Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1985, 1995 and 2005. They include names, AP style and other content of their eras.
This week in 1985, machinists and baggage handlers at Alaska Airlines went on strike today after negotiations between airline and union officials broke off early this morning in Seattle. The two sides failed to reach an agreement on a contract after members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers on Friday voted down the company’s “final offer” and authorized a strike. The union, Alaska Airlines’ largest, represents about 1,400 of its 2,750 employees. Between 25 and 30 local employees are affected by the strike. Three pickets were on hand this morning at the Juneau Airport. “The local employees are solidly behind the strike, and we don’t expect other airline union members to cross the picket lines,” said picketer Doug Swihart this morning at the airport. “We haven’t had any negative reaction from the public either; in fact, people have been real supportive.” The effect of the strike on the airline’s flights in Southeast has been minimal so far, said Jerry Kvasnikoff, customer service manager in the Juneau office. The company will operate six flights from Juneau daily instead of the usual seven. Managers have been filling in for the striking workers. There should be no effect on mail or freight service, officials said.
Original Story: “Ground crews strike airline,” by Kirk McAllister. 3/4/1985.
This week in 1995, was it a mistake, an inadvertent error, or political necessity 23 years ago? That’s the unanswered question behind a bill being proposed by Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski that would bequeath village corporations status and land to five Southeast communities left out of the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. A collection of people from the five communities say Congress inadvertently and wrongly left out Wrangell, Haines, Petersburg, Tenakee and Ketchikan when it passed the claims act. Robert Willard, a Juneau resident, said was in Washington, D.C., during the claims act debate in 1971 and he was never able to find out what happened to the five communities when the bill passed. The reason remains unclear more than two decades later. A report by the University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research last year said the reason for the omission is not recorded in the act or in congressional reports accompanying the legislation.
Today the five communities still remain “landless,” with bills similar to Murkowski’s being introduced over the years by members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, including his daughter, Lisa, who is the state’s current senior senator.
Original Story: “Left out, landless,” by Dirk Miller. 3/6/1995.
This week in 2005, the U.S. Forest Service will study the quality of second-growth trees in the Tongass National Forest to prepare for future timber sales. An estimated 435,000 acres of the Tongass are second-growth, or young-growth, trees. Almost none of it is ready for timber harvest but the Forest Service wants to gather information about the volume and quality of lumber products that might be produced. “We are trying to get ahead of the curve as we start to transition into young growth,” said Jim Russell, silviculture program manager on the Tongass. “We hope to get information decades ahead of it.” As part of the study, the Forest Service will cut 460 trees from nine locations on Prince of Wales Island and Mitkof Island in Southeast Alaska. The agency wants to look at the effects of pre-commercial thinning and thinning on the quality of Sitka spruce and Western hemlock, Russell said. Roughly 130,000 acres out of the 435,000 acres of second-growth on the Tongass have been thinned. Trees are not removed for immediate financial gain in pre-commercial thinning.
Today the Tongass may see a drastic shift as President Donald Trump has issued an executive order directing federal agencies to examine ways to bypass endangered species protections and other environmental regulations to ramp up timber production.
Original Story: “Forest Service plans Tongass study of second-growth trees,” by The Associated Press. 3/8/2005.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
