Five linemen and one power plant operator working for Alaska Power & Telephone are considering unionizing and joining the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Conversations about joining started in July when someone from the company reached out to the IBEW to find out more about joining, said the union’s Assistant Business Manager Jesse Young.
Attempts to reach local linemen who are considering unionizing were unsuccessful and a spokesperson from AP&T said the company does not want to comment on the effort.
But Young said he’s met with people in Haines and Skagway to talk about the potential benefits of joining the union since July. He said workers have not really been critical of the workplace.
“They like working at AP&T,” Young said. “It wasn’t that they didn’t like the company or … that they needed to make big changes in the company.”
Rather, they’re looking for better benefits.
“Their main thoughts and concerns were retiring with dignity. They have an employee match for retirement but IBEW has one of the largest defined benefit pensions,” he said.
Additionally, they want access to quality training that covers Alaska-specific hazards and scenarios and, Young said, some were interested in healthcare.
“We have a better healthcare plan that’s less cost to the company and to the employee with better coverage,” he said.
Young said he reached out to AP&T President and CEO Bill Marks to let him know that the union was talking to members and to ask if the company would voluntarily recognize a union.
“He came back and said, ‘Hey, we appreciate you reaching out; let’s go through an election,’” Young said.
So, the IBEW and AP&T started the process of negotiating who should be included in a potential union – they excluded supervisors – and how long the voting process should take.
At first, the idea was to do a one-day, in-person election. But Young said that causes issues for people who have to travel, especially in the fall. The two agreed on a mail-in ballot which went out in late October.
“So that is longer than normal,” he said.
But he said the longer voting period accommodates apprentices who were attending training classes in Florida and the journeymen who had time off planned for the hunting season.
“Living the Southeast Alaska lifestyle requires a unique commitment, and we recognize that reality,” Young said.
In order for the union to form successfully, four out of the six possible members must vote in favor of it.
The National Labor Relations Board manages the elections, which are done by secret ballot, meaning that individual employees’ votes will not be revealed. The board also sets rules for conducting fair and honest elections, which include specifically prohibiting interference, coercion and threats by the employer. Those rules can be found at www.nlrb.gov or by calling 206-220-6300.
After the vote, if a union is formed, negotiating teams from both sides sit down and work to come up with a contract.
In a shop this size, Young said that a realistic timeline could be three to six months, though they have a year to finish the process.
One common question Young said he hears from potential new members is that people worry they’ll get paid less once everyone sits down at the negotiating table. But he emphasized that negotiating a contract does not start from zero.
“Where they are now is the starting point for negotiations. If [the company] tries to go backwards – that’s bargaining in bad faith,” he said.
But the main thing Young said he wanted people to know is that the workers at AP&T trying to unionize like where they are working.
“They just want what everybody else wants. They want a safe workplace. They want to retire with dignity,’ he said. “They want to stick around after they retire and they need to be able to afford to do that.”