This article appears to be a spew of lots of sour grapes directly from the mouth of someone at CH2M Hill, a huge international firm with an extremely small amount of its holdings in Alaska.  ASRC Energy Services is Alaska based with a commitment of native Alaska hire first, and Alaska non-native hire second.  CH2M definitely does not have this same commitment.  Foreign based mineral companies in Alaska, such as BP and Tek, have a commitment of local hire of their work force, either through direct hire or as a requirement in their service contracts, because they know in which direction the political wind blows in this state.  If the 150 or so local union workers, now serving under the former CH2M contract, wish to shed their union affiliation, they would likely be hired by ASRC to continue their work without interruption.  Otherwise, Alaska has a large, skilled, non-union work force who can support this contract.