(Source for excerpts below: Link)
.....worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family....
....fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate......
We consider it our duty to reaffirm the the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful.....
Our ancestors demanded fairness, justice, and equality. Some people even died in the struggle for rights. Why are Ohio Republicans so determined to take these things away from public workers like teachers, firefighters, police, nurses, and state workers? Kasich, Shannon Jones, and the Ohio Republicans are trying to deny rights to the people who are the very foundation of your community.
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....There is a strong enduring Christian tradition of support for fair treatment of workers. In 1908 The Methodist Episcopal Church adopted The Social Creed supporting workers’ rights. This tradition continues today over a century later in the form of The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church. In 1968 Reverend Martin Luther King actively supported the struggle of sanitation workers to get fair treatment in the workplace. He was killed early in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee in that struggle. These are simply a few of the examples of this tradition.....
> In the Business-Journal, Tracy Wright, a Youngstown Firefighter, had this to say about collective bargaining:
...."Collective bargaining entails negotiating about safety concerns, working conditions, those kinds of things impact on us and the community as well," says the Youngstown Fire Department captain, a professional firefighter for 19 years. "It's important that the community recognizes what collective bargaining really means."
....Wright and Sgt. T.J. Assion of the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department, who also was on hand for the opening of the Struthers We Are Ohio office, disagree. Assion argued that Senate Bill 5 prevents discussion in negotiations on safety equipment and staffing.
"It's not going to have any immediate impact on any current contract other than to reduce staffing," said Assion, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141. "Who is the governor to know or who is [Senate Bill 5 sponsor] Sen. Shannon Jones to know how many police officers it would take?' he questioned. "It's the it's the officer that's doing the job, it's the firefighter that's doing the job that's the expert on the job, that's going to know what needs to be done. We use collective bargaining to accomplish these changes."
"It's not going to have any immediate impact on any current contract other than to reduce staffing," said Assion, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141. "Who is the governor to know or who is [Senate Bill 5 sponsor] Sen. Shannon Jones to know how many police officers it would take?' he questioned. "It's the it's the officer that's doing the job, it's the firefighter that's doing the job that's the expert on the job, that's going to know what needs to be done. We use collective bargaining to accomplish these changes."
Do you want Kasich and the Ohio Republicans to determine what is a correct staffing for a firehouse? Do you want them to set the number of patients a nurse in a state hospital should be able to manage during an 8 or 10 hour shift? Do you want Kasich, the Ohio GOP, and their business cronies to set up how many students should be in a classroom? Is 25 too little? Would 50 students in a classroom okay by them? Should we allow Kasich, Jones, and the Ohio GOP the power to decide how many police officers should be on duty within a police station or on patrol?
As Wright and Assion said in the article noted above, allowing elected officials and those in power to decide wages, safety equipment, workloads, and workers rights is totally wrong. Workers should have the right to decide what they want and need, and then negotiate about it. Taking away collective bargaining turns teachers, firefighters, police, nurses, and public workers into serfs and peasants subject to the whims and desires of their overlords.
Kasich won election by just under 2% of the vote. We cannot allow this power grab. We cannot allow our friends, neighbors, spouses, relatives, and people in our community to be denied their rights. Let Kasich, the Republicans, and their puppetmasters (the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party GOPers, and others) know that you stand with the people in your community and against the right wing, corporatocracy.
* Vote NO on Issue 2 *
*Vote No on Issue 3 *
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If Kasich and the Ohio Republican really wanted to save money, they would have refused to give another penny to failing charter schools that do nothing but enrich owners.