Stand With Ohio's Working Families To Oppose SB 5 Revisions To Ohio's Collective Bargaining Law

[Joanne98]

When the economic recession of 2008 struck the nation, virtually everyone agreed that Wall St. excesses and corporate greed created a dangerous scenario by which the rich continued to amass wealth, and the working-class/poor suffered increased financial hardship.

And today, as unemployment remains disturbingly high, foreclosures continue at alarming rates and the average citizen has to stretch his/her dollars even further, why is the responsibility of rectifying our budgets being unfairly placed on workers? Why must unions be forced to resort back to the days when individuals had no rights and employers could systematically oppress and take advantage of whomever they pleased?

And when workers were not the ones responsible for the worst financial calamity ever witnessed since the days of the Great Depression, why must they be the ones to continuously bear the brunt of sacrifice?

Senate Bill 5 would significantly change the ability of state and local public workers to negotiate terms of employment through collective bargaining.

Here are some of the proposed changes as provided by Sen. Shannon Jones.

STATE WORKERS

• Eliminates collective bargaining for state workers, including higher-education employees, and calls for the development of a merit-based system.

LOCAL WORKERS

• Removes the requirement that deadlocked negotiations with safety forces go to binding arbitration, instead extending the prior union contract for one year.

• Allows employers to hire permanent replacement workers during a strike.

• Removes health insurance from collective bargaining. Management would pick a uniform insurance policy that would apply both to themselves and workers, and employees must cover at least 20 percent.

• Prohibits public employers from picking up extra employee pension contributions.

• Removes from state law automatic pay increases for experience and education.

• Eliminates from state law leave policies and automatic 15 sick days for teachers.

• Requires mediators to consider wages of employees who are not members of the union and does not allow them to consider future tax increases as part of an entity's ability to pay.

• No longer requires that once a subject is included in a contract that it becomes a mandatory part of future bargaining.

• Defines an "impasse" as a lack of agreement after 90 days. After that point, it requires each side to make public its last, best offer.

• Prohibits school districts from bargaining away certain management powers, such as the ability to deploy teachers to certain buildings.

• No longer makes length of service the key factor when deciding on layoffs.

• Requires a public employer to publish on its website any changes in the union contract that impact compensation of workers.

• Requires the employer and the State Employment Relations Board to publish the parties' offers on their websites before and after fact-finding is complete.

• Allows schools or local governments in fiscal emergency to terminate or modify a collective-bargaining agreement.

Join with Ohio's working families to oppose these politically motivated attacks on our public servants. Whether you are a union member or not, you can show your support for stopping the Republican's assault on the middle class by attending either or both of two public hearings on the proposed legislation this week.

SB 5 Jones, 2nd Hearing, Proponent Testimony
Revisions to Collective Bargaining Law

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - 2:30 pm.
South Hearing Room at The Ohio Statehouse

SB 5 Jones, 3rd Hearing, Proponent/Opponent
Revisions to Collective Bargaining Law

Thursday, February 17, 2011 - 10:00 am.
South Hearing Room at The Ohio Statehouse

http://www.progressohio.org/blog/2011/02/join-with-ohios-working-families-to-oppose-sb-5-revisions-to-ohios-collective-bargaining-law.html