Alliance for Retired Americans Blog

Ohioans Push for Repeal of Senate Bill 5

Yesterday, hundreds of retirees and workers alike cheered as the referendum on Ohio’s controversial collective bargaining law was officially certified for the November ballot, with tens of thousands of signatures to spare. Over 1.3 million total signatures were turned in last month to put the referendum on the November ballot to overturn Senate Bill 5's drastic actions. 

In the morning, the Ohio Alliance's Norm Wernet sat on the Ohio AFL-CIO Community Allies Roundtable yesterday morning with AFL President Trumka and a wide variety of community organizations including: NAACP, Union Veterans, African American Greek Fraternal Organizations, Community for Change Ohio, A Phillip Randolph, pastors, and others. All parties present were there to talk about how and why they are  fighting for economic justice through the ballot campaign to repeal Senate Bill 5, which would strip public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights.

Wernet said:

It is a simple math, better wages and working conditions means a chance at retirement. Lower wages and benefits and unsafe working conditions mean less security and less of a chance at retirement or a life after work plays out.

Bargaining in the workplace is an American tradition part of building out our democracy. Retired trade union workers know democracy at work has to be defended for all who work. Retired workers public and private fought for those basic rights at work and SB5 moves the clock backwards.

Back in the 60’s and 70’s many public worker wages were so low that you could work 30 - 40 years and still be in poverty in old age and qualify for Aid for the Aged. I know because I took their applications in the welfare department. ... Public workers lived in or near poverty after we got too old or disabled to work.

This spring Ohio Alliance for Retired American leaders organized members and joined the repeal drive without being asked or prodded because: An injury to one is an injury to all.

If you are a steelworker, an auto worker, a chemical worker, a telephone worker, or even a public worker, we have all seen retirement security eroded by mis-management, bankruptcies, stock market manipulation and bad business deals gone wrong. Bargaining needs to be strengthened for all workers not diluted.

The bargaining law did not cause the state’s fiscal issues. The lack of work did. The People’s veto of SB5 is essential to protecting all who want to live into a life after a life of work.

The Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans, its leaders and members, are ready to engage this campaign for basic rights at work and a reasonable standard of living.

 

That evening, a town hall meeting in Columbus drew a large crowd who heard from AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka and Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga about next steps with the referendum to repeal the anti-collective bargaining Senate Bill 5. Alliance President Barbara Easterling joined the town hall via tele-conference call which included an additional 70,000 on the line. The town hall event kicked off the campaign to defeat the statewide assault on civil rights at the polls in November.  Easterling said, “Our Ohio chapter has over 270,000 members and nearly 100 groups, and we will do everything we can between now and November.” 

Photos: Norm Wernet from town hall in Columbus. Top: 3 Akron retirees; Bottom: Retired Steelworkers from Columbus

People's World ~ It's Our Turn: Campaign to repeal Senate Bill 5 takes off

 

I am a Public Service Worker: Former BWC Investigator and Retiree Jean Fightmaster

Re-posted from Ohio AFL-CIO.

Jean Fightmaster has been retired for over four years but remembers the days before collective bargaining in Ohio.  Terrible working conditions and issues with safety were common.  Sexism, racism and favoritism in the workplace were the order of the day.  “I remember when multiple female co-workers, who had more experience and seniority, were passed up for promotions, and instead the jobs were given to less experienced men,” said Fightmaster.

Jean Fightmaster – a retiree from OCSEA/AFSCME Local 11 – started her public service career in 1978 at Franklin County Human Services in the clerical department then moved her way up the ladder – while raising three kids – to become an investigator for the state, tracking welfare fraud and food stamp eligibility.  Fightmaster moved over the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) in 1988, where she served as an investigator until she retired in 2006.  At the BWC, she investigated fraud in workers’ compensation claims but also worked with families, affected by a death on the job, to assist with their claims.  “Our job was to be impartial in order to protect the interests of Ohio taxpayers, but also to protect the families affected by these devastating losses,” said Fightmaster.  

Fightmaster is concerned that Senate Bill 5 will lower the bar for all workers in the state.  “It is a slippery slope,” said Fightmaster.  “I remember the horrible things co-workers and friends went through before the collective bargaining law was passed.  The law has stopped a lot of those abuses and helped to improve conditions, not only for firefighters, sanitation workers, case managers, and other public service workers, but for workers in the private sector as well.  That is why this law is so dangerous – because it puts all workers at risk.”

As a retiree, Fightmaster is also concerned about the effect the bill will have on retirement security for workers and the hit local economies will take from the loss of retiree spending.  “This bill is an attempt to destroy unions entirely and will take away workers’ voices on issues like retirement, which is an important part of all local economies in Ohio,” said Fightmaster.  “Like my husband and I, Ohio retirees tend to stay in Ohio and spend their money in their communities.  If this bill passes, though, it could put at risk billions of dollars that keep Ohio small businesses running.

  - Photo by Dave Harding/Progress Ohio