In the first major election since Occupy Wall Street swept the nation, Ohioans have a chance on Tuesday to repeal draconian restrictions on labor rights. A victory for the "No on 2" forces would mark the first sign that the new upsurge in progressive energy is capable of impacting electoral outcomes.
If you are in Ohio or can get there today or tomorrow, the good folks fighting for repeal could really use your help on the ground right now.
Extreme right-wing Gov. John Kasich and conservatives in the Ohio legislature passed an anti-labor bill in the spring which destroyed collective bargaining rights for the state's public workers. It would jeopardize the pay, benefits and even jobs of thousands of Ohioans. Together with Kasich's budget, the offensive legislation would cut 51,000 jobs in the state. Instead of finding ways to help Ohioans in hard times, the Kasich crew is finding new ways to cut jobs.
Left intact, the anti-worker legislation puts everyone at risk. Police and firefighters wouldn't be able to come together to demand better equipment to protect Ohioans. Nurses wouldn't be able to ask for the proper number of caregivers to handle all the incoming patients in our hospitals. Teachers wouldn't be able to push for the best teaching methods or student-teacher ratios to optimally educate our kids.
Victory is essential. It would demonstrate that progressives and labor can repudiate and punish Tea Party overreach - in an electorally important swing state. It would show that the partially successful recalls in Wisconsin were a part of a general move away from GOP extremism. And it would offer proof that newly-energized progressives are willing to occupy public parks - and ballot booths, too.
We know that our opponents are sweating bullets about this race. At the last minute, shadowy corporate forces have stepped in to dump in millions of dollars to pass.
It's no secret why. They've delivered body blows to labor rights and restrictions on Wall Street over the last generation. Their wealth has risen exponentially over the last decade, while at the same time, middle class incomes have shrunk. They need to win in this key battleground state to keep the ball rolling.
But the gig is up. Millions of Americans have seen the awful outcome of policies that benefit the top 1 percent, at the expense of the rest of us. Now we want to return to our grandparents' wisdom: in the wake of the Great Depression, they passed major labor reforms that allowed men and women to collectively bargain for better pay and working conditions. Our forebears also passed major financial reforms to keep speculators and big Wall Street firms from ripping off average investors and entrepreneurs. Those two reforms helped American build the greatest middle class that the world has ever seen.
If Ohio repeals Senate Bill 5 by voting "No on Issue 2" on Tuesday, the victory will validate the thousands who rallied at the state capitol in Wisconsin in February, the hundreds of thousands who rallied against austerity in every congressional district over the summer, and the inspirational crowds who gather every day at Zuccotti Park and Occupy sites around the country.
More importantly, we take a step toward recovering our grandparents' wisdom - and rebuilding the American Dream.
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We have seen massive voter fraud thru voting machine hacking and a GOP secretary of State doing whatever it takes to deliver the GOP the results they want.
Mr. Jones, I really like your thinking and have become a fan.
Remind me which union President told the kids to be damned because they don't pay dues....
These “citizens” choose to hide behind the rhetoric rather than to vote intelligently.
While never demanding the truth on any issue or "Predicament" their candidates find themselves in; these “voters” poll out with the same a-moral conservative convention, as their confederate ancestors.
What is truly astonishing, is that while these Republican voters know that in the end their own rights and civil liberties are at stake, perceivably, THEY DON’T CARE as long as their candidate or issues are what they consider to be 'pro-white'.
It’s as if they believe they have an indirect guarantee given to them from certain “white-wing” political conductors of an ‘underground legislative railroad’ of sorts.
This legislative deception leads our people away from freedom and democracy, taking us back some 200 years to a new and improved structure of ECONOMIC SLAVERY, fueled by UNREGULATED CAPITALISM.
Informed voters of moral and intellectual conscience are voting NO ON ISSUE 2.
I use to live in Cincy and I would be voting NO if I still lived there.
I lived in Bond Hill... Carrahan Street ... and I hope there will be people in that area....
that will feel like I do.... and go to VOTE. Every vote counts.... but in order to be "counted"
you MUST vote .
Private Sector unions I support . . . Police & Fire unions I support . . .
Every other public sector union is a drain on society.
The teachers union is fighting to keep their terrible system in place where people receive raises just for showing up rather than the quality of their work.
Recently in Ohio, 5 of the last 13 teachers of the years were fired because the union rules favor people who have been teaching longer rather than teaching better.
You lay with the Republican elephant, you get elephant fleas.
When that simmer gets to be a full rolling boil, all AITCH is going to break loose in this country.
Obama wins - no complaints.
Kasich wins - it's fixed.
Democracy in the workplace is what gives workers a voice--a voice that canhold corporations accountable and all outsourcing is about is the truth about how corporations feel about democracy..
Corporations prefer dictatorship agendas or limited democracies that make it impossible to vote in representation that prioritizes ppl over profits...
The bankers prefer sharia law and nations who keep the ppl in debt--they prefer far right intolerant policies and the politicians that can be bought off to keep them above the law while prosecuting the ppl for every wrong they commit----Union busting is what has created this evil 1% that only cares about itself---it hasw created a chamber of commerce that encourages outsourcing andcompanies like coke cola who move to colunbia and can hire security(death squads) to hunt down and kill union organizers or anyone trying to increase minimum wage...
Wake up America! Vote NO on Issue 2----The American ppl deserve a voice to fight against the enemies of democracy right inour own backyard.
So you want public employees to have money forced from their pay to be given to a special interest with no choice? That isn't democracy dude.
Using poor logic takes no effort. Let me show you......given your support of this measure, I guess we can assert that: You support taking away the ability of people to come together and seek better conditions in a work place? That isn't democracy dude.
More accurately it would indicate that union money can buy scare tactic, fear-mongering TV commercials.
Why does that bother you? Do you think that fear-mongering TV should be a Republican privilege? If the Republicans actually believed this business about campaign contributions being "free speech," why didn't I hear any of them come to Bill Clinton's defense when he was caught "listening" to what foreigners like Riady had to "say?"
There’s no question these contracts are good for those with secure jobs in the public sector. But they can be increasingly off-putting for new employees as they often leave them completely vulnerable no matter how good of a job they’re doing (http://eng.am/n6Bc6d).
Good advice for anyone curious about the issue in Ohio, is to educate yourself on the issue and not blindly associate it as an issue of partisan politics. Despite the message being propagated, this is not a red state/blue state issue. New York and Connecticut, with Democratic governors have implemented new contracts that in some cases are more constricting than those in Ohio or Wisconsin (http://eng.am/qh2i1T).
Some studies will posit that there’s 43% gap in public and private sector compensation in Ohio (http://eng.am/pFPawi). Others say that gap is only 1% (http://eng.am/rPYEPZ). There’s no debate about the amount of unfunded liabilities the state is racking up (http://eng.am/p9JEUG). The question becomes how will the state respond so it doesn’t go the way of Rhode Island where insolvency threatens the entire state (http://eng.am/rPYEPZ)?
Because public unions will always put people out of work instead of taking cuts - they get paid either way and could care less about workers - they do not even know their names as they are simply a digit in a headcount formula when they get their check from public accounts on a worker's behalf..
1. It was passed by replacing a member of the committee -- from his own party -- who would vote the way Kasich wanted.
2. Loopholes in the bill exempting government from the law.
Apparently, what was good for the goose, was not good for the gander. And Kasich wasn't above pulling a fast one to get it done.