Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
The Union trying to organize group University of Alaska support personnel is taking a step back. The Alaska State Employees Association has informed the 2,500-member group of employees, that it’s cancelled a union vote scheduled for this fall. ASEA Business Manager Jim Duncan says organizers aren’t giving up, but need more time to inform staff about unionization.
Duncan says the University has been putting out a lot of information about unionization, and that’s raised a lot of questions among effected staff.
Duncan says the ASEA will hold more meetings and send out mailings. He says it’s not unusual for unionization to take longer than anticipated, and that the ASEA will work to thoroughly answer all question before re-scheduling an election. Duncan says ASEA dues are based on a sliding scale according to salary and are only collected after collective bargaining agreement is hammered out. A chart shows that an employee that makes $50,000 dollars a year, would pay $640 in annual dues.
Download Audio (MP3)
