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COLUMBUS — Even before the GOP-controlled House takes its final vote today, labor leaders and Democrats are gearing up to repeal the bill that dramatically limits the collective bargaining rights for 360,000 public workers.
The House Commerce and Labor Committee on Tuesday voted 9-6 along party lines in favor of a new version of the 435-page bill as roughly 450 protesters shouted in the Statehouse hallways.
The GOP-controlled House is expected to pass the bill today, the Senate will very likely agree to the changes, and Gov. John Kasich could sign it into law by early next week.
The timetable means a union-led referendum would likely take place Nov. 8.
“We are more unified than ever. They have woken a sleeping giant,” said AFSCME Ohio Council 8 official Tom Ritchie Sr.
Supporters of Senate Bill 5 say local governments need tools to manage their costs in the face of steep budget cuts, while opponents call it an attack on the middle class and on public employee unions that they say have been making concessions in the face of tough budgets.
No one disputes that the bill is the most significant change to public collective bargaining since it became the law in Ohio in 1983.
Senate Bill 5 would outlaw strikes by all public employees, require that pay be based on performance, bar employers from picking up the worker share of the pension contribution, and require employees to pay at least 15 percent of health care costs. Unions would not be allowed to bargain on layoff orders, staffing levels, shift assignments, promotions or other items.
Binding arbitration for safety forces would be eliminated, and employers could impose their last offer if both sides reach an impasse. If it turns out the last offer will require more revenues to pay for it, voters can force a referendum on the new agreement.
“We knew in the state legislature that we were going to be taking money away from local municipalities, townships, school districts. We have to give them something in order to help them control their costs. And I think this bill goes a long way in helping them control the costs,” said House Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman Joe Uecker, R-Loveland.
The state Department of Administrative Services estimated that the reforms could save state government $216.9 million a year and local governments $1.12 billion. Much of the savings would depend on how school boards, city councils and other local leaders use the reforms.
Kasich Press Secretary Rob Nichols said the governor supports the House changes and believes the reforms are needed so that local governments control their costs and don’t “raise taxes on businesses and individuals, driving them out of the state.”
House Speaker William Batchelder, R-Medina, said that he hopes the Senate will go along with the House changes to avoid a conference committee.
A referendum would delay the reforms, at least until November. Once the bill is signed into law, labor groups will have 90 days to get petition language approved by the attorney general’s office and then collect 231,147 valid signatures from Ohio registered voters. If the referendum is certified for the ballot, the law will be put on hold.
Labor leaders said they expect the campaign will cost tens of millions of dollars and will draw big money from outside groups. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, 54 percent of Ohio voters oppose restricting collective bargaining rights.
Before Tuesday’s vote, the House committee adopted more than two dozen changes to the bill, including provisions to allow workers to opt out of paying “fair share” fees to a union in lieu of dues and barring payroll deduction for union dues earmarked for political action committees without the worker’s written consent. Unions would still be required to represent those who don’t pay.
Ohio Civil Service Employees Association board members said letting workers skip out on paying dues or fees will devastate unions and their financial power.
“It’s an atrocity. As hard as it is for me to believe, they have actually made the bill worse,” said State Rep. Matt Szollosi, D-Oregon. He said changing the rules on fair share fees won’t save local governments any money and is meant purely to strike at the GOP’s traditional adversaries.
The new version also gives the State Board of Education and the administrative services director authority to help craft merit pay systems for teachers and other public employees.
House Democrats offered no amendments to the bill.
Protesters expressed confidence that voters will repeal the proposed law in a referendum.
Jeff Moore, president of Fire Fighters Local 3518 in West Chester, said that even in conservative Butler County he expects to find support for overturning the bill once it becomes law.
“We’re everybody’s neighbors,” said Moore. “We’re everybody’s friends.”
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