Alaska Congressman Don Young has enjoyed a lot of support from organized labor over the years. Now, two maritime unions are endorsing his leading Democratic opponent. They blame Young for staying silent while a non-union company is poised to win the contract for escorting tankers through Prince William Sound. Young calls the accusation against him malarkey.
“It’s with great pleasure that the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific endorse Mr. Lindbeck for Congress,” said union president Alan Cote, at Steve Lindbeck’s campaign office in Anchorage on Thursday. “He reached out to us as a candidate to express his concerns about the impending change in Valdez, with the Edison Chouest slated to take over the escort and oil spill response services provided by Alyeska.”
Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore uses non-union labor. Its critics say switching to a new company, with an flawed safety record, is a risk for Prince William Sound. Edison Chouest is also a big campaign contributor to Young. Its owner and employees have contributed more than $250,000 to Young in the past decade.
Lindbeck, a former general manager of Alaska Public Media, is making a campaign issue of it.
“When a Louisiana company plans to replace Alaska workers and outsource jobs to Louisiana, that’s an issue for Alaska and its leaders,” Lindbeck said. “When Congressman Don Young takes nearly $300,000 from that Louisiana comapny and then looks the other way, we should speak up.”
Young wasn’t in chatty mood in his D.C. office when asked about Lindbeck and his new-found union support.
“So, what’s he talking about?” Young said, before changing the subject. “This is all bull —-, as you know.”
Young’s campaign manager, Jerry Hood, says it’s strange the unions and Lindbeck are pointing fingers at Young. Hood says it’d be wrong for a congressman to intervene in a private industry contract award. And Hood says the unions only asked for Young’s help after they complained to the press that he wasn’t helping.
“They met with myself and another member of Young’s staff and we politely explained that it violates ethics provisions and we couldn’t even ask him to do that,” Hood recounted.
Hood, a former top executive for the Alaska Teamsters, says there’s no reason to assume that unions will lose out if Chouest wins the contract for the Alyeska Pipeline terminal.
“Chouest may be non-union now. They’re going to have to employ a vast number of the exisiting employees. They’d be unwise if they didn’t,” Hood said. “And then the union has the opportunity to go and organize that company and put that under a union contract.”
Don Marcus, president of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, says every Alaska official should be scrutinizing the contract change.
“And when you look at the measure and the volume of political contributions in this situation by Edison Chouest, it’s simply outrageous.”
The two maritime unions have contributed only $21,000 to Young since 2000, according to the Lindbeck campaign. But, as a whole, transportation unions have given Young more than $800,000 over the years, dwarfing the contributions of any one company.
Graelyn Brashear contributed to this story from Anchorage.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her atlruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Lizhere.
