Showing Solidarity

Symbolism won't stop the Ohio's union busting Senate Bill 5 from passage, but it could help overturn it in a statewide referendum. Convincing local lawmakers like members of the Erie County Commission to pass a resolution opposing SB 5 matters because one of the main premises of the bill is that local politicians like the commissioners don't have a level negotiating playing field with public unions and need more power.

By approving an anti-SB 5 resolution the commissioners will be saying that unions bargain in good faith and they don't want a bill that would criminalize strikes and restrict collective bargaining for issues such as healthcare, pensions, privatization and workforce levels.That passage of SB 5 will  lead to wage and benefit cuts and privatization that would have a tidal wave effect on their county sharply reducing already falling income, property and sales tax revenues.

"People have died for their right to withold their labor," Robert Warner, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades president, told the commissioners at their Thursday meeting. "Don't sit on the fence fellas."

SB 5 proponents will always cherrypick to find cases where unions defended an incompetent or corrupt worker who deserved to be fired or incidents of union members receiving overly generous benefits. But those are the exceptions, not the rule. The majority of public unions have been making concessions for years as have their private sector counterparts.

As liberal economist Jack Rasmus writes quoting US Department of Labor statistics, total health benefit increases for local and state government workers rose just 0.6 percent in the last year while health care premiums had double digit rate increases between 1997 and 2007. http://ko-kr.connect.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=170570316324343

Pension contributions make up just 2.9 percent of state spending, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators with The Center for Retirment Research putting the figure at 3.8 percent. And pension underfunding is not due to overly generous pensions, but the Wall Street piracy that triggered the Great Recession. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/06/109649/why-employee-pensions-arent-bankrupting.html

"This is ridiculous. We have 28 years of good collective bargaining," said Mark Horton, Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters, secretary/treasurer. "We have no bankruptcies because our employees have made the concessions they need to make."

Commissioner Bill Monaghan, a former Teamster who seems to favor the resolution, said none of the local municipal commissions in Erie County favor the resolution. They're probably afraid of offending Republican Gov. John Kasich and feel they have nothing to gain from passing a resolution that could make it harder for their communities to recieve state money or services.

But as local pols need to show which side they're on. Kasich or their constituents who elected them. Political courage is often an oxymoron, but now is the time for local politicians to show some.

"When folks get elected they're expected to be leaders, not followers," said Joe Thayer, North Central Ohio Buildings Trades executive board member. "This isn't a union, non-union issue. It's a standard of living issue."

The commissioners are expected to vote on the resolution at their Monday meeting. Hopefully they'll show solidarity and set a standard for other local leaders.