A primer on collective bargaining as its future becomes cloudy

A primer on collective bargaining as its future becomes cloudy

PART 2 OF A FIVE-PART SERIES ON STATE ISSUE 2

By MARC KOVAC

news@vindy.com

UTICA

Ask Gene Branstool to describe what Ohio was like before public employees had collective bargaining, and he’ll tell you about a popular, though outspoken, home economics teacher in his rural hometown who nearly lost her job.

This was back when Branstool, a farmer and a Democrat in an area dominated by Republicans, was a member of the local school board, before the 15 years he spent in the Ohio House and Senate.

During a routine business meeting, Branstool and his fellow board members accepted the resignation of the aforementioned teacher after being told that she had agreed to the decision.

Turns out the teacher, who wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion, didn’t know anything about it. It was a decision made by her supervisor.

“Nobody [came] to her room,” Branstool said. “Nobody ever said, ‘Your lesson plans are shoddy.’ They were never there.”

In the end, the teacher appeared before the school board, and her contract was renewed.

“The community loved her as a home [economics] teacher,” Branstool said. “... That unjust dismissal probably had as much to do with us having a collective bargaining [law in the state as anything else].”

Branstool was the primary sponsor of what would become Ohio’s collective bargaining law, guiding how hundreds of thousands of public employees have negotiated contracts for nearly three decades.

It’s that law that the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature and Gov. John Kasich hoped to change through Senate Bill 5. They and other proponents say the collective bargaining pendulum has swung too far for the benefit of workers, at the expense of taxpayers who have to foot the bill for compensation packages that outpace those in the private sector.

“We’re just at the point where the balloon’s going to burst,” said state Sen. Kevin Bacon, a Republican from the Columbus area who was chairman of the committee that handled Senate Bill 5. “Not only have we gotten to a point where it’s not sustainable, we have a down economy at the same time. [Collective bargaining reform] is something we have to do as part of the overall restoring of fiscal responsibility.”

But opponents are fearful that the sweeping change proposed in the legislation will take Ohio back to the days before public employees had a place at the negotiating table, ultimately leading to fewer police officers, firefighters, nurses, teachers and other workers who provide services taxpayers have come to expect. And more strikes and worker unrest.

“I think the schools and government [are] better off when a person has a right to speak up,” Branstool said, adding later, “There’s not much you can do as an individual, but collectively, you can have some help and control some of your destiny.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.