~The President of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka in Alaska protesting Remington’s illegal treatment of Anchorage workers  in August of 2010.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess’s 34-page injunction was issued late Friday. Among other items, it includes provisions requiring Remington Lodging and Hospitality to restore paid lunch breaks and employer-paid health care and reduce housekeepers’ daily quota of cleaned rooms.

Remington is the Texas-based operator of the Sheraton hotel in Anchorage. This injunction came over five months after a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge found in favor of the obvious – that the hotel had violated numerous federal labor laws, trying to squash its workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 878.

What this means now, said AFL-CIO Alaska President Vince Beltrami at a press conference today,  is that the management of the Sheraton will now have to “admit they were wrong, and go back to when this all started, before they started breaking the law.”  The injunction will require the hotel to restore the terms and conditions of employment as they existed prior to the hotel’s unlawful declaration of impasse in union negotiations. This victory comes after almost three years of struggle by Sheraton workers to protect their benefits, their working conditions and their union from the illegal and unfair practices of Remington.

The victory also comes because of appointments to the NLRB last month, which increased the number of board members to the point where the previously crippled board could now make some actual decisions. Alaskan labor organizations who supported Lisa Murkowski (write-in R) over Scott McAdams (D) in the 2010 senate race must be used to that bitter taste in their mouths by now, so the latest pill to swallow shouldn’t really come as any surprise. The “free and unshackled” Lisa Murkowski, who now supposedly isn’t tied to Republican dictates and is no longer a toady of Mitch McConnell, is one of the 39 Republican senators who signed a letter opposing those appointments and vowing to join a lawsuit opposing them.

How’s that free and unshackled Lisa working out for you guys?

Yeah.

To date, there have been over 40 unfair labor practice charges against Sheraton management, 2o of which are still outstanding.  Remington has even filed two meritless lawsuits – one against the union and  one against the NLRB itself. The ongoing boycott of both the Sheraton and the Hilton will continue, as will the frequent picket lines and marches, and an overwhelming amount of support from the Anchorage community. We don’t like to see our residents, who do some of the hardest and most thankless work in the hospitality industry treated unjustly and illegally by some outside goons from Texas. No, we don’t.

Local 878 represents over 1,400 hospitality workers from all across the state of Alaska.

~One of the Sheraton’s illegally fired workers, who will be happy to begin negotiations again. Marvin Jones, President of Local 878 stands behind her.

~Pastor Glenn Peterson

Pastor Glenn Peterson from Central Lutheran Church spoke passionately today in favor of the workers and their rights. “Jesus,” he said, “is on the side of the workers. This is about greed, and the Lord of the church is against greed. It is one of the seven deadly sins, and we should all speak out against it.” He went on to say that if Remington was listening, he hoped that they would learn a lesson – “respect your workers.”

~Alaska AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami addresses the media

We’ve had several occasions to bust our buttons here at The Mudflats over the last few years. Readers and those in the blogging and journalism communities have been kind to us with various honors and praise over the years.

But today is an especially proud one for us. Our very own Shannyn Moore is taking her radio program to the other coast! The Shannyn Moore Show will now broadcast its first hour live as it happens in our nation’s capital! The over-saturated right wing airwaves and the bloviators who inhabit them love to talk about how Shannyn has “12 listeners.” It’s become a running joke in the progressive community to talk about these faithful dozen as Shannyn has appeared on national TV, substituted hosted for national radio programs with more than a million listeners, gotten a column in the Anchorage Daily News, hosted her own television show which is now in its third season, and contributed her wit and wisdom right here at the Mudflats.

With her amazing talents and abilities, it was only a matter of time before she achieved the national nod she so deserves. Nobody keeps Shannyn in the upper-left corner.

Not only will she be able to share her unique take on national issues, she’ll also be able to bring critical Alaskan issues to the attention of a much wider (and occasionally more influential) audience. This is very good news, indeed.

What that means logistically in Alaska is that The Shannyn Moore Show has now changed time slots and can be heard live from 6-9pm on KOAN 1020am. Same station, new time. The other good news is that it’s now socially acceptable to listen to Shannyn while curled up with a fuzzy blanket, and a glass of wine. Your boss never has to know.

In the meantime, Shannyn’s old time slot will now be taken over by yet MORE right wing nutjobbery in the form of Dan Fagan. And he’s given his old one hour time slot from noon to 1pm on KFQD to… (wait for it)… The Party Planner! Yes, Mayor Dan Sullivan’s “party planner” will be live and taking your calls during “Alaska Live With Bernadette.” It would be so easy to continue snarking, but today belongs to someone else.

Congratulations, Shannyn. Nobody knows better than us here at The Mudflats how hard you have worked, and how much you deserve this honor. And just as we did when you first went on the air at KOAN, we’re dusting off the happiest radio clip we could find. Here to salute you and commemorate your live DC debut are the yip-yips and their classic homage to the radio. It just became a bigger and happier place for you, and for Alaska.

By Elstun Lauesen

Ring the Bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
— Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Alaskans seem frozen in place. After a promising beginning 54 years ago, we established a solid foundation for our state. Now, after a pipeline and a new demographic of Lower 48 immigrants we are in the second semester of our first century and we feel lost. Where do we go from here? I think we are high centered on some barriers to self-knowledge. The Oracle of Delphi said to ‘know thyself’ is the first order of understanding the mysteries of life. Well, maybe the same is true about understanding the future of Alaska. Here are 10 key questions to think about in connection to our future.

1. How can we build a future that we cannot envision?

What will Alaska be like in 50 years? I have tried to think about this and it’s hard. The best way to go about this is to just let yourself freely imagine what you WANT the future to be like; don’t over-think it; just be spontaneous. What you envision not only reveals a lot about you, it can influence our choices.

2. How can we manage what we do not understand?

There are huge technological, social and economic changes on the way. We have an obligation to keep educating ourselves. That’s what Thomas Jefferson meant by ‘enlightened self-government.’ If we understand future trends as well as we understand football trends, for instance, Alaska would be the most forward-looking state in the Union.

3. How can we do the right thing when our only models are wrong?

Joe Vogler, Founder of the Alaska Independence Party, used to say, “I don’t give a damn how they do it Outside.” Since the massive immigration into Alaska after the Pipeline, all these new Alaskans have succeeded in importing old ways of doing things. We need to develop Alaskan models.

4. How can we avoid pitfalls when we cannot identify them?

To people who want to go back to the good old days, I have three words: “not-so-good.” If we are incapable of distinguishing good from bad to the point of tossing a century of progress to the dustbin of history, we are ripe for repeating old mistakes. There is a century of wheels that need no reinvention.

5. What do we give our attention to when everything competes for it?

Biologists tell us that for an organism to thrive, it has to distinguish foreground signals from background noise. Each of us needs to get in touch with our self and figure out what is really important to us. Use that framework to filter the nonsense out of our lives. This will, in turn, help us be clear about the kind of future we want for Alaska.

6. How can we make government work when we don’t believe it can?

Which would you prefer, to fly in an airplane piloted by someone who hates flying, resents the passengers and believes that God is his co-pilot or fly in an airplane piloted by someone who loves flying, enjoys serving the passengers and leaves nothing to chance? Government is the same way. If we keep electing people who don’t like or know how to govern they will keep delivering government that fails.

7. How can we trust others if we don’t trust ourselves?

The authors of the Alaska Constitution were not insecure or timid men and women with low self-esteem. They were secure enough in their own judgment that they were able to trust one another — despite political and cultural differences. The polarized, angry and oftentimes bullying character of today’s political landscape in Alaska betrays a feeling of insecurity by the perpetrators that makes trust of others impossible. Where to start? Know thyself.

8. How can we sincerely work to build a world in which we ourselves may not be fit to live?

We are all familiar with Gandhi’s admonition to ‘be the change you wish to see in the world.’ Unfortunately I find myself too comfortable in my zone and I am resistant change even though I know I would be happier if I reached out more to others and listened non-judgmentally to neighbors with whom I fundamentally disagree.

9. How can we get the right answers when we don’t ask the right questions?

The relocation of coastal villages being impacted by rising oceans is a good case in point. Instead of asking how much would it cost to replicate the same village at a place convenient to state infrastructure (airfields, roads and schools), perhaps the right question to ask is where do the residents want to live and what kind of town would they want to live in? And perhaps the right answer involves international design teams interacting with the villagers to create a technical, economic and cultural solution that will be sustainable. With a price tag of $10s of millions of public funds at stake, the right question deserves to be asked and right solutions provided.

10. How can we win a game when we don’t understand the rules?

When we don’t pay attention to the changes on the horizon and when we personally resist change in our own lives, we are not in a position to either think globally or act locally. Like many Alaskans, I am often surprised by events and feel like I am the unwitting victim of some great conspiracy. In such a case, the only thing I get right is the word “unwitting.” While the game of life is often brutal and the deck (for a have-not like me) seems stacked against me, the rules can be understood when I pay attention to what is going on in the world.

Here’s hoping all you Alaskans and honorary Alaskans alike had a Happy Marmot Day!  That’s right, we have Marmot Day, which replaced Groundhog Day. Groundhogs are marmots, but marmots are not necessarily groundhogs, and there are no groundhogs in the 49th state. It’s the third one in our state’s history. Marmot Day came about thanks to Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Senator Linda Menard of Wasilla.

Wikipedia explains it well.

Marmot Day’s Distinguished History

Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Sen. Linda Menard, R-Wasilla, was first introduced by the late Dr. Curtis Menard, Linda Menard’s husband and former state legislator. Concerned by the gradual decline of Alaska’s folk values, and worried that the 49th state would become a suburb ofHouston both culturally and economically^{[citation needed]}, Dr. Menard drew a line in the sand with his idea of creating Marmot Day in the 1990s. After getting stuck in a committee while politics was played, the controversial Marmot Day bill died in the legislature. Sen. Linda Menard reintroduced the bill for the 26th Alaska Legislature, and the bill passed by a Marmot’s whisker on the second to last day of the legislative session, and Sarah Palin signed it into law. As Senator Menard said, “By recognizing the marmot, our state [built] a tradition and legacy to be built on for future generations.”

I know you’re all dying to know what the marmot had to say about winter. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea whether he saw his shadow or not, but if he did, we’ll have at least six more weeks of winter. And if he didn’t, we’ll have at least six more weeks of winter.

It’s actually more like eleven weeks, but I don’t really want to think about that.

By Elstun Lauesen

There is a culture war going on. And the epicenter of that culture war is right here in Alaska. It is outrageous in its brazenness and tragic in its effect. It is political in its tactic and economic in its objective. It is a classic tale of western frontier conquest. I am speaking, of course, of the war on the Native subsistence culture of Alaska.

The passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980 linked federal land policy in Alaska to a subsistence use priority. Congress, in Title VIII of ANILCA, made it clear that they wanted a ‘rural’ priority in the 60 percent of Alaska that is under federal management. A rural priority (which was a compromise for the original draft language that said “Native preference”) meant that the priority for harvesting wildlife should go to the people who live in the management area and for whom subsistence represents a ‘customary and traditional’ use.

The online journal Cultural Survival notes

“…ANILCA distinguishes Native subsistence as something exceptional and cultural noting that ‘the opportunity for subsistence uses by rural residents of Alaska…is essential to Native physical, economic, traditional, and cultural existence and to nonNative physical, economic, traditional, and social existence.’ Although the distinction seems minor, it betrays a deeper philosophical division between Native and non-Native conceptions of subsistence.”

One indicator of this ‘philosophical division’ may be seen in the 2006 decision by the Federal Subsistence Board to reclassify the village of Saxman near Ketchikan from a rural to non-rural community. This reclassification is in the news because the 5-year waiting period is over and the decision is scheduled to go into effect.

As KTUU’s Rebecca Palsha put it so succinctly back in 2006 for a new story on the board’s decision:

“Who should have first dibs on hunting and fishing on federal lands? A group of Anchorage residents are making that decision at a two day meeting of the Federal Subsistence Board…”

The rationale by this ‘group of Anchorage residents’ was that Saxman is connected by a road to a modern city and are effectively integrated with the Ketchikan economy.

My research on the question of the ‘integration’ of the village of Saxman with Ketchikan reveals that in 2006 the numbers do not support such a conclusion. The Division of Community and Regional Affairs utilizes the American Community Survey statistics from the Bureau of the Census that breaks data down to the community level. Here is what it tells us. Saxman is a majority Native community and Ketchikan is not. 51 percent of Saxman’s residents are Native Alaskan/American; 25 percent of Ketchikan’s population are Native Alaskan/American. Despite the road that connects the two communities, Saxman has retained it’s ethnic character. In fact the web tourism promotion by the city notes the following regarding the character of Saxman:

“Blessed with abundant resources, West Coast people survived by subsistence, living off the land and the water- still a crucial part of their cultural identity.”

The American Community Survey also tells us that while Ketchikan had an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, Saxman had an unemployment rate of 30.7 percent. Again, it would seem that a complete socioeconomic integration would reveal a smaller difference. Finally, there is poverty. According to the ACS, the percentage of folks in Ketchikan living below the poverty rate in 2006 was 10.8 percent; in Saxman that figure is 25 percent.

Again, the visitor coming to Ketchikan learns that

“…Coastal Native people have a matrilineal society; children inherit rights through their mothers. The Tlingit social system is based on two equal moieties, or halves (the Eagle or Wolf and the Raven).

Traditions are changing with the times although much remains and is as strong as ever…”

So the question remains in my mind that, if the presence of the road has not altered the economic disparities between the communities, how can the Federal Board be so certain that the road has altered the cultural dependence on the customary and traditional uses of subsistence resources?

But if the Federal Board seems arbitrary in its subsistence policies, the state of Alaska is downright hostile.

From 1990-2002, three state governors, 12 regular legislatures, five special legislative sessions on subsistence, and a host of task forces, mediators and other initiatives all failed to resolve the unwillingness of Alaska’s lawmakers to allow a rural subsistence preference. In 2002, the outgoing Knowles administration gave up after 8 years of trying to work with the legislature. Federal management then became a reality. Since 2002, through the governorships of Murkowski, Palin and Parnell subsistence management on state lands became increasingly subjugated to the very lobby that had worked so assiduously against it. Murkowski’s appointment of Ron Sommerville to the Board of Game, for example, was a direct repudiation of a serious state subsistence management regime.

The Alaska Outdoor Council, the organization that spearheaded anti-subsistence political assaults since the passage of ANILCA, championed Sommerville’s appointment. Governor Sarah Palin then continued the Murkowski assault on the Federal Subsistence Board’s ‘customary and traditional’ use finding for the harvesting of moose by the small Copper River village of Chistochina. A positive C & T finding by the Federal Board entitles residents of a specific community to the subsistence priority under Title VIII of ANILCA and such a finding was anathema to the state Board of Game (BOG). Chistochina became a test case. The Palin administration sued the federal board and promptly lost in court.

Palin’s resignation and the ascent of Parnell simply meant the continuation of the Alaska Outdoor Council influence on the BOG. It was during this time that a Parnell appointed Wildlife Chief, Corey Rossi, who, along with BOG Chair, Cliff Judkins and BOG member Bob Bell — All past or present Alaska Outdoor Council — are alleged to have committed criminal violations of subsistence regulations.

Again, from Cultural Survival:

“As Nelson Frank, a Haida from southeast Alaska put it in his testimony before the Alaska Native Review Commission (recorded in the book Village Journey by Thomas Berger):”

“Subsistence living, a marginal way of life to most, has no such connotation to the Native people of southeast Alaska. The relationship between the Native population and the resources of the land and the sea is so close that an entire culture is reflected… Traditional law … was passed from generation to generation, intact, through repetition of legends and observance of ceremonials which were largely concerned with the use of land, water, and the resources contained therein. Subsistence living was not only a way of life, but also a life-enriching process. Conservation and perpetuation of subsistence resources was part of that life and was mandated by traditional law and custom.”

This is the casualty of Alaska’s culture war against subsistence.

[Photo: Clan House at Saxman, Alaska]

By Wickersham’s Conscience

The Costa Concordia still lies on her side off the Tuscan coast, with 16 confirmed dead and many still missing. Alaskans know, to their sorrow, that not all ship’s captains are scrupulously careful, not all crew members fully qualified, and not all accidents truly accidents.

A Dutch salvage company is struggling to off load the half million gallons of fuel still on the ship, before something fails and another of the world’s pristine marine environments falls victim to industrialization. In this case, industrial tourism.

But as sad as the Costa Concordia’s story is, as tragic as the grounding has already been for the families of the dead and the injured, WC  can’t help but imagine the consequences of a similar accident in southeast Alaska, in Prince William Sound, or in Kachemak Bay. Imagine a Carnival Cruise ship laying on her side at the head of Muir Inlet, sunk in a too-close approach to the glacier to give the passengers a thrill. Imagine a ship this size going down in Dangerous Passage on the west side of Prince William Sound because someone mis-read a tide table.

Don’t say it can’t happen. It has. It will again.

Even if the technology were perfect – and it isn’t – human error, whether drunkenness, showboating, or plain incompetence  can overcome any fail safes. The problem with making things foolproof is that fools are so ingenious.

As industrial tourism, with its 4,000 passenger ships, penetrates the arctic, and cruises through the northwest passage become more routine, the problems will only become more acute.

Sure, there are damage control plans, contingency plans and drills. But you will forgive WC his skepticism. There were plans for oil spills before the Exxon Valdez, and they were worse than useless. The Costa Concordia struck that rock on January 15; as of this date, she still lies there. This shipwreck is in the heavily trafficked, well-developed Mediterranean; can you imagine the chaos if this was in the Beaufort Sea, thousands of miles from the nearest help, in a much more hostile – and fragile – environment?

Alaska has a … difficult … relationship with the cruise ship industry as it is. But the incontrovertible lesson of the Costa Concordia is that it will happen again, and Alaska once again will be nearly helpless to respond.

From my Fairbanks friend, the talented and incomparable Jamie Smith. Check out his work at Ink & Snow.

By Elstun Lauesen

One of the terms we often hear lately is “agenda.” This politician has an “agenda” or that group has an “agenda.” Mostly we mere mortals are left to speculate what an “agenda” might be among the players in the rarified climes of politics. Thanks to the just concluded trial over the lines of the political districts drawn by the redistricting board, we get an actual glance into one of these “agendas,” the agenda of the Republican Party of Alaska.

By way of background let me explain that every decennial census requires adjustments of political boundaries based on the “one man one vote” decision by the Supreme Court in Reynolds vs. Sims — that is — each district must have an equivalent base which, in Alaska, is around 17,500 per representative. In sparsely populated areas, the districts can be very large. The districts need to conform to some standard of compactness, continuity and socioeconomic integration of the population. You can imagine that each 10 years, depending on who is in power, the party out of power will be suspicious of a political “agenda” in the drawing of the election map.

The board faced a difficult situation. Since statehood, Alaska required voters to read and write English, which was a common device used in southern states to limit Black voting. In Alaska it limited Native voting, and continued a controversial process that began in territorial days. More recently, Alaska has enacted “English-only” laws which prohibit use of ballots in any other language, and has not provided translators in Native communities where English is not the predominate language in use. These laws have been found to be discriminatory, and they have subjected Alaska to federal oversight intended to stop discrimination against Black voters in the south.

In the recent redistricting trial, Judge McConahy observed that talking about race and politics in Alaska is difficult. As Alaskans we often want to delude ourselves and pretend that we are better than the rest of the country and that we have progressed to the point that as a society we recognize and honor the humanity in all people. The recent litigation over the new plan redrawing Alaska’s legislative districts provided an ugly reminder that our smugness is probably not well earned.

The redistricting plan upset many because it created a district that included the Ester/Goldstream precincts in Fairbanks and the Yupik villages at the mouth of the Yukon River. Most Alaskans had difficulty understanding this plan, because the redistricting board didn’t publicly articulate why it was creating such a district. When the reasons came out in the trial, the press, unfortunately, focused on the easy and obvious: the partisan battle between Republicans and Democrats, and largely ignored the redistricting board’s stated reasons.

Under the federal Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Justice Department must review changes in Alaska’s election laws to insure that changes, such as redistricting, does not dilute the strength of Native voters. Some would like to characterize this as one more layer of senseless federal regulation, but as Alaska’s redistricting board started their work, they discovered Alaska’s dirty little secret.

The board found that racial block voting was increasing in Alaska. More specifically, they discovered that white Republican voters will generally not cross over to vote for a candidate preferred by Alaska Native voters. They discovered that white Democratic voters were more willing to cross over and vote for a candidate preferred by Alaska Native voters. The board claimed that the relative decline in Alaska Native population in rural Alaska required that a district combining some rural Native area and some “urban” non-Native area needed to be created. Thus, in order to not dilute Native voting strength, “urban” white Democrats needed to be added to this new “rural/urban” district. The theory is that urban white Republicans would never cross over to vote for a Native preferred candidate. Of course, the obvious unstated assumption is that white Republicans exhibit racist voting behaviors. The sensitivity of this unstated assumption is why the Republican-dominated board never publicly explained its decision, as well as the discomfort experienced by the press covering in the trial.

The challenge to the redistricting plan generated the predictable knee-jerk reaction by the Alaskan political and media establishment. “The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner,” for instance, has just called for an end to the federal Voting Rights Act review. They characterize the problem as unnecessary federal regulation. And they argue that Alaska should seek to end federal oversight of our election processes. But ignoring racism in our society only provides comfort for racists. It is in such comfort that racism gestates.

We Alaskans see ourselves as a tolerant multi-ethic society. We share that vision not because we are a tolerant multi-ethic society but because we want to be that tolerant multi-ethic society. But we will never achieve our dream if we do not confront the reality in which we find ourselves. We will not, nor should we, escape the need for federal oversight aimed at combating racism at the ballot box, until we take the necessary steps to purge racism from the soul of our society. Sadly, that cannot be accomplished by the Democrats in Ester/Goldstream. Rather the task is a challenge to the Alaska Republican party.

To say that here in my neck of the woods it’s been an unusual winter is stating the obvious. Southcentral Alaska, in general, has had an exciting month. The National Guard (really!) had to be called in to assist Cordovans digging out of the snow. Roofs collapsed, and some were even trapped inside their homes by the snow outside the door.

Here in my little valley, it’s been snow and wind. Nobody has had do dig me out yet, but plowing the driveway is an almost daily activity, and as I write this, the drift that is nuzzling up to my back door is above my knees. In the summer, it’s about a 12 inch step down.  It’s hard to say how much snow we’ve actually had, though, because winds that occasionally top the 100mph mark have had their way with the white stuff. Nothing stays where it lands.

Today was the worst I’ve seen in terms of blowing snow since I moved to Alaska more than 20 years ago. The Seward Highway – the only connecting road between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula was closed to all traffic today because of the wind, white-out conditions and avalanches. It was a good day to stay at home.

It was difficult to concentrate on much besides the weather today. The creaking and groaning of the house, the wooooooo! noises that sounded like the sound track of a spooky movie, and the floor shaking like a moderate earthquake at times kept me on edge.  I tried to take a few still pictures to capture the mood of the blowing snow, which would alternate between swirling around the yard like a giant hundred foot diameter dust devil, to blowing sideways so forcefully it would pick up clumps of snow and hurl them against the windows like a kid throwing snowballs, to times when you’d swear it was snowing directly up as streams of snow launched themselves off the ground to heights of at least three stories. And then there were times that there was so much snow in the air, it looked like white shades had been pulled down over the windows.

The still photos didn’t really do it justice, so I decided that I’d venture outside with my little video camera.  Normally, all anyone has to do is think about going outside and Buf the Dog’s radar goes off immediately. She’ll be there boring holes in the door with her eyes, and wagging her tail, and doing a little dance with her front paws until you get on all your winter gear.  Today, I got the “you’ve got to be kidding” look.  She didn’t even want to make eye contact when I came in, lest I tried to convince her to brave the elements.

The wind is still howling, and the snow is still swirling, and my right eye is terribly sore from a good right-on-the-eyeball pelting of 80mph snow.  Yes, Jeanne… that’s why they wear goggles.

A moment of clear skies to the southwest just revealed a beautiful sunset, but with no respite from the wind. The lights are starting to flicker, so I’m going to post quickly.

Buf the Dog has not moved an inch from her bed, and still refuses to go outside. At some point she’ll have to, but I can’t blame her one little bit.  Stay safe out there my windblown friends. This too shall pass. Until next time.