Alaska
University of Alaska staff vote to unionize
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (ALASKA BEACON) – University of Alaska staff announced a vote to form a union on Wednesday. The union would represent 2,300 permanent staff across the three universities and a dozen community campuses, Corinne Smith with the Alaska Beacon reports.
Staff voted to form the union Coalition of Alaska University Staff for Equity, or CAUSE, which would be part of the national United Auto Workers union, in a 1,106 to 610 vote, with 64% voting yes.
UA staff that would be represented by the union include student services staff, researchers, fiscal and administrative staff, development staff, science communicators, information systems specialists, library workers, athletics coaches and many others, according to a statement announcing the vote.
“Amid growing uncertainty around state and federal funding for the University, staff cited several reasons for forming a union: consistency and competitiveness in pay and benefits; greater transparency in promotion, career development, and retention; fair workload; and more,” the statement said.
“This is an exciting day for staff at UA,” said Mike DeLue, a researcher with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in the emailed statement.
“We did our research, discussed and debated, and overwhelmingly chose to unionize. As soon as the result is certified, we’re ready to sit down with the University and work constructively on addressing the issues that motivated us to form a union in the first place. Improving our working conditions will help us serve more students, enhance UA’s research capacity, and support Alaska communities,” he said.
The results of the union vote are expected to be certified on April 8, barring any objections or challenges filed by either of the parties, said Jonathon Taylor, director of UA public affairs, by email on Wednesday.
Taylor also cited financial uncertainty as one of the reasons the university opposed the union effort, which he said was communicated to employees ahead of the vote.
“The university opposed unionization because we believed it would reduce flexibility, slow decision-making, and limit our ability to respond to financial uncertainty,” he said. “That position was operational, not ideological.”
“UA respects the outcome and the right of staff to organize,” he said by email. “We’ll be bargaining in good faith with CAUSE-UAW in accordance with Alaska labor law.”
Taylor noted that existing wages and working conditions will remain in place while the contract is negotiated. He said initial contracts take roughly 400 days to negotiate. He said a 3% salary increase the university requested of the Alaska State Legislature in next year’s budget for all unionized and non-union staff will not apply to the new union members since they are in the process of forming the union and have not yet negotiated a new contract.
“Under Alaska labor law and case law, a contract with a bargaining unit must be in place for negotiated raises to be requested and approved by the legislature,” he said. Taylor said the issue was communicated to staff ahead of the union vote.
“Non-represented staff remain eligible for that increase,” he said.
But Charlie Banks, an organizer for the union effort and an academic advisor with the University of Alaska Anchorage, said Thursday that it is the university’s choice, and the new union members should be eligible.
“We believe that the university has the ability to issue the pay increases to us,” she said in a phone interview.
She said support for salary increases is also a show of support for retaining staff, which she says is a common goal of both the union and the university.
“We agree with university admins concerns about difficulties with recruitment and retention. One of the main reasons for this is that Alaska is not keeping up with its peers in maintaining competitive packages for workers,” she said. “Not surprisingly, our peer institutions that have staff unions have much stronger recruitment tools because their contracts are responsive to their needs.”
The new staff union follows the 2024 unionization of UA graduate workers to form the Alaska Graduate Workers Association within the United Auto Workers Local 1907. The union represents graduate teaching assistants, researchers and fellows. They bargained their first three-year contract within 96 days, which secured higher pay, an updated grievance process and a change from at-will to just-cause employment, according to reporting from the student-run newspaper The Northern Light.
The new staff union joins the national UAW union, which includes approximately 120,000 higher education workers across the country, including staff at the University of Washington and University of California.
This story has been republished with permission from the Alaska Beacon.
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A bill seeking to increase civil legal aid for Alaskans who can’t afford attorneys has become law without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature.
The measure, introduced by Juneau Democratic Rep. Sara Hannan, passed earlier this month with support from 27 out of 40 House members and 17 of 20 Senate members.
Under the new law, one-quarter of court system filing fees can be appropriated each year to an existing civil legal services fund, which subsidizes attorneys for low-income Alaskans who need legal representation in civil cases.
In effect, that will direct roughly $400,000 in additional state funding next year toward those legal services, potentially allowing hundreds of additional indigent Alaskans to receive free assistance on matters that include domestic violence protective orders, applications for government benefits, and child support.
The civil legal services fund was created in 2007 and updated in 2018, when lawmakers agreed to appropriate up to 10% of annual court fees toward the fund. Since then, the need for legal aid has outpaced the state’s spending, according to Hannan and other supporters of the measure.
A similar bill passed the Senate but stalled in the House near the end of the 2024 session.
Recent annual appropriations to the fund, which depend on court filing fees and other figures, ranged from $280,000 to $360,000. The new law will more than double the allowable annual appropriation from court filing feeds the fund, to a total of $766,000, according to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development.
The funding goes toward the Alaska Legal Services Corp., the only organization in the state dedicated to assisting low-income Alaskans with civil matters. The nonprofit corporation reported this year turning away half the Alaskans who asked for its help due to a lack of resources.
It reported handling 5,455 cases involving nearly 15,000 Alaskans in 2025, up from 2,880 cases involving just over 6,000 Alaskans in 2016.
The Alaska Legal Services Corp. has an annual budget of roughly $10 million, only a fraction of which comes from the state. Other funding sources include the federal government, tribes and private donations. In addition to its allocation from the civil legal services fund, the corporation has received an annual $400,000 state grant since 2022, down from $450,000 in preceding years.
The corporation’s director, Maggie Humm, estimated that for every additional $100,000 in funding, it can help 182 additional Alaskans.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Williwaw Social, a downtown Anchorage entertainment venue that hosted concerts, parties and community events for nearly 10 years, announced on Facebook that it will close its doors on Friday.
In a post from the venue’s official account, Williwaw Social thanked Anchorage residents, artists, staff and guests for supporting the business over the past decade. The announcement described the venue as a gathering place for live music, celebrations, rooftop events and nightlife in downtown Anchorage.
The post did not state a reason for the closure.
Showdown Alaska, which has partnered with Williwaw Social for events, posted a separate statement saying the closure came as a surprise to its team. The organization clarified that Showdown Alaska and Williwaw Social are separate entities that operate independently.
Showdown Alaska said its Sundown Summer Concert Series will continue as scheduled on F Street. In the caption of its post, the organization said Drake Night and Showdown Throwdown will be rescheduled at new venues, and ticket holders will receive more information by email.
Williwaw Social’s announcement thanked Anchorage for its support and described the closure as the end of a chapter for the venue.
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Avalanche forecasters say spring’s slow-moving arrival in Southcentral Alaska has led to potentially dangerous conditions for hikers heading into the mountains for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The Friends of Chugach Avalanche Center posted an alert Thursday warning of a large slide blocking the road to the Crow Pass trailhead in Girdwood. Many popular trails within the Chugach National Forest, such as Byron Glacier and Crow Pass, continue to pose an avalanche hazard risk “as we can’t quite shake this cold, wet spring,” according to the alert from the nonprofit group affiliated with the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center.
Avalanche forecasters last week warned hikers to be aware of numerous large avalanches releasing as spring conditions slowly arrived. Trails will continue to be dangerous as long as there’s snow covering higher terrain, they said.
“One of the biggest hazards during spring is not just traveling on steep slopes, but traveling below them,“ the avalanche center wrote in an alert last month. ”Many popular summer trails pass directly beneath avalanche paths. As temperatures warm, the snowpack weakens and avalanches can release naturally, running all the way to valley bottoms and across trails that appear dry and safe.“
The avalanches can carry heavy, wet snow “capable of burying a person, even far from where the slide started,” the alert said.
The forecast for the Anchorage area calls for continued cool, mostly cloudy and occasionally rainy weather with the potential for sun on Monday.
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