The Anchorage NAACP has requested an apology from Mayor Dan Sullivan after he compared union membership to slavery in a Monday Forum.
The Lieutenant Governor candidate stated that he was speaking in terms of “economic slavery”.
Mayor Sullivan: “I realize that some people think that’s a hot button term but it has meaning beyond just certainly what its historical context might have been for a particular group in America. I appreciate their sensitivity on that and I’m sensitive to it too but again I think the term can be used in terms of economic restriction on freedom.”
Sullivan made the remark at a campaign forum Monday when he was asked about “Right to Work” legislation where employees are not required to join a union in order to get a job and he said quote: “We got rid of slavery a long time ago.”
NAACP President Wanda Laws said the comparing the two “diminishes how horrible and tragic” slavery was.
