Ohio workers launch fightback campaign

Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 268 at April 25 Cleveland gathering. WW photo: Susan Schnur

On April 25 the Cleveland area AFL-CIO held the official kick-off of the campaign to overturn SB 5, the Ohio Senate bill that would destroy collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in the state.

Before the bill goes into effect, there is a 90-day period of petitioning in which opponents of the union-busting bill must gather over 250,000 signatures of registered voters from at least 44 out of 88 Ohio counties.

More than 500 people packed the Laborers Hall here to receive training and begin gathering the needed signatures. So many volunteers attended that the We Are Ohio Coalition ran out of petitions and other materials.

The mood was militant and ready to push back against the rich and powerful who want our pension funds, our school funds, our Social Security and whatever else they can steal from our class — the working class!