RUTHFULLY YOURS

After first receiving a tip from a reader regarding a warning issued against the Alaska Public Employee Supervisers Union for their improperly campaigning against Senate candidate Joe Miller, a call to Robert Pearson of Alaska’s Department of Administration produced a copy of the offending email, see further below.

This first communique was sent in response to “several” complaints from Alaska State workers regarding the improper union communication.

From: Commissioners Office, DOA (DOA sponsored)

Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 3:06 PM

To: SOA All SU Union members
Cc: Ludwig, Bruce (DOA sponsored); Brooks, Kevin A (DOA); Beecher, Carol L (DOA)

Subject: Election Email Follow-up‬

Dear SU Member,

Several of you wrote expressing concern about an email that was sent by your union on Thursday, October 28, 2010 with the subject line “Vote Tuesday November 2nd!” Article 9.12 of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) stipulates that union emails regarding pending legislation or in-progress partisan election campaigns shall be non-positional. The State’s position is that the email violated this article of the CBA.

I asked Deputy Commissioner Kevin Brooks to meet with union representatives to explain the State’s position. He did and advised the Business Manager that further infractions could result in restriction of access to the State’s email system. It’s important that you know we follow the CBA in resolving these issues and I appreciate those who brought the matter to light.

Annette Kreitzer
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

While Alaska’s public employee collective bargaining agreement allows for the SU to use email for purposes of political communication, said emails are not to be positional in nature. Given the dynamics of the 2010 Alaska Senate race, it was the Department of Administration’s opinion that the following communication, sent out to approximately 2,000 state supervisers, violated the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

In effect, this represents the Alaskan State Supervisers Union actively campaigning for the candidate most likely to deliver more national tax dollars back to their state, as opposed to one who would foster the most in state economic growth. And it is, in effect, being done with tax payer dollars.

From: Peggy Wilcox [mailto:pwilcox@apea-aft.org]

Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 1:14 PM

To: White, John H (DFG)

Subject: Vote Tuesday November 2nd!

Hello SU,

In many communities, early voting is already open.

http://www.elections.alaska.gov/vi_ea_ev_site_genr.php

(scroll down for a complete list of locations)

In this election we will be electing:

* the Legislature who will decide whether we return to a defined benefit retirement system.

* the Governor who will appoint the Commissioner of Administration.

* the US Representative & Senator who will decide whether or not Alaska needs federal money, or if we should go it on our own.

Alaska has a history of elections being won or lost by 1-2-3-4 votes, or a coin flip!

Your vote matters!

If you would like to know who your Employee Political Information Committee

(EPIC) has endorsed you can go to:

http://www.epicweb.org/2010endorsementsG.html

EPIC makes endorsements on a non partisan issue based platform.  These are the candidates who support a return to a defined benefit retirement system.

For more information on the candidates running in your area, or of the other issues on the ballot – there are 2 bonds and one constitutional amendment- please take the time to go over the election pamphlet:

http://www.elections.alaska.gov/pub_oep.php

The pamphlets are separated into regions.

*     Region 1 includes Southeast Alaska, Cordova, Kodiak Island, Kenai

Peninsula Borough and Western Cook Inlet

*     Region 2 includes the Municipality of Anchorage, most of the

Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Whittier and Hope

*     Region 3 includes Fairbanks and Greater Fairbanks Area, Central and

Southern Interior Alaska, Greater Valdez and Eastern Matanuska-Susitna Borough

*     Region 4 includes Northern Alaska, Western Coastal Alaska and the

Aleutians

Politics matter.

Your vote could directly affect your pay, your benefits, and your retirement.

There is a fact sheet on the union at http://doa.alaska.gov/dop/fileadmin/LaborRelations/pdf/buprofiles/APEA.pdf

The contacts for the Union in question are:

Alaska Public Employees Association – APEA – (SU)

211 Fourth Street, Ste. 306
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 586-2334
Fax: 463-4980
www.apea-aft.org Bruce Ludwig – Business Manager bludwig@apea-aft.org Pete Ford – SE Regional Manager pford@apea-aft.org Angie Parker – Field Representative aparker@apea-aft.org