Longtime Union Leader Prepares to Step Back From a Movement Under Threat

Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, traveled to Alaska in March to meet local union leaders pushing to reinstate a pension system for state employees.

Alaska had closed its public retirement program in 2006, after it ran up a multibillion-dollar shortfall. But 20 years later, state agencies have double-digit vacancy rates, a crisis of public-sector employment that has compromised safety and services.