KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Municipal Election Day is less than a week away, and in addition to voting for school board, borough mayor, assembly and city council, residents inside Kodiak city limits will face a ballot initiative asking them to eliminate the prohibition on city employee unionization. A similar measure a year ago failed by just 17 votes.
Kodiak City Manager Aimee Kniaziowski and Public Safety Employees Association Executive Director Jake Metcalf were on KMXT’s Talk of the Rock Tuesday debating the issue.
You can hear more of the Talk of the Rock conversation between Kniaziowski and Metcalf online, here.
Metcalf says the union push came from concerns employees of the Kodiak Police Department had about working conditions:
— (Union 1 49 sec "We are acting on the behalf … at the police department.")
Kniaziowski said the position of the Kodiak City Council is that if city employees did unionize, it would place a financial burden on the city:
— (Union 2 52 sec "We have a healthy, but stable … enough hours in the day.")
The advertising campaign the city hired an Anchorage firm to produce stresses that the union is an outside entity and that maintaining local control would be lost if the voters pass Prop 1. Metcalf disputes that claim:
— (Union 3 50 sec "If this is passed and the … can do it in negotiations.")
Kniaziowski says the issue is not as simple as allowing employees the right to unionize. She says the measure language is complicated and vague:
— (Union 4 53 sec "I don’t believe that the council’s … so it’s very unclear.")
This measure will appear on the ballot Tuesday for voters inside Kodiak City limits.
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