Hungry for Change, Alaska Union Members Write Their Senators

AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff joined 1,200 IBEW union leaders in Alaska, where he found lots of support for America’s union movement and our efforts to pass legislation that will level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions. 

One of the most important keys to the passage and enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act is the ongoing mobilization of worksite activists, leaders and shop stewards. 

Currently, several unions are either building or putting the finishing touches on their worksite activist structures to mobilize for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act—among them, the Electrical Workers (IBEW).

Last spring, AFL-CIO Voice@Work Director Fred Azcarate and I were happy to hold a steward’s training on the Employee Free Choice Act for 1,200 leaders in the IBEW. After that training, Larry Bell, business manager of IBEW Local 1547 in Anchorage, asked me to come to Alaska to train 250 shop stewards from across the state to discuss why the Employee Free Choice Act is the number one priority of America’s union movement and to outline steps we need to take to ensure its passage. 

I jumped at the chance to go. 

Last Friday, I did a two-hour training for 220 IBEW shop stewards from around Alaska. Before the training, Vince Beltrami, president of the Alaska State AFL-CIO, secured guest spots for the two of us on the three most popular radio programs in Alaska. In two days, Vince and I spent about four hours on the air in the media market that covers half of the residents of Alaska. 

We talked about the economic crisis facing America’s families and how the middle-class squeeze keeps tightening its grip on us. We talked about the destruction of our freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. We talked about the ongoing assault by the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on America’s workers and their unions. 

On each radio show, I was surprised by how positive the calls were and how warmly we were received. We all need to remind ourselves over and over that workers want unions and the public values the role of our labor movement.

With 24 percent union density, Alaska has nearly as much union power as any other state in the nation. Unfortunately, both of Alaska’s senators, Lisa Murkowski (R) and Ted Stevens (R), voted against the Employee Free Choice Act in June. 

By the end of the training on Friday, IBEW worksite leaders in Alaska were ready to take action. They wrote letters to Murkowski and Stevens on the spot. This week, Beltrami, Bell and a community of workers will hand-deliver 205 letters to the Anchorage offices of Sens. Stevens and Murkowski.

Many of those letters are from IBEW members who voted for one or both of these senators—like the letter from Don Middleton (see image at top).

Just like the IBEW worksite leaders of Alaska, we all need to keep the heat on our senators and members of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act so that once again, U.S. workers can enjoy the freedom to form unions and the opportunity to bargain for a better way of life and a stronger middle class.

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