Alaska Beat

Slate looks at employee persuasion before oil-tax vote

A Slate article about big business influencing elections through employee persuasion turns an eye on Alaska and the role industry played in keeping Senate Bill 21 in place in August.

The story cites anonymous oil field workers who said they were fearful of losing jobs or work, including a contractor who tells of a required "safety standdown" meeting by ConocoPhillips at a North Slope site. Fearing an announcement about a workplace accident, the workers instead got a political message from a Conoco manager about the virtues of Senate Bill 21.

Other efforts included bussing employees to polls and email blasts to workers. Officials have maintained they don't tell employees how to vote. Writes Slate's Spencer Woodman, "The implication was clear: Vote against repeal or your industry and your livelihood will suffer."

The story delves into the Washington, D.C.-based Business-Industry Political Action Committee, also known as BIPAC. The organization was part of a training session in Anchorage in May to help train "firms seeking to politically engage their employees."

Helping organize the meeting was Senate Bill 21 supporter ProsperityAlaska, a local group founded by Scott Hawkins, president of Advanced Supply Chain International in Anchorage. Hawkins explained some of his group's ties to BIPAC in a recent Alaska Dispatch News story and floated the idea of stopping citizen initiatives that could hurt industry.

The Slate article says "BIPAC has particularly strong ties with ConocoPhillips -- in 2009, BIPAC held its western regional conference in ConocoPhillips' Anchorage offices."

Slate also reports that while Conoco was a key supporter of Senate Bill 21, and is a member of both BIPAC and ProsperityAlaska, a spokeswoman for Conoco said "it did not coordinate its campaign with either group. BP likewise said it has a relationship with BIPAC but did not use them for the campaign against Ballot Measure 1."

"ConocoPhillips does not make employment decisions based on an employee's views on a ballot measure," the firm's spokeswoman said. "ConocoPhillips believes strongly in individual participation in the democratic process regardless of a person's party affiliation or beliefs."

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Alex DeMarban

Alex DeMarban is a longtime Alaska journalist who covers business, the oil and gas industries and general assignments. Reach him at 907-257-4317 or alex@adn.com.

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