Why No Rights At Work Is Wrong

Borrowed totally from OEA.

OUR OPPONENTS ARE ATTACKING WORKING AND MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE AGAIN

Our out-of-touch opponents are trying to deceive voters again like they did last year. This is worse than SB 5. It doesn’t have to be this way. The so-called, trick-titled “right to work" is WRONG because it is an unsafe and unfair attack on workers' rights, good jobs, families and the middle class. We call it No Rights at Work is Wrong and we don’t need it.

IT'S UNFAIR

If you work hard and play the rules, you should be treated fairly You should be able to earn a fair wage for a hard day’s work RTW is unfair because it degrades the value of hard work and the worker

IT IS AN ATTACK ON WORKERS' RIGHTS

RTW strips workers of their collective bargaining rights Voters have spoken on this issue: they support collective bargaining rights Workers should be able to speak up for themselves, their coworkers and their community on the job

IT HURTS JOBS/COMMUNITY

RTW means lower wages and fewer benefits for you, me, all of us We need good paying jobs for working and middle-class Ohioans Communities thrive and grow when Ohioans have good paying jobs

IT'S UNSAFE

It makes it harder to collectively bargain for life-saving equipment, staffing and other safety issues for the brave men and women that protect us, like police officers and firefighters It takes away the professional voices of those we trust to take care of our children and families, such as teachers and nurses It is wrong because it means less money, lower wages and fewer benefits for you, me and all of us in the middle class. Communities thrive and grow when Ohioans have good paying jobs. Let's stand up together and stick together for a decent standard of living.

We Deserve It.

An Unfair Editorial

The Plain Dealer had a terribly slanted and unfair editorial titled "Cleveland school-reform bill needs teachers' input". From the title it sounded as though some were finally calling for collaboration, before a rush to legislation. Alas, that was not the case, as the editorial demonstrated, first with a straw man argument

When the usually reserved Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson says he would trade his office for "quality education for our children," all of the other adults involved in the high-stakes discussion on school reform ought to determine what they would give up as well.

So far, judging from the Cleveland Teachers Union's tepid response to the mayor's Cleveland-only school reform package, the answer appears to be little or nothing.

One should hardly be confused by the empty rhetoric of a politician and then compare it to actual sacrifices working people ought to make on the basis on that rhetoric. So straight away we knew this editorial was headed south.

The mayor says that despite hours of meetings with union representatives, he has received no written reply to his wide-ranging draft legislation on school reform.

The draft legislation was only made available less than 24 hours ago as of the writing of this editorial! People have barely had chance to even read and digest it, let alone craft some policy response document in considered terms.

If the Mayor and the Plain Dealer truly wanted teacher input, why didn't they seek it during the crafting of the actual legislation, then they could have rolled it out with a lot more support and a lot less controversy. To now blame teachers, yet again, for his own failing to collaborate with critical stakeholders is very unfair.

SB5 arguments language

Here's the language for the yes and NO on issue 2 that will appear on the ballots

Argument and Explanation in Opposition to Issue 2

VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2, REPEAL SB 5 UNSAFE, UNFAIR AND HURTS OHIO'S MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES

UNSAFE

• Issue 2 puts all our families' safety at risk—making it harder for emergency responders, police and firefighters to negotiate for critical safety equipment and training that protects us all.
• Issue 2 will make our nursing shortage worse. It makes it illegal for nurses, hospital and clinic workers to demand reasonable safe staffing levels—so nurses will juggle more patients while their salaries and benefits are cut.

Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters say NO on Issue 2

UNFAIR

• The same Columbus politicians who call for "shared sacrifice" exploited a loophole, giving a special exception to politicians and upper management.
• Ohio's public employees have already sacrificed—saving Ohio taxpayers over $350 million through concessions, including pay freezes and unpaid furlough days.
• It's not Ohio values to let firefighters, police and teachers lose their rights and see wages and benefits gutted, while insiders, politicians and people at the top sacrifice nothing.

HURTS US ALL

• Instead of creating jobs to fix our economy, politicians like Governor Kasich gave away hundreds of millions in corporate tax breaks—draining our state budget while Ohio continues to lose jobs—and passed flawed laws like SB 5 to pay back their campaign donors.
• Teachers, nurses, firefighters are not the reason Ohio's budget is in trouble. Big corporations. their high-paid lobbyists and the politicians they fund are blaming middle class Ohioans for a problem they caused.

Issue 2: Another example of the politicians turning their backs on Ohio's middle class.
Send Them a Message- Stop Working for the Special Interests. Start Working for We the People.
VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2

Official Argument and Explanation for Issue 2

Vote YES on Issue 2

A YES vote on Issue 2 will make long overdue reforms to unfair and costly government employment practices in Ohio, while helping to get government spending under control and making government more accountable to taxpayers.
Your YES vote on Issue 2 will:

Protect Good Teachers and Improve Our Schools

• Issue 2 keeps the best teachers in the classroom by ending the unfair practice of seniority-based layoffs, which forces struggling schools to cut many of our best teachers first.
• Issue 2 returns control of our schools to taxpayers by bringing increased transparency to teacher contract negotiations.
• Issue 2 enables schools to retain and reward good teachers by allowing them to base pay raises on job performance.

Restore Balance and Ensure Fairness

• Issue 2 ensures that government employees receive quality health care, but asks them to pay a mere 15% of their health insurance coverage, which is still less than half of what the average private sector worker pays (31%).
• Issue 2 asks government employees to make a fair contribution (10%) to their taxpayer funded retirement plans instead of requiring taxpayers to provide these pension benefits for free. Many private sector workers get no retirement benefits at all.
• Issue 2 allows good job performance to be considered when awarding pay raises to government employees. Private sector workers earn their paychecks by doing a good job, and so should government employees.

Get Spending Under Control, Retain Jobs, and Protect Taxpayers

• Issue 2 will save our communities millions of dollars annually, helping them balance their budgets and retain jobs.
• Issue 2 will protect taxpayers by giving them the right to reject unaffordable government employment contracts.
• Issue 2 is the right change at the right time

Vote YES on Issue 2

Ohio Issue 2 arguments