ALEC is one of the most dangerous organizations to be developed,” says Chris Runge, executive director of the North Dakota Public Employees Association (NDPEA), an affiliate of AFT Public Employees. “It is a pay-to-play organization, and we need to be afraid. We need to take action.”

ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a self-described organization made up of corporate officials and state lawmakers that advances the “Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism and individual liberty.”

In its 2002 annual report, ALEC advocated cutting government spending by reducing workforce costs through employment caps, early retirement incentives, renegotiated labor contracts and privatization. “At a time when privatization is being preached around the world, state governments can sell or lease more of their assets,” the report says.

“It is incumbent upon you to make your members aware of ALEC,” Runge told members of the public employee division during the 2003 national conference. “We have an obligation to blow the whistle on this group.”

Runge noted that ALEC task forces, made up of lawmakers and corporate officials, develop “model” legislation that is introduced in state assemblies by ALEC member lawmakers to achieve the organization’s policy goals.

Mike Heyd, a NDPEA member who works as a security officer at the North Dakota Historical Society, says ALEC was the major force behind recent paycheck deception legislation in his state that would have eliminated all automatic payroll deductions, including union dues. “They have their own agenda, and it is not favorable to public employees,” he says. “There are a lot of people in North Dakota who do not know what ALEC is. They need to know. They need to know what their legislators are doing and ask ‘Are they representing us—the citizens—or are they representing corporate interests?’”

“Ninety-eight percent of ALEC’s money comes from corporate America,” Runge said, buying business direct access to state legislatures.

Like many in the audience for Runge’s presentation, Christopher Carlson, a member of the Wisconsin Science Professionals, an affiliate of AFT Public Employees, had never heard of ALEC. But the prospects of corporate America governing public policy frightens Carlson, not only as a state employee but as a taxpayer.

“Privatization is the first step to elimination” of public services and a “process to line someone’s pockets,” says Carlson, a hydrogeologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “What is going on is clearly something we need to work on, counteracting the efforts that are happening to, in effect, co-opt members of our legislatures to adopt policies that are not in the best interest of their constituents.”

One of ALEC’s most recent endeavors in which it enlisted the support of more than 100 state lawmaker members was an effort this spring to stop Congress from providing financial assistance to cash-strapped states. “As a state legislator, I am writing to ask you to reject these calls for a federal bailout. Such a measure would ultimately harm us more than it would help,” read the letter that was sent to 98 members of Congress who are ALEC alumni.

Runge said the NDPEA is going to include a question on its survey of candidates asking lawmakers if they are members of ALEC. She encourages other affiliates to do the same.

ALEC’s board of directors includes lawmakers from Connecticut, Kansas, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin. Its “private enterprise board” consists of representatives from pharmaceutical, telecommunications and insurance companies, including Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Verizon Communications Inc. and Ohio Casualty Group.

For more information about ALEC, visit www.alec.org/ and www.alecwatch.org/.