Chicanery in the Ohio state House used to pass Senate Bill 5

   The war on public employees has shifted east from Wisconsin to Ohio.  On Wednesday (March 2, 2011) the Ohio State Senate passed Senate Bill 5 by a narrow 17-16 vote, which would severely limit the collective bargaining rights of all public employees in the state of Ohio.  Should this bill pass in the Ohio House of Representatives and becomes law, public employees will no longer have the right to collectively bargain on benefits and pension related issues.  The bill would also ban public employees from striking (in fact, the penalty to employees for going on strike could lead to being arrested under this bill), and eliminates binding arbitration.  It would institute a merit based pay system that wouldn’t consider an employee’s length of service.  Ohio public employees would retain the right to collectively bargain on their wages.  After pretty much gutting collective bargaining rights in the state of Ohio that has existed for 30 years, perhaps allowing public employees to retain the right to bargain on wages was an expression of empathy for the employees.

   State Senator Shannon Jones, a Republican who introduced the bill, said in a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that “the current law has produced too many costly labor contracts.  These contracts have slowly clogged the arteries of state and local governments. Their hands are tied by collectively bargained agreements.”  Democrats in the Ohio state senate have a different view of SB 5.  Senator Nina Turner, a Democrat said in that same story in the Plain-Dealer, "This law is not only unjust, it is unconscionable.  But it is also un-American. It strips middle class Americans of their rights.”  The bill still needs to pass in the Ohio state House of Representatives, where Republicans have a majority.  It would appear to be a slam dunk, right?  Not so fast.  As controversial as the language of the bill is, the methods used by the Republican to get the bill passed is equally, if not more so, controversial. 

   Although Republicans hold a 23-10 majority in the Ohio Senate, six Republicans crossed the aisle and joined Democrats in voting against the bill.  Senate President Tom Niehaus booted two fellow Republicans, Senator Bill Seitz and Senator Scott Oelslager from leadership positions of their respective committees because they opposed the bill.  They were replaced by members of the Senate who favored the bill.  These moves raised many flags.  The Cincinnati Enquirer, which endorsed former Fox News host John Kasich in his gubernatorial campaign, blasted this last minute shuffling of the deck in its editorial page (A shameful performance on Senate Bill 5).  A GOP senator who voted IN FAVOR of the bill, Karen Gillmor, said to the Columbus (OH) Dispatch, “This was not government at its finest.”  This was political chicanery. 

   It should now be crystal clear that there is a concerted effort by the governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana to weaken labor unions in their respective states in advance of the 2012 Presidential election.  It probably is no coincidence that Barack Obama WON those three states in the 2008 Presidential election en route to the White House.  The thought process is if labor is broken, there would be less money that unions would contribute to the Obama re-election campaign and since organized labor produces the foot soldiers and phone bankers, there would be less of those people willing to go on the campaign stomp.  Additionally, the strategy was to pit private sector employees against public sector employees with the hope of winning over private sector workers and gaining their support in the assault against public employees.  This was a classic divide and conquer strategy.  This is where those delusions of grandeur got crossed up.  In a USA Today/Gallup Poll, 61% of all Americans strongly oppose limiting collective bargaining rights for public employees.

   When you peel the onion on these attacks on public employees in Wisconsin and now Ohio, one compelling question comes to mind: how does ANY of this create JOBS?

  Governor Kasich, Governor Walker and Speaker Boehner … WHERE are the JOBS?

Peace, peace in the Middle East!

Craig Riggins

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