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Hundreds sign up for repeal of SB 5 in Youngstown kickoff
Hundreds of people added their names to petitions to repeal the controversial measure during Saturday’s signature-gathering event at the Lemon Grove Café, downtown Youngstown. Organizing the event was a grass-roots organization called “We are Ohio.” Here’s what the group says are myths and facts about the measure:
MYTH: The law is necessary to stimulate job growth and balance the state budget.
FACT: The measure will destroy jobs and lower wages, forcing many small businesses to lay off employees or close.
MYTH: Most public employees are overpaid and their salaries must be brought more in line with the private sector.
FACT: A recent study found that Ohio’s public workers earn 6 percent less each year than their private-sector counterparts. Also, the average Ohio Association of Public School Employee makes about $24,000 annually and retires with an average $900-a-month pension. Public workers do not pay into or receive Social Security.
MYTH: Public employees need to make greater sacrifices to reduce the state’s projected $8 billion budget shortfall.
FACT: Ohio is 44th of 50 states in per-capita spending on government workers. State employees have taken five pay freezes in the last nine years and have voluntarily made other sacrifices, saving the state about $250 million.
MYTH: Most people believe that public employees have too much power.
FACT: Roughly 61 percent of the public opposes taking collective-bargaining rights from most unions, and only about 34 percent support it, according to two recent polls.
Source: “We are Ohio”
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Sgt. T.J. Assion of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department recently spent six hours driving to and from Columbus, where he spent all of 15 minutes.
That was all the time he needed to achieve his only purpose for making the 340-mile round trip: to pick up loads of petitions for those who oppose Senate Bill 5.
He made time to take the trip at his own expense, which also demonstrated the length Assion, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141, went to express his opposition to the controversial bill, signed into law last month by Gov. John Kasich.
“It will eliminate our right to negotiate our health care, retirement benefits, overtime, shift hours, staffing levels, safety equipment and seniority,” said Assion. He was one of hundreds of people who signed such petitions during Saturday’s Mahoning Valley Signature Kickoff at the Lemon Grove Caf , 122 W. Federal St.
The two-hour gathering, coordinated by the grass-roots group “We are Ohio,” was one of nine such petition-gathering drives that took place Saturday across the state. The primary aim was to collect registered voters’ signatures to repeal SB 5, which limits collective bargaining for about 360,000 public employees.
The legislation allows union negotiations for wages, hours and working conditions, but bans collective bargaining for benefits. It also eliminates binding arbitration and prohibits public employees from going on strike.
At least 231,149 valid signatures are needed by June 30 to place a referendum of the law on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Signatures must be collected from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, organizers said.
Assion said that safety-force members were touted as heroes after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Nearly 10 years later, they continue to perform their jobs the same way, yet SB 5 treats them as “the enemy of the state,” he explained.
Also vehemently against SB 5 is Sam Mosca, president of the 98-member Youngstown Police Association.
“The Republicans [who support the law] are trying to blame the economic downfall of the state on labor unions, but they did not cause the downfall,” he said.
Mosca explained that the YPA has, via collective bargaining, made several key concessions to save the city money, including giving back about half of its clothing allowance and adjusting the pay scale for new hires. In addition, he said, the YPA has not sought raises in the last two years.
Nevertheless, “We don’t want to be unfairly treated and have our rights taken away,” he added.
Trudee Weatherby of Youngstown is neither a union member nor a public employee. That doesn’t diminish her desire, however, to see the divisive measure tossed out.
“We’re struggling as it is and [SB 5] is not making things any easier,” said Weatherby, who volunteers for state Sen. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, one of SB 5’s most vocal opponents.
Weatherby said she feels part of the state’s projected $8 billion budget shortfall could be erased if less money and fewer jobs were sent overseas, and a greater focus was on the needs of everyday Ohioans.
Also adding her signature to one of the petitions was Patti Matthews of Poland, who’s self-employed.
The state should make every effort to balance the budget, but not on the backs of the middle and working class, she said.
Many wealthy people negotiate their wages, benefits and vacation time with support, so middle-class workers should not have those same rights taken away, Matthews continued.
A related grass-roots effort to repeal the measure and set to begin Monday is sending an estimated 10,000 volunteers statewide to collect signatures, noted Anthony Caldwell of Columbus, a volunteer for “We are Ohio.” Attending parent-teacher events, cook-outs and numerous other gatherings, as well as going door to door, are some ways volunteers plan to get the word out, said Caldwell, formerly of Youngstown.
He called SB 5 “an attack on working people and the middle class” and predicted it would give too much power to employers at the expense of workers’ rights.
In addition to obtaining the needed signatures, people must talk to one another about the bill and vote in November, Caldwell said.
“This isn’t a union issue; it’s a city-community-driven issue,” he added.