He and other organizers at Harold Newcomb Park said the protest was also a show of sympathy for public employee union members in other states that are facing similar and even more drastic legislation targeting collective bargaining.

Bell said that statewide, a quarter of IBEW’s membership consists of public employees, so the legislation would have had major impact on his fellow union members.

Rick Byrnes, who heads up the Classified Employees Association, said that in addition to CEA, MSEA and the IBEW there were other sympathetic unions.

“I bet there’s half a dozen or more unions here,” Byrnes said, estimating that school district unions made up less than half of the estimated more than 200 at the protest.

He said signs made up beforehand were gone shortly after 4 p.m. and the protest wasn’t due to start until 4:30. They also ran out of stickers expressing union solidarity that many wore on their coats.

Byrnes has said previously that moves like Gatto’s will discourage people from taking these kinds of public sector jobs and that union members across the country feel attacked. He defends unions taking action to promote certain candidates, saying that unions aren’t always successful in their attempts and that other groups have the exact same rights.

The Wasilla event was one of seven held Monday in Alaska, including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Soldotna and Kenai.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.