Decisions and Orders Digest for 2002

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ALASKA NURSES ASSOCIATION vs. FAIRBANKS NORTH STAR BOROUG H, Decision and Order No. 258 (January 30, 2002). The petitioner has not satisfied the requirements in AS 23.40.090 and 8 AAC 97.025(b) to sever the school nurses from the District’s wall-to-wall unit currently represented by ESSA. The fact that the proposed unit is a group of professionals does not warrant carving them out from the larger unit.

ALASKA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, AFT/AFL-CIO vs. KETCHIKAN GATEWAY BOROUGH , Decision and Order No. 259 (June 28, 2002). The petitioner has not satisfied the requirements in AS 23.40.090 and 8 AAC 97.025(b) to sever the Class I employees from the Borough's wall-to-wall collective bargaining unit currently represented by APEA. The fact that the proposed unit has different strike eligibility restrictions than other employees in the bargaining unit does not, by itself, warrant carving them out from the larger unit. Moreover, the fact that the Class I employees share a community of interest does not diminish the fact they also share a community of interest with other employees in the broader APEA bargaining unit they have belonged to for at least 27 years. Errata added 5-23-2003 PUBLIC SAFETY EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION vs. STATE OF ALASKA, Decision and Order No. 260 (June 27, 2002). The Agency will decline to interpret contracts and will order the parties to arbitration when the subject of their dispute concerns the interpretation or construction of a term contained in the collective bargaining agreement.

ALASKA STATE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION, AFSCME LOCAL 52, AFL-CIO vs. STATE OF ALASKA , Decision and Order No. 261 (December 31, 2002). The Agency will order the parties to arbitration when their collective bargaining agreement clearly and unmistakably provides that an arbitrator must decide questions of arbitrability, and their contract provides no exception to this procedure. Decision Appealed: Alaska State Employees Association, AFSCME Local 52, AFL-CIO vs. State of Alaska, Decision and Order No. 261 (December 31, 2002). State of Alaska appealed Agency decision and order to Superior Court in case number 1-JU-03-00075-CI on January 30, 2003. Superior Court AFFIRMED Agency decision and order in case number 1-JU-03-00075 on December 9, 2003, stating “ . . . ALRA’s decision is REVERSED as to its central legal conclusion that “arbitrability is for the arbitrator” on placement of positions in a bargaining unit; but, is AFFIRMED in its result in so far as it sent the Article 12.04 question to arbitration.”

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