On Tuesday November 8th of 2011 Ohio voters defeated a bill called SB5. This bill was an attempt by the Ohio Gov. John Kasich to end public sector employees' right to collective bargaining. Back in March the Ohio Legislature passed SB5 and Gov. Kasich very quickly signed into law. He wanted this to go into effect as soon as possible. Thanks to a campaign that was led by the Unions in Ohio, as well as community supporters, a petition drive was launched calling for a referendum to repeal this ridiculous bill. Union members and volunteers gathered more than 1 million signatures, 1.3 million to be exact, which allowed the initiative to be place on the November election ballot. And what happened when voters turned out to the polls to vote on this bill? The middle class defeated this anti-worker bill soundly, by a vote of 61% to 30%.
Now that is pretty impressive, the amount of signatures that were obtained is not an easy task by any means. So just getting this on the ballot to be voted on is a accomplishment in itself. But to actually crush this bill in the way it was speaks volumes as to what the middle class actually wants. We are not speaking about just the public sector middle class, no we are talking about the middle class in general, from public to private.
State and local government workers only make up 6.5% of the population in the state of Ohio. This tells me that the effort to repeal the bill received strong support from the private sector as well. You see people, no matter whether they are private sector workers or public sector workers, the people are tired of the government screwing us over. And in the state of Ohio they spoke up and said not this time.
Gov. Kasich and his fellow Gov. in Wisconsin, Scott Walker, try to use their state budget problems as an excuse to not just limit but to completely get rid of unions and their collective bargaining rights. They argue that public sector unions have too much power and are a huge liability and burden to the taxpayers. They state that this power is what causes the deficits in their budgets, not just state budgets but local budgets as well. These bills that these Govs. try to impose on the people not only try to eliminate collective bargaining rights, but they also look to impose health care and pension concessions that would significantly raise public employees expenses for these benefits and reduce their take home pay.
We here at Loose Topics have pointed many times in the past that these accusations are false. Public sector unions and their pensions do not add any more burden to the taxpayer. They are such small parts of the state and local budgets. But it is an easy target for these politicians, it is easy to make these public employees and their unions look like the bad guys because of tax money that may or may not be spent on them.
This is a huge victory for these public employees, their unions, and the middle class. You see collective bargaining rights is what gives these employees the ability to negotiate their wages, work conditions, benefits, and retirement. We have proven here time and time again that public sector employees already make considerably less then their counterparts in the private sector.
This bill, SB5, was nothing more then an attack on the middle and on middle class jobs. Obviously the citizens in Ohio saw it that way as well and they put an end to it. This victory shows that middle class people, whether public sector or private sector, want to send a message to our government. The message is that the middle class does not turn its back on the same people who watch ours. This victory shows that the middle class supports public employees and understands that public employees are not the problem, they are actually the problem solvers.
Now by no means is this fight over, just look at Wisconsin. There are even republicans that have stated publicly that the fight to end public employee rights is not over. Sen. Keith Faber, who wanted to see SB5 passed, said that he and other republicans would attempt to re-introduce some of the measures in SB5 when the Legislature gets together again next year.
So for now we can celebrate a small victory, thanks to the middle class in Ohio. But be sure that this fight is not over and it will most likely end up in your state and your city. We must be prepared to stand up like those middle class citizens did in Ohio. Whether you are a public sector worker or a private sector worker, we can not turn on backs on each. We must always protect those that protect us. So keep your head and ears open because one day it will be our turn to stand up and say..NO WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS AND TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE CHANGE....
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