By PAUL FUHS
June 22, 2026 – The question of how labor will react and participate in elections has been a long-standing issue for many Republican election campaigns. While Republicans have traditionally had an on again, off again relation to working class unions, President Donald Trump fully embraced American workers and it is widely recognized that American workers responded and put him over the top in all the swing states. Can you imagine our situation in Alaska if the election had gone the other way?
How does this outlook on labor translate to Alaska? This will surely be an issue for Alaska’s primary campaigns, and ultimately for Republican success in the November ranked choice voting general election.
This is due to the unusual structure of Alaska’s economy where 40% of the 330,000 jobs in the state are involved with resource development. These workers have a direct stake in one of the bedrock principles of Republican beliefs: the critical need to be productive, based on resource development in Alaska. While all the Republican candidates for Governor share this concern, which of them has the best relationship with Labor and can carry this message?
Republican candidate for Governor, former State Senator Click Bishop, openly supports a partnership with Alaska labor organizations. Some Republicans have criticized him for it, but is this criticism justified or strategically smart?
Click does have a direct connection with organized labor, having proudly worked on the Transalaska Pipeline as a member of Alaska’s Operating Engineers Local 302. As foreman for HC Price on the Atigun Mainline Rerouting Project, he led the complex response to a vexing problem of pipeline corrosion in the Atigun River area.
Read more: Atigun Mainline Reroute Project – Alyeska Pipeline
This direct connection to resource development has stayed with him as he went on to lead the Union’s training program, then later led Alaska’s worker training programs as Commissioner of Labor. His support for these training programs will be critical as Alaska responds to the need for qualified workers to build the Alaska Gasline project and to work in Alaska’s growing mining industry.
I had a similar experience working on the Pipeline as a young man, as a member of the right of way trench blasting crew on Thompson Pass, a solid rock steep face with a radical grade of 145% (55 degree angle). We worked with ice cleats on, hanging from a rope teather, while cases of dynamite were lowered to us by helicopter. We were proud of what we did and at the time didn’t realize what the pipeline would mean to Alaska. We would be a far different place without it.
We need to recognize that it was George Meany of the US AFL-CIO that brought over enough votes for a tie vote in the US Senate to authorize the pipeline. The Republicans found it necessary to bring out Vice President Spiro Agnew, as his last act before resigning in disgrace, to provide the tie breaking vote.
All of this experience shaped my viewpoint on labor and Republican’s steadfast commitment to responsible resource development in Alaska. The culture wars didn’t interest me much.
Many Alaskan workers feel the same way, and will carry this outlook with them as they vote in Alaska’s primary and general elections. It is in their best interest. And let’s remember that these workers are the ones actually building Alaska and they are not the ones who are pushing to have transgender boys play on their daughter’s hockey team.
If Alaskan workers are shown respect for what they do for Alaska, they will be a critical part of making sure that a Republican candidate will be elected as Alaska’s next Governor. While there are many other good Republican candidates, the man who can bring them across is Click Bishop.
He has already been endorsed by the US and Alaska Building Trades Unions. These unions have recently signed a Project Labor Agreement with the private and State led efforts to build the Alaska Gasline, showing once again their shared commitment to Alaska.
We need a Governor who understands this. Click Bishop is just the man we need now for Alaska’s bright future.
Paul Fuhs is former Mayor of Dutch Harbor and former Commissioner of Commerce and International Trade for Governor Wally Hickel.
6 thoughts on “Paul Fuhs: The role of labor in Alaska’s elections”
Some of us are in quiet discussions with union hands from his former union. What we are hearing about Click’s involvement with Local 302 is appalling. He is a dirt bag who has been hiding his activities all of these years.
Let’s start with NO union goons in government, go away, Klunk!
Someone called Cheerleaders R Us and Paul answered.
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From “Here’s what the governor-endorsed ‘head tax’ would mean for Alaska” by Austin Baird, KTUU-TV, Jun. 6, 2017.
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“Enter Sen. Click Bishop’s S.B. 12, a bill quietly introduced by the Fairbanks Republican in January that has received zero committee hearings and little public attention since.
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While the proposal is dubbed an “education head tax,” the suggested tax is remarkably different than the flat-rate school tax Alaskans paid until 1980. Under a true head tax, everyone would pay the exact same amount.
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S.B. 12, however, would increase based on how much an individual earns:
(1) less than $20,000, the tax would be $50 a year;
(2) $20,000 to $49,999, the tax would be $100 a year;
(3) $50,000 to $99,999, the tax would be $200 a year;
(4) $100,000 to $499,999, the tax would be $300 a year;
(5) $500,000 or more, the tax would be $500 a year.
(https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/content/news/Heres-what-the-governor-endorsed-head-tax-would-mean-for-Alaska-426910461.html)
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Nine years ago Senator Click Bishop teamed up with then Governor Bill Walker to stiff productive Alaskans with a tax to pay off the education industry.
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Did you think we forgot what your boy did, Paul? Your boy swear publicly, loudly, on camera, on a stack of Bibles, he’d never, ever do stupid sh… stuff like that again? Didn’t think so!
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Now we have “Election 2026: Former Gov. Bill Walker officially announces run for governor”.
(https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2026/05/28/former-gov-bill-walker-plans-run-governor/)
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What are you saying, union guy? The “fix” is in? The “role” of labor in Alaska’s elections is to install Education Tax Click Bishop in the governor’s office and plant Click’s BFF, China Bill Walker, just down the hall in some Ruling Class “role”?
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The Miracle of Mail-In Voting slips your dream team in, the only ones gonna be role’d is us, but you know that, Paul.
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You union boys already got your pay increases already negotiated so you won’t be out of pocket when productive Alaskans get stiffed with Click Bishop’s education-industry head tax?
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Love the portrait by the way …taken from the official kneeling position when the Ruling Class speaks, was it?
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Or was someone just trying to look taller than Bernadette?
Unionism = Communism and marching in lock-step and letting someone else do your thinking for you.
Thanks Paul many of trade unions support the gas line.
Well written, Paul…