Jeffrey Davies

Jeffrey Davies is a former American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union executive from Alaska who was convicted in 2016 of a federal embezzlement charge for stealing from the Alaska Railroad Workers (ARW) local union. 1 Davies was no longer the ARW’s president at the time of the indictment, his term of office having ended in August 2014.  2

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At-A-Glance

Occupation: Other
Issue Areas: Labor Policy

Contents

    Background

    Davies was the former president of the Alaska Railroad Workers (ARW) labor union, which is Local 183 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). 3 The ARW is one of two labor unions that represent workers at the Alaska Railroad, a state-owned corporation that operates as a private business and where employees are not part of Alaska’s state personnel system. 4

    Corruption

    In December 2015, then-U.S. District Attorney for the District of Alaska Karen L. Loeffler announced Davies’s indictment on one count of embezzling labor union assets. 5 A joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards had found that Davies had stolen more than $100,000 from the ARW using cash withdrawals, checks, and by paying for personal expenses using his union credit card.  5

    In July 2016, Davies pled guilty to one count of embezzling more than $90,000. 6 That was roughly equivalent to 60 percent of the membership dues collected by Local 183 in 2014, Davies’s last year as ARW president.  2

    He was sentenced in August 2017 to one year in federal prison and three years’ probation. He was ordered to pay $92,766 in restitution and a $100 fine. 7

    Role in Broader Union Corruption

    Critics of labor unions placed Jeffrey Davies’s conviction in the context of broader corruption issues both in Alaska’s labor unions and in the American Federation of Government Employees. A 2017 article by reporter Suzanne Downing in the right-of-center online news site Must Read Alaska placed Davies’ embezzlement conviction in the context of convictions or indictments of three other Alaska labor union leaders between 2010 and 2015, in which as much as $330,000 in union funds were allegedly stolen. 8 The union officials in question were affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC), the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and AFGE.  8

    Davies’s conviction was also one of a series of corruption cases against AFGE officials at the time, which led to the union being described as “the most corrupt union in America” in 2015 and again in 2017. 9 Eleven union officials pled guilty or were convicted of corruption offenses in the first eight months of 2017, following 10 corruption convictions in 2016 and nine in 2015.  9

    The AFGE’s corruption issues have continued, with six union officials indicted, three convicted, three sentenced, and one acquitted in federal prosecutions in 2025. 10

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    References

    1. “2017 Criminal Enforcement Actions.” U.S. Department of Labor. Accessed September 15, 2026. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/criminal-enforcement/2017.
    2. “American Federation of Government Employees 183 Alaska Railroad Workers Local.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed September 15, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/926002727.
    3. “Agencies.” AFGE. Accessed September 15, 2026. https://www.afge.org/about-us/agencies/.
    4. “Corporate.” Alaska Railroad. Accessed September 15, 2026. https://www.alaskarailroad.com/corporate.
    5. “Former Union President Charged with Embezzling Union Funds.” United States Department of Justice, December 22, 2015. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ak/pr/former-union-president-charged-embezzling-union-funds.
    6. “Alaska AFGE President Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement.” National Legal Policy Center, August 15, 2017. https://archive.nlpc.org/2016/07/07/alaska-afge-president-pleads-guilty-embezzlement/.
    7. “AFGE President in Alaska Sentenced for Embezzlement.” National Legal Policy Center, August 15, 2017. https://archive.nlpc.org/2017/08/15/afge-president-alaska-sentenced-embezzlement/.
    8. Downing, Suzanne. “In Alaska, It’s Unions vs. Workers in the Private Economy.” Must Read Alaska, August 4, 2017. https://mustreadalaska.com/alaska-unions-workers-private-economy/.
    9. Gilson, Bob. “American Federation of Government Employees Still the Most Corrupt Union in the U.S.A.” FedSmith. August 3, 2017. Accessed September 15, 2026. https://www.fedsmith.com/2017/08/03/american-federation-government-employees-still-most-corrupt-union-usa/.
    10. “2025 Criminal Enforcement Actions.” U.S. Department of Labor. Accessed September 15, 2026. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/olms/criminal-enforcement/2025.