Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA)

Background

The Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA) was founded in 1955, and affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in 1990. ³ It is one of three major government worker unions in Alaska, along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)-affiliated Alaska State Employees Association and the National Education Association-Alaska (NEA-Alaska). ^{4  5}

The APEA’s roughly 3,000 state government members are largely in supervisory positions, while the AFSCME-affiliated Alaska State Employees Association represents roughly 85,000 general government workers. ^{5  6} APEA also represents K-12 teachers and school staffers, public university employees, municipal workers, and some nonprofit employees. ⁷

The APEA operates the Alaska Public Employees Legal Trust Fund, which pays up to $3,172.50 per year in attorneys’ fees for eligible members who use a union-vetted attorney. ⁸

Activism

The Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA) operates the Employee Political Information Committee (EPIC Alaska), a political action committee that endorses candidates in state and local elections. ⁹

In May 2025, APEA members participated in public protest training sessions during the national American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Public Employees Professional Issues Conference. ¹⁰ The conference featured a keynote address from AFT president Randi Weingarten, who criticized the policies of the second Trump administration but told Trump voters among the AFT members that she “was not blaming them for this result,” saying that they had thought that “with a vote for Trump, they’d be able to pay for more things,” according to the AFT’s public report on the event. ¹⁰

Alaska reformed its public employee retirement system in 2005, transitioning workers out of an defined-benefit pension system into 401(k)-style retirement plans.  ¹⁰ The APEA strongly opposed the changes, and has made returning to the defined-benefit system a key policy priority ever since.  ¹⁰

The Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA) has previously criticized and advocated against policies set by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy (R).  ^{11  12} Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that mandatory public employee union fees violated workers’ First Amendment rights, the Dunleavy administration implemented a requirement that government workers must opt in annually to membership in public employee unions, including APEA. ¹³ The Alaska Supreme Court eventually ruled against the opt-in requirement, alleging the Dunleavy administration had violated state labor and administrative procedure laws in implementing it. ¹⁴

In 2019, a recall campaign was initiated against Dunleavy, with the APEA asking for its members and other state public employees to sign the recall petition and commit to voting against Dunleavy should the recall election take place. ¹⁵ The recall effort was unsuccessful in gathering the required signatures equal to 25 percent of the number of voters in the previous general election. ¹⁶

In 2020, the APEA led a successful public campaign against Dunleavy’s proposed plan to privatize Alaska’s state-operated coastal ferry system. ¹⁷ The governor backed off after an outside consultant concluded that many ferry routes could not be sustainably privatized. ¹⁸

That same year, the Dunleavy administration’s Division of Personnel and Labor Relations filed unfair labor practice grievances against the leaders of the APEA and Alaska State Employees Association over what it characterized as interference with the state’s efforts to switch to a biweekly pay system from the existing semi-monthly system. ¹⁹

Finances

In 2024, the APEA collected $2,824,519 in dues from its members.  ²