The Municipality of Anchorage has rejected a referendum petition that was aimed at stopping the city from collecting union dues directly from employee paychecks.
The application was rejected for two reasons. One is procedural. The main sponsor modified the application at the counter, after sponsors had signed it, crossing out a section and hand writing something else in. But even if that wouldn’t have happened, Deputy Municipal Attorney Dee Ennis says the application would have been rejected anyway because the method of collection of dues is an administrative issue not a larger policy issue.
“This initiative is about whether or not dues should be collected by payroll deduction,” Ennis said. “That is just too small of a matter to put on a ballot. The larger policy issue here is what’s called the right to work, and that is whether employees have the right to decide for themselves whether or not to join a union or pay dues to get a job.”
“The question for these sponsors is whether they want to change the initiative to get a large policy question on the ballot.”
Michael Chambers is the vice-chair of the Alaska Libertarian Party and a spokesperson for the Anchorage Tea Party. He signed onto the application for the referendum and says the group plans to revise their application.
“If the city is rejecting is only because it is too narrow then I would suggest that we should have some recourse in that regard to find out how broad the measure needs to be,” Chambers said.
The Municipality employs about 3,000 workers. About 2,000 hold union positions and are required to pay union dues.
Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
