Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed a bill that would have required the operators of large warehouses to provide their employees with a written work quota and would have forbidden them from instituting quotas that are so high that an employee would lack time to use the bathroom.<\/p>\n
The Alaska Legislature passed House Bill 88<\/a> this year with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n Rep. George Rauscher, R-Sutton, wrote the bill and said in April that it was a matter of fairness and transparency for workers. He had worked in a warehouse, he said, and the issue was personal to him.<\/p>\n Dunleavy vetoed the bill Aug. 29, but the veto message<\/a> wasn’t published until this week.<\/p>\n In the message, Dunleavy said he vetoed HB 88 “because it creates excessive regulation of state businesses, thereby thwarting business development and economic opportunities in Alaska.”<\/p>\n Through a spokesperson, the governor’s office declined additional comment.<\/p>\n HB 88 would have been limited to warehouses that employ 100 or more people, and there are only a handful in the state, but the number is growing, particularly in the vicinity of Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport, one of the world’s busiest air cargo terminals.<\/p>\n Also this year, Amazon Inc. opened a warehouse facility<\/a> with more than 100 people in Anchorage to serve the company’s e-commerce business in Alaska.<\/p>\n That company has previously been criticized for setting work quotas so high that employees felt forced to go to the bathroom in bottles<\/a>. The company has since revised those quotas.<\/p>\n By phone on Thursday, Rauscher seemed resigned to Dunleavy’s decision.<\/p>\n “The governor can do what he wants, right?” Rauscher<\/a> said. “I guess I have to find out if there’s another way to make something similar happen. I think that’s what you do with any bill that doesn’t make it.”<\/p>\n The Alaska Legislature could seek to override the veto of HB 88 and other bills if they call a special session, but Rauscher and multiple other lawmakers say they don’t believe there’s an appetite to do that.<\/p>\n The veto was Dunleavy’s seventh for a policy bill in 2024 and 12th since being elected in 2018. He has since signed two other vetoes, for a total of 14 during his two terms in office. Those figures do not include his annual budget vetoes.<\/p>\n Since Dunleavy took office, legislators have never overridden one of his vetoes.<\/p>\n In a written statement<\/a> published on social media Thursday, Teamsters Local 959 said it was disappointed by the governor’s veto.<\/p>\n The union, one of the state’s largest, said it will continue to advocate for workers’ rights.<\/p>\n • James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article<\/a> originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.<\/em><\/p>\n