News from the Senate Majority

Alaska State Legislature

Wendy Lindskoog, Senate Majority Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
Phone: 907/465-4582
web site at http://www.akrepublicans.org
Broadcast Actualities: 800/478-6540

For Immediate Release: April 21, 1997 Contact: Senate Finance Committee at 907/465-4993

Senate Votes to Safeguard Employee Rights by Modernizing Public Employment Relations Act

Juneau -- The Alaska State Senate Majority passed legislation Monday by a vote of 12 to 7 to modernize the Public Employment Relations Act (PERA).

Senate Bill 151, sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee, takes necessary steps to protect employee rights and enhance employer efficiency by modifying a law that has hardly changed in 25 years.

In 1972 the Alaska legislature passed PERA to ensure that decisions are made jointly between the employer and the employee. This law, based on a sixty-year-old federal law is no longer adequate to protect the rights of employers and employees in the modern workplace.

"This legislation will make public employee unions in Alaska subject to much the same rules as private sector craft unions," said Senator Taylor (R-Wrangell). "It’s not about taking rights away from state employees. It’s about making their rights the same as those Alaskans who belong to other unions."

"The current law is outdated and fails to meet the needs of today’s modern workplace. By revising the law, we ensure there is an arms-length relationship between public employee unions and public employers as required in the private sector," said Senator Drue Pearce (R-Anchorage).

Recent court cases challenging the dues structure imposed by many public unions revealed the need for modernizing the law. Currently, employees have little say in how their dues are spent. This becomes a source of contention when the political or social affiliation of the union and the employee conflicts, and the employee is compelled to pay fees that are not reasonably related to the cost of representation.

Opponents have claimed this is a right to work law. "Nothing could be further from the truth," Taylor said. "This, in fact, is a right to know law!"

The new legislation would not strip the union’s rights to charge service fees for collective bargaining to determine wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment. It would, however, let employees choose if they want to pay the additional cost of participation in the union’s social, fraternal or political activities.

Currently, most of the public employee unions, unlike private unions, are simply unregulated corporations. They are not required to open their internal affairs to their members.

Through this legislation, Senate Majority members are seeking to open union financial dealings so that employees and the public can know how dues are spent. This will make the unions more accountable to the public and to the people they serve.

Some of the changes to the Public Employment Relations Act made by Senate Bill 151 include:

• Will require that public employee unions do the following: register with the Department of Labor and file their constitution and bylaws; list their officers and qualifications for office; publish their dues and service fee structures; provide qualifications for voting in election of union officers and other vital information.
• Will require that all members of the bargaining unit (those who pay dues), not just members, can vote on contract ratification’s and amendments to contracts.
• Will establish rules for open, secret ballot elections for union office and other union business.
• Will prohibit payments, business dealings or contributions by unions to public officials if the intent is to influence the outcome of a negotiation, grievance or arbitration.
• Will prohibit payments, business dealings or contributions by public employers to unions if the intent is to influence union activities or to interfere with an employee’s rights guaranteed by PERA.
• Will establish rules for fiduciary responsibility of union officers and employees.

Senate Bill 151 will now move the House of Representatives for consideration..

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