Ohio’s fight to preserve public sector unions began in February of 2011 when a Republican Senator introduced Ohio’s Senate Bill 5. SB 5 was designed to curb the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers, including teachers, police, and firefighters. Despite rallies of thousands at the Statehouse, the bill passed the remaining hurdles to be signed into law by Republican Governor John Kasich in March. Among other provisions, the law prohibited collective bargaining over wages, hours, pensions and healthcare plans. In place of yearly step increases in raises, SB 5 mandated merit raises. The law also undermined workers’ abilities to gain leverage during contract negotiations by outlawing strikes, and imposing fines for walkouts.
Yet, the fight was not over once Kasich signed the bill into law. Ohio has a mechanism for overturning unpopular legislation. Specifically, labor’s supporters had to gather enough signatures—over 200,000—within 90 days of the law’s passage to get a measure overturning the law on the ballot. Ohioans mobilized. Spearheaded by the union-backed group We Are Ohio, coalitions of unions, community-based organizations, and private and public sector workers of all stripes went door-to-door, made phone calls, and held public rallies. The signatures collected far surpassed expectations, amounting to over a million by July. With the measure on the ballot, the work continued, and more than 17,000 volunteers canvassed and made phone calls to turn labor’s supporters to the polls in November. On Election Day, the anti-union bill was resoundingly rejected by the voters of Ohio: 61 percent of the voters opted to support the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions, while only 39 percent voted to keep the law.
Sources:
Kroll, Andy. 2011. Bye Bye SB 5: Anti-Union Law Repealed in Ohio. Mother Jones. Retrieved from http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/11/issue-2-sb-5-ohio-repeal on Dec 7 2014.
Vargas-Cooper, Natasha. 2011. In Ohio, Labor Rallies for Referendum Against Anti-Union Bill. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/in-ohio-labor-rallies-for-referendum-against-anti-union-bill/72569/ on Dec 7 2014.
We Are Ohio. 2012. A Look Back on SB 5. Retrieved from http://action.weareohio.com/page/content/sb5history/ on Dec 7 2014.
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