Dr. Al Gross, an independent challenging Sen. Dan Sullivan for the U.S. Senate, says his campaign staff will be unionized, a first for a statewide campaign in Alaska.

Campaign workers will be represented by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

Gross will also ask Sullivan to sign an agreement to: support the Davis-Bacon Act; pledge to fight to ensure Alaskans have workplace fairness and the freedom of collective bargaining; agree that the Alaska attorney general's latest opinion in response to the Janus decision is a direct attack on working people

Gross, 57, owns two limited-entry permits to fish for salmon, and is an orthopedic surgeon who believes that health care reform should be a priority in Congress.