Alaska Employment Law

On May 15th, the Alaska Senate accepted the House’s version of the AGIA bill.  With two exceptions, the text of the bill, as it pertains to labor issues, is identical to that discussed earlier.  In both sections 15 (local hire) and 17 (project labor agreement) of AS 43.90.130,  legislators added the word “maximum” to the phrase “to the extent permitted by law.” 

The final text now requires that any applicant for the pipeline license:

(15) to the maximum extent permitted by law, commit to (A) hire qualified residents from throughout the state for management, engineering, construction, operations, maintenance, and other positions on the proposed project; (B) contract with businesses located in the state; (C) establish hiring facilities or use existing hiring facilities in the state; and (D) use, as far as is practicable, the job centers and associated services operated by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development and an Internet-based labor exchange system operated by the state; 

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 (17) commit to negotiate, before construction, a project labor agreement to the maximum extent permitted by law; in this paragraph, “project labor agreement” means a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement between the licensee or its agent and the appropriate labor representatives to ensure expedited construction with labor stability for the project by qualified residents of the state;