The Anchorage Assembly continued hearing testimony on two proposals about when to hold a vote whether a controversial labor ordinance should be overturned.
More than 30 people turned out to testify on the issue. Most were in favor of putting the issue on the ballot sooner rather than later. Union member Jason Alward was one of them.
“Kicking the can down the road as elected officials of our community in this case would be disgraceful. Please support an election on this matter in April of 2014.”
That’s when the next municipal election is scheduled. The alternative proposal schedules a vote after April elections but no later than April 2015. Whether the issue will appear on the ballot at all awaits an Alaska Supreme Court decision, which labor officials say the court has agreed to expedite. The labor ordinance passed last March, but was suspended in September after unions gathered more than 22-thousand signatures. The labor law takes away municipal workers right to strike and restricts collective bargaining rights. In a surprise move at the close of the hearing, Assembly member Dick Traini introduced an a new ordinance that would repeal the controversial labor law in it’s entirety and reinstate the original law. The assembly postponed voting on the on the proposals but could do so at their next regular meeting October 22nd.
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.
