City utility workers union authorizes strike

The union will announce today when its members plan to walk out, Dunnagan said. The strike won't happen today, he said

The union's position is that a vote to strike doesn't have to lead to an actual walkout, if the city goes to court right away to seek an order that would send them back to work, Dunnagan said.

If a judge orders workers back to their jobs, then the decision on the contract itself would be in the hands of that judge. City attorney Dennis Wheeler has said a judge is likely to accept contract terms recommended by an arbitrator, who decided in favor of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 367 on pay issues.

If union members do strike, the city will immediately seek a court order to get them back to work, Mayor Dan Sullivan said Wednesday.

"Our goal if there is a strike is to have it be as brief as possible," he said.

If there were a short strike, the mayor said, it wouldn't necessarily have much impact. Supervisors would be on the job.

A longer strike would more problematic, city officials have said. AWWU doesn't have enough qualified, non-union staffers to operate the water and wastewater plants safely for more than two days, acting general manager John McAleenan said this week.

The possibility of a strike arose because the city and union couldn't agree on wage increases for a new contract.

So they asked an independent arbitrator for a decision.

The arbitrator's report said the AWWU employees are underpaid compared to workers with similar jobs at other utilities. The city's last best offer to the union was too low, concluded the arbitrator. He accepted the union proposals for wage increases instead.

But the Anchorage Assembly Tuesday night rejected the arbitrator's decision.

When an arbitrator decides contract provisions for a city union like the Plumbers and Pipefitters whose workers hold jobs critical to health and safety, the Assembly must vote it up or down with no changes. And there must be at least eight votes in favor to accept it, a super-majority of the 11-member Assembly.

The Assembly vote Tuesday night was 7-4 to in favor of accepting the decision.

The no votes were Adam Trombley, Jennifer Johnston, Chris Birch and Bill Starr.

Trombley said in the administration's last best offer, "I see guaranteed raises. I see guaranteed benefits. I see guaranteed jobs."

Johnston said she was voting against it because the arbitrator's version would continue the "service recognition" program, extra pay for longevity, which the Assembly, in its guidelines to the administration, has asked the city to get rid of.

DickTraini, who voted for the deal, said turning it down didn't make sense because of the process that follows, sending the matter to a judge who is likely to accept the arbitrator's decision.

Traini compared Assembly rejection of the arbitrator decision to a game of Russian Roulette, in which people load a bullet into a six-cylinder gun chamber, and pull the trigger, hoping the bullet isn't in the wrong slot.

"We're about to load all six cylinders and hope for a different result," he said.

Before the Assembly voted, a stream of AWWU union members spoke to the Assembly about what they do: keep the water treatment facility operating overnight, repair broken lines, add chemicals to the water, and on and on.

The arbitrator's decision called for a total of more than $3 million in increases for the workers over three years. The city's last best offer would give them about $1 million in increased pay. There are more than 120 Plumbers and Pipefitters Union members at AWWU, and another 17 or so elsewhere in city government, say city officials.

The city offered increases averaging 1.68 percent per year, according to a memo prepared by a city executive. The arbitrator's award is estimated at 4.79 percent per year, though it depends on the cost-of-living index.

Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.