Labor & Employment Law

Workers Pack Ohio Hearing to Oppose Attack on Collective Bargaining

By Mike Hall

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Republican legislators launched their biggest assault yet against Buckeye State public employees with a hearing yesterday on a bill to eliminate collective bargaining rights for all state workers, including faculty and staff at Ohio state colleges and universities.

But hundreds of firefighters, nurses, sanitation workers, bus drivers and other public employees pushed back, packing a state Senate hearing room in Columbus. The Columbus Dispatch said the turnout of workers:

was remarkable for an initial bill hearing. It not only filled the large hearing room to capacity?stacked three deep in the balcony?but also spilled into two other rooms and the spacious atrium.

Workers say the bill?introduced by Sen. Shannon Jones (R)?is a distraction from the balanced approach needed to create jobs and solve the budget crisis and lowers the bar for all Ohio workers at a time when they are struggling to make ends meet. Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga says:

“Instead of focusing on solving the economic problems facing Ohio and creating family-sustaining jobs for the 500,000 Ohioans who still remain jobless, Sen. Jones and Senate GOP leadership are trying to scapegoat hard-working public service workers for our economic and budget woes.”

The Zanesville Times Recorder described the bill as ?payback time? to hurt union workers who supported Ted Strickland over Kasich in the November election. Says Burga:

This bill is a partisan assault on working families and does nothing but punish workers and hurt the middle class, plain and simple. This bill would destroy the middle class because the working families this bill affects not only provide vital services, but put money and resources back into their communities, which support local merchants and other small businesses.

While Kasich and some in the legislature are trying to paint public workers as the cause of the state?s budget problems, they conveniently forget to mention that public workers already gave up $100 million in health benefits and $250 million in pay to help balance the current budget, passed in July 2009 when Strickland was governor. Union concessions included four weeks of unpaid furloughs, no pay raises and the loss of five personal days.

Yet Kasich continues to call for pay cuts and sticks with his claim that public service workers are overpaid. In fact, though, ?Ohio public employees annually earn 6 percent less than comparable private-sector employees,? according to an analysis released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Click here to read the full analysis.

K.J. Watts, an IAFF member from the Lancaster area, says:

Lawmakers need to stop trying to blame workers for a budget crisis that politicians created, and they need to focus on rebuilding our economy instead of hurting the communities we serve. We want to work with lawmakers to come up with balanced solutions to get us out of this mess. Senate Bill 5 is not the way to do that.

Andy Richards, Ohio AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer, contributed to this report.

For more information on the assault against public employees, visit the AFL-CIO?s States of Denial website.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 10, 2011 (boomark / email).