Staffing negotiations at issue in Ohio union fight

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Roughly one in eight labor contracts for public-safety workers in Ohio sets minimum staffing levels, according to state estimates, a finding challenged by police and firefighter unions that argue such requirements are vital to public safety and more widespread.

The estimates play into a debate at the center of Ohio’s collective-bargaining law as voters consider Tuesday whether to reject it. Supporters and opponents have seized on the staffing issue in numerous ads in the $30-million plus ballot fight in an effort to sway Ohioans to their side.

The collective bargaining overhaul signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich in late March bars public employee unions from negotiating the number of workers required to be on duty or employed in any department or facility. However, a separate part of the law would leave it up to management to decide whether the overall number of employees could be part of contract talks.

The State Employment Relations Board’s routine review of 898 of more than 1,090 police and firefighters’ contracts found that such minimum staffing clauses existed in just about 12 percent of the agreements.

That’s a ballpark figure, the board’s researchers say, as not all contracts have been reviewed, and they could have missed minimum-staffing provisions buried in the contracts. The board administers the state’s 1983 collective bargaining law and keeps track of different contract provisions, such as minimum staffing requirements.

Mark Sanders, president of the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters, contends staffing requirements appear in “well over 12 percent” of firefighter contracts and could be approaching 25 percent mark.

Additionally, not every labor agreement specifies the number of police officers in patrol cars or dispatchers required to be on duty, said Jay McDonald, president of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio. But unions have been able to negotiate those staffing levels with management into other workplace policies, he said.

“I think it’s really hard to quantify what they are,” McDonald said, acknowledging that a majority of police contracts do not include minimum staffing requirements.

Unlike the law that sparked huge protests and recall efforts of lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio’s measure curbing union rights includes police and firefighters. The workers have been featured prominently in television and radio ads against the ballot referendum, known as Issue 2.

In a recent statewide radio ad paid for by the Fraternal Order of Police, a frightened 911 caller hears an intruder in his home and calls authorities.

“It might be 15 minutes or 20 minutes, just lock your bedroom door,” the dispatcher tells him.

“This may happen to you,” a narrator says. “Issue 2 could create dangerous cuts in safety staffing, reducing the number of police on duty.”

Backers of the law have also used the staffing level limits to argue how it could help managers keep more public safety workers employed, because it would give them more flexibility to use limited dollars. Toledo Mayor Mike Bell has appeared in their ads to argue that the law is needed to help cities meet budget shortfalls.

“I know firsthand that Issue 2 will give communities the tools they need to get spending under control and balance their budgets without raising taxes on you or laying off good employees,” Bell explains in the ad. He was a fire chief and state fire marshal before he was elected mayor in 2009.

Those on each side the collective bargaining law are split over who should be in charge making such staffing decisions.

The state lawmaker who sponsored the law said local officials and managers are fully capable of making tough choices over staffing levels — and they are more accountable to the public, who can vote them out for bad decisions.

“The idea that elected officials in a local community — who get the support of the majority of taxpayers — somehow are going to turn a blind eye to public safety just, I think, is not a fair assumption to make,” state Sen. Shannon Jones, a Springboro Republican, said in a telephone interview.

But labor groups representing public safety officers say they fear the law puts staffing levels into the hands of elected officials who could cut corners to get under budget.

“This is about life and death of citizens, and life and death of firefighters,” Sanders said. “The law eliminates the experts in the field from having the discussion.”