NO!

* If you've ever had a family member in the hospital, you know about the importance of  nursing care and response time.  With SB 5, John Kasich and the Republicans want to take away the ability for nurses to negotiate their own staffing levels. How would you feel if your loved one was in the hospital and was having difficulty breathing, but there were not enough nurses to respond to this emergency?  People who are on the job know what it takes to properly staff a floor/unit.  Do you want Kasich and the Republicans or some other bureaucrat to decide that 1 or 2 nurses can staff a cardiac unit?  Do you want some pencil-pusher that knows nothing about patient care to decide how many nurses can cover 25 patients who are in serious condition?  SB 5 is a threat to our own health care and the medical care we demand for our family members.  We cannot allow SB 5 to remain as law.

YouTube

Vote NO on Issue 2.

Just to clear up a few things: 

(1) Fire fighters, police officers, teachers, state workers, and nurses must pay health insurance premiums, just like you, as they work and when they retire.  They do not get free health care.

(2)  Teachers should be able to negotiate their staffing levels.  Do you think that children can learn if there are 30, 40, or 50 students in a classroom?  With SB 5, teachers would no longer have a voice as to how many students are in their classes.  Do you think you could teach a class of 30 eighth graders per class period, with six classes per day (180 students/day)?  Are you tough enough?  If SB 5 stays, school boards will be pushed by the state to save money, fire experienced teachers, and load up the classrooms with more and more students.  Students do not perform well academically in crowded classrooms.  Teachers are experienced and educated enough to know what works in a classroom.  Kasich and the Republicans are just out to destroy teachers unions (Star Beacon) and public schools.


(3)  If your house is on fire, how many fire fighters should respond to save your family and your home?  Do you know?  Are 3 fire fighters enough?  5?  7?  Unless you are a trained, experienced fire fighter, you don't know what is an appropriate response team to a fire.  However, Kasich and the Republicans want to take collective bargaining away from fire fighters, even though fire fighters know exactly how many they need to bring to a fire.  Kasich and the Republicans want someone else to decide how to run a fire department, staffing numbers, equipment maintenance, what type of safety equipment is needed, etc.  When you need help, your local fire fighters are there to assist you.  They'll run into a burning building without hesitation, and respond with emergency squads for heart attacks?  Don't you want them to have the right to ask for certain protections on the job?


(4) Crime is another issue that could rise if Kasich and his GOPers have their way.  Once again, Kasich and the Republicans believe that professionally trained police officers should not be able to decide on their staff levels per shift, safety equipment, and hours worked.  If a mayor or city council decides that 5 police officers are enough to cover a city during a shift because it is too expensive to have more, would that make you feel safe?   Police officers know what is needed to work a shift, what types of equipment to bring to a crime, and how to conduct a case.  These are the types of things that collective bargaining irons out in negotiations. The police protect us, help us, and maintain the peace.  Shouldn't they have a say in their working conditions? We all remember Kasich's disrespectful comments about a police officer (see YouTube) that were hurtful, irresponsible, and rude. Kasich has to follow the laws just like the rest of us.


Kasich and the Republicans are lying when they say that public employees took away the economic growth in this state.  If my memory serves me correctly, John Kasich and his greedy Lehman Brothers caused the economic collapse of Wall Street and the financial recession we are still experiencing.  We cannot forget that he helped the public employees retirement systems of this state lose over $400 million in assets. 

Kasich and the Republicans have ulterior motives. While Kasich is giving away tax cuts, tax incentives, and your money by the millions to companies like Diebold and Bob Evans, he has other plans to give more tax cuts to others, and destroy the middle class of this state.  Kasich has already made cuts to vital programs, nursing home care, and education, while he gave millions away to corporations and overpaid his staff. Even the Republicans were able to find extra money to give pay increases to their staffs and hefty back pay checks.  If Kasich wins on SB 5, he'll give tax cuts to the rich, as he has promised (Dispatch), and tax cuts to banks (ProgressOhio). 

Vote NO on Issue 2.