Big business attacking teachers, advocating for SB5

The Plain Dealer reports on big Cleveland business advocating for SB5 provisions in the budget

A new, merit-based pay system for Ohio teachers should be reinserted into the Ohio budget before it is finalized, a group of Ohio business leaders said today.

The merit-based pay system, which mirrored language in Ohio's controversial new collective bargaining law, was included in the budget proposal previously passed in the House of Representatives. But the Senate has removed the merit system from its version of the budget.

"Without a strong education system, we can't find the knowledgeable workers we need," Greater Cleveland Partnership Senior Vice President Carol Caruso said at a Statehouse news conference.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership is the name the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce hides behind. They recently set aside $50,000 for their worker assault. You can see a list of the businesses that want to attack middle class workers who are their customers, here. Companies like:

• American Greetings Corp. who took tax payer money to stay in the state.
• Alcoa who also took a boatload of tax payer money in the form of tax breaks.
• The Cleveland Clinic, which has been in a tax battle to avoid paying taxes for years.
• The Cleveland Indians Baseball Club with their tax funded stadium.

The lsit goes on and on, and includes banks that received billions in tax payer bailouts, non profits funded by tax dollars, and even local governments.

Rather than attack their own customers, and tax payers who have generously supported their various enterprises, maybe they ought to just say thank you and be on their way.

Chamber of Commerce risks massive backlash

Attacking your neighbors, friends and family is hard, attacking your customers is just plain dumb

Tea party members are squarely in its corner, and it's widely assumed that conservative corporate entities from inside and outside Ohio will pony up at the appropriate time.

But will the real leader of the pro-Senate Bill 5 movement please stand up?

Those opposed to Senate Bill 5 - the new law that limits collective bargaining for Ohio's public employees - have a political action committee, are gathering signatures and are identifying multimillion-dollar revenue streams to fund a referendum campaign this fall.
[...]
Kasich has said he will campaign in favor of the bill, and he used a campaign fundraising email last week to talk about his support of the bill. But he and his staff are deflecting questions about who will lead Senate Bill 5's defense.

Tea party officials and business people say they simply don't know, and Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine said preliminary discussions to answer some of these questions are under way.

Many businesses simply do not support S.B.5, and those that do may find themselves on the wrong end of a public relations backlash. Hundreds of thousands of people adversely affected by this extreme legislation are also their customers and neighbors. We see this playing out in microcosm in Youngstown

Three more companies have left the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber as a result of the chamber board’s endorsement of Senate Bill 5

As OhioDaily notes

What will it take for this Chamber to realize that they ought to be helping to strengthen businesses in this challenged area and not endorsing partisan bills that weaken its workforce?

Local businesses that threaten their customers are going to come under intense scrutiny, and for what gain?