Fairbanks North Star School District Art Specialist Jenifer Cameron listens to the speakers during an organized labor demonstration Monday, April 4, 2011, at Pioneer Park. . Rallies were held Monday across the nation to link the fight for collective bargaining rights to the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King was shot to death in 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. Sam Harrel/News-Miner
Fernie Devine, the huskey of teacher Tina Devine, shows support by wearing stickers during a demonstration by organized labor unions Monday, April 4, 2011, at Pioneer Park. Rallies were held Monday across the nation to link the fight for collective bargaining rights to the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King was shot to death in 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. Sam Harrel/News-Miner
More than 400 supporters of organized labor gather in the parking lot of Pioneer Park on Monday, April 4, 2011. Rallies were held Monday across the nation to link the fight for collective bargaining rights to the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King was shot to death in 1968 while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. Sam Harrel/News-Miner
The theme of the Fairbanks rally was “We Are One,” and it was supported by the National Education Association-Alaska, Alaska American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Central Labor Council and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“I was born union,” said Lake Williams, president of the Central Labor Council and the first speaker at the event. His parents, uncles and grandparents were union workers. His grandmother, now 96, worries people don’t remember what it was like before unions were created.
“There wasn’t a family unit,” Williams said. His great-grandparents worked all day and were lucky if they were able to get a meal on the table before they went to bed, he said.
“We have become complacent, we have forgotten,” Williams said. “When are we all going to wake up? Now!”
In Alaska, Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Wasilla, sponsored a bill in March that would have restricted some public employees’ collective bargaining rights. Gatto withdrew the legislation shortly after introducing it.
Speakers at the rally compared the proposal to legislation passed in Wisconsin and Ohio.
“We know it’s an attack on us because we are everywhere,” NEA-Alaska president Barb Angaiak said. “There’s a fear that organized labor is powerful.”
Angaiak said Monday’s rally was no coincidence. April 4, 1968, is the day Martin Luther King Jr. died in Memphis, Tenn. King was in Memphis to support sanitation workers on strike.
“We are remembering the work that went on,” she said, but also “responding to the attacks that are happening around the country.
“Who told anyone that they have the right to take away my voice?” asked Chrya Sanderson, president of the Education Support Staff Association of Fairbanks. She described collective bargaining as “the place where we get to say what we need.”
Sanderson’s voice was the loudest at the rally, echoing some of the anger union workers felt.
Kathy Dietrich from the Alaska State Employees Association warned the crowd that if unions become extinct, hard-earned rights could be taken away.
“Before you get too comfortable, look to Wisconsin or Ohio to see how easily it could change,” she said.
Former Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Sampson also took a turn at the podium. After leading a quick chant against Gatto’s legislation, he told members of the crowd to express themselves before efforts to dissolve union rights snowball.
The speakers were met by an enthusiastic crowd holding signs that read “You Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back” and “A Strong Middle Class = A Strong Economy.” From the back of an Alaska Teamsters 959 truck, the crowd was led in songs that included “This Land is Your Land,” “Alaska’s Flag” and “The Hammer Song.”
Contact reporter Reba Lean at 459-7523.
I have a somewhat different point of view.
I view the unions and the oil companies and all the rest of the interest groups who solicit money from the government as predators preying on the taxpayers. Just like on the plains of Africa, where the lions compete to eat members of the grazing herd aka taxpayers.
Each of these interest groups are in it for the money – the wages, the benefits ,the perks, the power and whatever else they could get out of the taxpayers whether it be a tax deduction, a tax exemption, , a tax write off, free housing, free tuition to a university, etc.
The national extortionist Association ( NEA) are after the money. The NEA organization exists only for the benefit of it's members even though they wrap themselves in the holier than thou cloak of "it is for the children". Yeah, sure it is for the children.
It seems to me, there is a fair and reasonable wage to be paid to public employees. However, that wage is not double or triple what people make in the private sector.
A good example is teachers wages. Private sector teacher here in Fairbanks make approximately $30,000 per year and their retirement is based on their Social Security payments. However, union teachers make about $90,000 per year.
Retired school teachers working as substitutes make approximately $120 per day doing the same job as union teachers do for approximately $450 per day.
Worse yet, graduates of the public school system when attempting to obtain a degree from the University of Alaska – are so poorly educated 70 to 75% of them never get a diploma.
At wage scale 3 times the private sector, we should expect something for our money – such as the students being able to obtain a diploma from one of the lowest-ranked universities in the United States.
I have a very straightforward solution to the problem: parents should pay out of their pocket the teachers wages.
Karl Marx, in the Communist Manifesto, says each should receive according to his own "need". However, I believe there was a translation error. The word "need" should be replaced with the word "greed".
Like many, I have no problem with private sector and trade unions. They did us all a great service by leading the fight for fair wages and safe work rules. But those changes have been codified into law for decades now, and instances of workplace harassment, discrimination, and abuse are punished easily in the court system, union or no union.
I also believe in the usefulness of collective bargaining in certain instances. It is granted as a privilege, not a right, and when it is abused, it should be taken away. Negotiating wages and benefits with someone you contributed money to is a conflict of interest, and with no one representing the taxpayers, (or their children, who will ultimately pay for the gold-plated retirement and healthcare benefits), it is certainly an abuse of the privilege, and it is definitely not bargaining.
Someone mentioned the GM takeover earlier in the comments. Right after the deal was done that screwed the bondholders and granted the UAW 55% of the equity in the new GM, there was a press conference where the union head was asked about his goals as the defacto owner of the company. He replied that they would be looking forward to a rapid return to profitability so that they could sell their holdings in GM stock. Does anyone get the irony of this union guy tacitly admitting that ownership of a union-dominated company is not a good long-term investment? Or that he wasn’t looking forward to negotiating with his former buds from the other side of the table?
I have nothing against teachers, and admire most of them. I would like to see them paid much more, considering we are entrusting them with our most valuable resource. They do a tough job in sometimes difficult environments. But the fact is that the quality of American K-12 education has been declining for decades, and the reason for this I lay directly at the feet of the National Education Association and their various support groups. One recent high-profile school reformer put forth a proposal to DOUBLE teacher pay if she could lay off the bottom 10% of teacher performers. The union wouldn’t even let their membership vote on it.
Even if I was doing nothing but sitting around collecting welfare , it would just mean that I'm a hypocrite, but still would not change the fact about unions fleecing the taxpayer.
I did poorly in school and worked under minimum wage for years with a shovel in my hand for quite a bit over 40 hours a week since a young teen and had the distinct pleasure of moving up the skill and money ladder because of some non-union " capitalist pig " who didn't retain the other guys saying " It's too haaaard ! " . I'm old and independent enough to work when I feel like it - don't need much sleep and can still put in long hours even for the most physically-taxing tasks.
And by the way, according the government ( not me ), it still owes me a few grand. It's staying off my back is well worth leaving it that way.
And I say " Hogwash ! " to your last paragraph. I didn't say public employees produce nothing. I'm saying that they help cause inflation , unemployment , and higher cost of living and what we get is a self-fructifying monster we are forced to pay in an amount that far exceeds what we get in return for it. I think it's the ultimate insult to suggest that the private sector couldn't survive or thrive without this bloated government. You may think we are just a bunch of ill-equipped bungling savages without this ' savior ' or ' Great Father ', but I can only pity you if you do. And do these angels who are supposedly caring for us have wings to differentiate them from us poor lost souls ?
I'm pretty sure that the ten billion dollars is not all at once all in one year all for one year's retirees. I admit that I don't know the methodology of the projection, but my educated guess is that the liability is probably calculated spread over decades for all past, present, and future retirees. It's still a lot of money.
Pot, meet kettle ... Don't want to be mean, but I had to ask. Maybe you had the day off, who knows.
It boggles the mind that some of you think public employees don't produce anything. Think of it as an avoided cost, or an avoided loss of productivity. Public employees develop and maintain infrastructure, without which the private sector couldn't realize the profits it does.
ok so you say 10 billion in PERS/TRS "liability". what exactly does that mean. because lets say every state worker makes 50,000 dollars a year on retirement from their pension. at 10 billion dollars means that you have 200,000 people on state retirement a year. and I just don't think that is true. considering we only have 700,000 people in 2009.
the other question I will ask again. has anyone asked the unions to give into their pension. walker wanted wisconsin to give to their pensions, they said no, and walker went after their rights. and I agree with that. but has anyone asked alaskans to give into their pensions? has anyone asked them to stop demanding and help solve the problem? because for the most part alaskan unions don't demand like in wisconsin.
once those two questions are answered you will never change my view on the subject. but I do like the strait forward questions, and the resonable responses
Comply with the law, attempt to reform Social Security to include private investment, but plan to never draw from it by making your own investments. Suggest investing in stocks that produce real things and reflect the true worth of their products (e.g. Ford, Conoco-Phillips, IBM, MMM, Caterpillar, Johnsons and Johnson, Apple, Prudhoe Bay Trust etc.); trade the stocks that are like smoke (e.g. Facebook).
Also, mine gold if you can. Having gold, small arms, and common ammunition is a very good hedge in "interesting times". Very tradable assets in small quantities.
I think that the rest of society will find that Social Security will also disappear. (I too am part of that system)
So two strikes against my security in my old age.
Lastly, I am lucky enough to have some money in the stock market. This money goes up and down at the whims of what???? It seems that the stocks no longer equate to value of a productive company. They vary due to unrest in the middle east or where ever.
Strike three regarding security.
What do you suggest Invictus?
A quick Bing turned up the figure of ten billion dollars of PERS/TRS liability in Alaska, as of a year ago. Coincidentally, ten billion dollars is the same as is in our reserves. Does Alaska want to spend every last penny that we have to secure the retirement system of our public employess? I'm guessing not.
http://www.adn.com/2010/05/20.1287725/state-should-start-saving-for-html.
Workers dues are abused by the leaders and funneled to the party that awards them lucrative contracts and favors. No better than the mafia. Thugs. Chicago way just as in D.C. Our Nation is crumbling before our eyes. The big O says we all must sacrifice. What a joker and puppet. Follow him to our own peril. Wake up America. Both parties have turned against the citizens. They have us divided to conquer us and take the heat off of themselves while they steal our wealth and morality.
I did not take into account PERS, but only because no one has put real numbers out about it. the only time I heard it come up was when the one congressman brought up the bill from wisconsin, which he in turn dropped. And I agree that if there is a problem we need to deal with it. but not only is alaska in a better shape than wisconsin, BUT better yet wisconsin asked and the unions said no. NOBODY has asked the unions to give up anything yet. everyone should remember that. once they ask, and the unions flat out reject them, I'm actually on the side of the government. and only if we are in debt, never when we're running a surplus.
but I think everyone has gotten ahead of that fact. has anyone asked the unions to give anything up here? and how are union memebers bankrupting our state, when we aren't in debt.
When you calculate the riches of the state of Alaska do you factor in future debts like PERS? Future state liabilities like PERS are what instigated the governments in other states, like Wisconsin, to try to change the states responsibility to public employees. Future obligations need to be considered here in Alaska, so in that regard we are not running in budget surpluses near as much as you express. Elected officials were very generous up here to our public employees during the good times. That bill has not yet come due.
All things considered though, you seem fairly level headed.
I know where they make their money. your making the same argument people did about murkowski getting money from natives, and they wanted to say the checks came strait from the government.
sorry it's a dumb statement. I know how the circle goes. but it's dumb to think that the same thing doesn't go on on the other side of the aisle. if you make your argument we can say that anyone who takes federal subsidies can not donate to campaigns.
I'll change it from lets get real, to wake up. this happens with every major company in the country. they all take subsidies. and therefore under your idea none of them should be able to donate to politicians. what does it not apply when republicans do it?
and under your idea no one that works for the government can donate to politicians. that would be unfair under your idea. so what happens if the union workers take their money and give it strait to the democrats because there is no union. do you think that is illegal too?
what do you think lobbiest do? unions are lobbiest for workers. just watched casino jack today about the lobbiest. it's the same thing. except one works for the employers, and one works for the employees. but remember all the major companies are taking government money these days. so they are all giving government money to politicians.
and union workers spending all the money on them eh? you do realize jobs are voted on, by the union memebers. its just like the government. if the workers don't like where their money is going, vote in someone who agrees with your ideas.
I'll say this again. unions are the same as lobbiest for big corperations. if they don't stand up for the workers who will combat the billions large corperations put towards lobbiest?
Thanks for the clarification. The article does not indicate time of day.
I have to disagree with your comment on tenure. Other occupations don't have tenure, and workers with seniority are not legally let go as a means to hire younger, lower paid workers. Tenure is unique to the education industry and it protects bad teachers.
The abuser hasn't changed, just the abused.
The problem with your view of productivity is that it is still in the confines of the mine . My view of productivity is in a universal sense , which is the actual sense of economics. You , like the abusive , inefficient employer at the original mine , are sharing the myopic view of productivity that that abusing employer capitalized on in the first place.
And if my view is a red-neck cracker-land one , then I'm in good company along with Friedric Bastiat , Ludwig von Mises , Henry Hazlitt , Milton Friedman , Thomas Sowell , Walter Williams and others.