Normally odd-numbered years are an opportunity to take a break from most politics; but Campaign 2011 is shaping up to be as important as any campaign in an even-numbered year.
Last fall, Ohio voters elected John Kasich as Ohio’s governor by a narrow margin. Kasich had claimed to be the candidate of jobs, but it was clear that he didn’t have much use for the work done by public employees, and particularly teachers. He had vowed during the Republican primary campaign to “break the back of organized labor in the schools.”
Once elected, he announced, “I am waiting for the teachers’ unions to take out full-page ads in all the major newspapers, apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign.”
He warned lobbyists--including those representing schools--"If you're not on the bus, we'll run you over with the bus."
So when a freshman State Senator from Southern Ohio introduced a 500-page bill to virtually eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees, no one who had been following the Governor’s position was surprised when he announced his support for it.
Since he had made it clear that he wasn’t prepared to talk with public employee unions—particularly teachers’ unions—no one was surprised when Kasich refused all attempts at dialogue while SB 5 was being rammed through both houses of the General Assembly despite significant opposition within his own party.
The pro-Issue 2 side is well-funded, and it’s providing plenty of TV ads to talk about some of the lesser provisions of Senate Bill 5. But if Senate Bill 5 passes, public employees will have virtually no representation rights. Managers will be free to run schools, departments, and hospitals as private empires, and employees will lose any ability to stick up for themselves and each other. That includes the bargaining they do for safety gear, reasonable class sizes, and safe working conditions.
Issue 2 is unsafe and unfair, and it hurts the middle class. That’s why I’m spending these few nice days of this awful October canvassing our neighborhood, encouraging my neighbors to join me in rejecting SB 5 by voting NO on Issue 2.
