Ohio House panel sets possible vote on labor bill

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Legislative leaders plan to work over the weekend to hash out their proposed changes to a bill that would restrict collective bargaining for 350,000 public employees in Ohio, and a key committee is likely to vote on the measure next week.

The legislation has been in a holding pattern in the Republican-led Ohio House after it passed the GOP- controlled state Senate earlier this month.

On Friday, the chairman of the House Labor Committee set a Monday deadline for amendments and scheduled a possible vote for Tuesday.

Lawmakers in the House have been debating privately how to tweak the bill. They’re trying to craft changes that would satisfy not just their members but those in the Senate as well.

The Senate, which passed the bill on a 17-16 vote, would have to agree to any House changes before the governor could sign it into law.

“Obviously, it’s going to be difficult to bring everything together because we came out with 17 votes,” House Speaker William Batchelder told reporters this week. “It’s a tough bill.”

Batchelder has said he would like to move the bill before April 5.

The legislation would prohibit strikes and limit other rights of police, firefighters, teachers and other public employees. Unions couldn’t collectively bargain for health-care benefits or certain other working conditions, such as maximum class sizes, under the proposal.

Gov. John Kasich backs the measure. His spokesman Rob Nichols said Friday the new Republican governor is “happy with form the bill is in.”

But that doesn’t keep lawmakers from tinkering with it.

House spokesman Mike Dittoe said GOP leaders are strongly considering changing the bill to explicitly include equipment as one of the terms and conditions subject to collective bargaining.