Alaska IBEW Ramps Up Efforts for Pro-Worker Candidates

Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547 Communications Director Melinda Taylor says that while the labor movement didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, she:

Always kept the door open to us and our concerns. She understood the importance of using her office to create jobs for Alaskans and respected the role unions play in making our economy work.

From left to right, Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547 activists Melinda Taylor, Kathy Liegl, and Jackie Endsley with Alaska AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami.

Taylor contrasts this with Joe Miller. The Sarah Palin-backed candidate surprised many by upsetting Murkowski in the GOP primary in August.

Miller’s against Social Security, Medicare, project labor agreements and wants to make Alaska a right-to-work-for-less state.

Miller has also called for slashing federal aid to Alaska, aid that has been vital in creating good jobs and maintaining a decent infrastructure in this expansive and underdeveloped state.

State AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami, former business manager of Local 1547, told television KTUU:

Joe Miller is scary as a prospect for Alaskans because he wants to do away with all those things that [Sen.] Ted Stevens spent so many years fighting to develop our young state.

But Taylor says working families are lucky to have an alternative: Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams. Endorsed by the IBEW and the Alaska labor movement, Taylor says that McAdams:

Understands the challenges working families face in today’s economy. As a former union member himself, he has made clear that he would be a strong voice for workers on Capitol Hill.

Activists from Anchorage, Alaska, Local 1547 and the state AFL-CIO mobilized union members in support of pro-worker Sen. Mark Begich (center in blue jacket) in 2008.

And as mayor of Sitka – a small town in the Alaska panhandle – he has real experience with creating jobs and encouraging economic development, says Taylor.

Scott understands that the federal programs Miller wants to abolish have made Alaska what it is today, and that without them most Alaskans wouldn’t have a job.

The IBEW is also mobilizing behind former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz in his campaign to unseat incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell. Berkowitz has come out against right-to-work legislation, while Parnell has been silent on the issue.

Says Local 1547 Business Manager Larry Bell:

When we go to the polls, we have to make a choice. We need to know who stands for the things that are important to us – good jobs, decent benefits and retirement security – and those who want to take them away. McAdams and Berkowitz will stand up for us.

 

Photo used under a creative commons license from Flickr user AFL-CIO