Workers stage protests of Ohio union-rights bill

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Protests over collective bargaining in Ohio expanded Saturday to include private-sector unions and environmentalists, while Republicans considering changes to the bill said opponents put forth no ideas for improving the measure.

A crowd of several thousand that rallied at the Statehouse was peppered with signs for United Steel Workers, the Sierra Club and other groups beyond public- employee unions as Democratic groups sought to turn up the heat against Senate Bill 5.

GOP Senate leaders were working on additional changes to the bill to satisfy enough of their members to get the bill out of committee Tuesday and through a successful floor vote that could come as early as Thursday.

Senate President Tom Niehaus accused Senate Democrats of abandoning the legislative process. They announced Friday they would submit no amendments to the bill because they want it scrapped.

“As I sat down today to review the amendments submitted by Friday’s deadline, I expected to see their constructive ideas on how to address the concerns they’ve expressed, but they refused to submit a single change,” Niehaus said in a statement. “Much like their counterparts in Wisconsin, they apparently would rather grandstand in defense of the status quo.”

Diane Boeckman, 60, a retired child-care provider from Wapakoneta, said she was at the Statehouse rally because she believes rights for unions are good for everyone.

“They’re just eating people up, chewing ’em up and spitting ’em out,” she said, amid a crowd of banging drums, tooting horns and cheers. “People have a right to have a decent life, and then to be able to live when they retire.”

Lucinda McCloud, a steelworker at Ball Metal Container in Columbus, said she attended in solidarity with those in public unions.

“It hasn’t affected us yet, but it will,” she said.

Sierra Club organizer Teresa McHugh said the group sees union and environmental rights as intertwined, pointing to the BP oil spill as an incident where a safer work environment also would have benefited the environment.