(Corey Brown photo)
Joe Biden, Democratic candidate for president, has an opinion about the Alaska State budget. He’s telling Gov. Michael Dunleavy to fully fund the Alaska Marine Highway system. Dunleavy made some $78 million in cuts to the system, although a good deal of those cuts — about $35 million — have been restored by the Alaska Legislature in subsequent legislation this month.
In a Twitter message that went out Friday, Biden says the “marine transit system in Alaska is vital to rural communities…”
“IBU is on strike to ensure this lifeline for Alaskans will continue to serve communities from Ketchikan to Kodiak,” Biden wrote, wading into the quicksand of what may be an illegal strike. Striking for political reasons is an unfair labor practice, and the Inland Boatmans Union has now indicated it’s striking to change state policy that has nothing to do with its contract.
“The governor must restore full funding immediately,” Biden wrote, trying to be helpful but actually sealing the case that Commissioner of Administration Kelly Tshibaka has been making, that the current strike is illegal.
[Read: IBU spokesman tips the hand of union — strike is about state funding cuts]
