Ohio voters trash anti-union bill

How things change when the workers are in motion.

Last January, governors across the country announced their agenda: slash human services, destroy public education and break unions. State legislatures passed numerous bills. Among the most unpopular were those that limited or eliminated collective bargaining for public workers.

One such bill just suffered a crushing defeat at the polls. Ohio Senate Bill 5, one of the most far-reaching of the bills that would deny collective bargaining to all public workers, was voted down 2-1.

Unions began mobilizing to defeat SB5 the moment Gov. John Kasich proposed it. “When the bill was introduced in January, we started to pour into Columbus,” explained Susan Schnur, a bus driver with Cleveland’s Regional Transit Authority. “The inspiration came from Wisconsin. Trips organized by my union, Amalgamated Transit, took Ohio members to Madison.”

Schnur represents 120 paratransit drivers on the Executive Board of ATU Local 268. They drive elderly and physically challenged residents to doctor appointments, work, school, church, the supermarket and more. They get people out of their homes.

Their job is one example of the necessary services that public workers provide. These workers are now portrayed — like autoworkers during the General Motors/Chrysler bailout — as lazy and overpaid.

“There were over 300 pages to the bill, and workers didn’t care about the minutiae,” Schnur added. “We just saw an attempt to get rid of unions and rip us off even more. That is why private sector unionists worked just as hard on defeating SB5 as public workers.

“My co-workers took off work and went to Columbus when we were doing daylong occupations of the State House. Some of the older workers remembered the sit-ins during the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. All of us knew that if we lost, we would be toast. Attacking seniority — hire and fire at will — was a major plank of the anti-union attack. There were discussions on the bus trips about how ‘they’ — the ruling class — will use you and then toss you out like used toilet paper.

“The biggest attacks were on the teacher unions, which are majority women. The struggle to save our unions brought the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers closer.

“The demonstrations were quite diverse. Many of the participants, especially from rural areas, were veterans who were mad at being treated bad like the rest of us.

“The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community took a very active role. The Human Rights Campaign sent organizers. Only with a union contract do LGBT people get job protection and spousal benefits, which unions won for workers in Ohio universities.

“Rallies in northeast Ohio and Columbus had great participation from the African-American community, including ministers, elected officials and the workers themselves,” Schnur added. A large percentage of public servants, including paratransit drivers, are workers of color.

Once the odious bill was passed, state unions began a petition drive to put SB5 on the ballot, so workers could vote to overturn it. This was no small undertaking. While Ohio’s Constitution allows legislation to be placed on the ballot as a referendum, requirements are steep. Not only did unions need to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures, they had to have a certain number of them from at least half of Ohio’s 88 counties — most of which are rural. Several years ago, the United Auto Workers led a drive for a referendum on a bill attacking workers’ compensation. While union volunteers collected well over the number of signatures required, the state ruled that an insufficient number of them were registered voters.

This time the whole labor movement mobilized. Thousands of people across the state volunteered. The AFL-CIO was overwhelmed trying to fit them all into the training meetings that were set up.

In the end, 1.3 million signatures were turned in. The 44-county requirement was more than met. Unions were jubilant over the prospect of doing what they had been calling for in Columbus, Madison and all over: “Kill that bill!” SB5 would be on the ballot as Issue 2.

“No on 2” yard signs popped up everywhere, and mailboxes were flooded with leaflets urging the same. No one does phone-banking better than the labor movement, but this was an extraordinary effort, with volunteers from across the country calling Ohio voters.

The voter turnout, 46 percent, was the largest in an “off” year — one with no national elections — since 1991. The tally was 61 percent against Issue 2, with only two counties voting in favor.

The mood was beyond celebratory when the results became clear. “We all were very exuberant, like Cleveland had just won a championship like the World Series,” said Schnur. “One thing we all learned is that if we pull together, we can win. But to continue the sports analogy, we all knew that the bosses were already planning for next season — the next attack on our class, the working class.”

While the capitalists have more tricks up their sleeves, they are nervous about the mood sweeping the country and the blow they took with the Ohio vote.

Workers were buoyant even before Nov. 8. “SB5, we hope the door hits you on the way out,” a worker posted on Facebook. This Election Day, labor slammed the door on capital, giving a wallop to a posterior already bruised by Occupy Wall Street and the global working-class upsurge that shows no signs of letting up.