Alaska News

Former Alaska union official convicted of forgery

Skye Rubadeau McRoberts, the former union organizer charged with forging signatures and altering documents in 2010 to garner support for the unionization of about 1,500 University of Alaska employees, was convicted Monday of forgery in the second degree in Anchorage.

McRoberts was sentenced to three years on felony probation and to pay $25,248 in restitution to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development and $9,094 to the University of Alaska. McRoberts has already paid half of the restitution, according to a news release.

McRoberts worked as a union organizer for Alaska State Employees Association (ASEA), which represents more than 8,000 union members in Alaska. In order to unionize, at least 30 percent of the workers in a proposed bargaining unit must express interest. To show their support, workers fill out cards with their basic information and their signatures. McRoberts was found guilty of forging hundreds of the cards and submitting them to the Alaska Labor Relations Agency.

The forgery was brought to light by a data-processing employee at ASEA who noticed many of the cards were written in the same color ink and with the same handwriting.

The employee told investigators McRoberts stood to profit from the unionization of university employees, as McRoberts owned a business called Grizzly Mail and Print Services, which handled the mailings of ballots and newsletters to ASEA's members, and her business would likely increase had the unionization gone forward.

Read more about the story behind the conviction.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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