LABORERS LOCAL 134

Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:30:34 -0500
From: arichards@aflcio.org
To: timmulford@hotmail.com
Subject: Labor Updates: Thousands to Protest SB 5, Other Anti-Worker Legislation, I am a Public Service Worker and More!

IN THIS EDITION

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Join Thousands on Tuesday to Oppose SB 5 and Kasich’s Attacks on Working Families

Tuesday will be another unprecedented day at the Ohio Statehouse. Thousands of hard-working firefighters, nurses, sanitation workers, bus drivers and other public service workers along with small business leaders and community members and former Gov. Ted Strickland will pack the Statehouse at 1PM on Tuesday to oppose Kasich and his political allies’ assault on the middle class and demand State Senators reject Senate Bill 5.

On Tuesday and Thursday of last week, thousands of workers converged on the Statehouse to demand that lawmakers focus on jobs not attacking working families. Workers, clad in red “say no on SB 5” shirts and chanting “kill the bill” and “unions united will never be defeated,” filled the Statehouse to near capacity.

Mericle Long, a supply coordinator at Ohio State University who lives in Columbus and a member of the Commuincations Workers of America, was one of the thousands who turned out to show her opposition to SB 5 and call on Gov. Kasich and his allies to stop attacking working families. “This bill puts at risk future generations of Ohioans, like the students I provide services for,” said Long in the overcrowded hallway outside the hearing room on Tuesday. “At a time when workers and small businesses are struggling to make ends meet, we need leaders to work to create an economy that works for all and propose initiatives that allow workers to reinvest in their communities, not lower the bar for all workers.”

The Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee will again hear testimony on the legislation starting at 4PM on Tuesday. Already, Republicans are showing their opposition to the bill. The Plunderbund blog reported this weekend that Senators Scott Oelslager, Jim Hughes, Tim Grendell and Karen Gilmor are all opposed to the bill in its current form. Senators Bill Seitz, Bill Beagle, Jimmy Stewart, Frank LaRose, Gayle Manning, and Tom Patton are also possible no votes. To call your Senator to ask them to oppose Senate Bill 5 and Gov. Kasich’s attack on working families that will destroy Ohio’s middle class, dial 1-888-218-5931.

“Nothing speaks more to the savagery of modern day politics than Senate Bill 5,” said Lou Geiger, a Dayton sewer worker and AFSCME member who supported Republicans in November, during testimony Thursday. “This loathsome piece of political payback is a malicious attack on public servants, our unions, our state economy, and our towns. The bill does nothing to stimulate our economy, bring jobs to our dying cities, eliminate the plague of unemployment, or provide for the greater good of all Ohioans.”

We are winning this fight but we need to keep the pressure on our Senators to do the right thing. Click here for ways you can get involved.

- Photos by AP Photo/Terry Gilliam

Anti-Worker Bills in the House Go After Overtime Pay and Project Labor Agreements

Earlier this month, we reported that the house has introduced a bill that would put in jeopardy the compensation for overtime for Ohio’s most vulnerable workers. Hearings on the bill – House Bill 61 – started last week and will continue this week. Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga asked Committee members, in a letter sent last week, to oppose the legislation because it would allow employers to “skirt time tested labor law and minimize overtime pay…without the protections of a legally binding collective bargaining agreement and sufficient inspection and enforcement, HB61 would embolden the ‘bottom line’ business nature of employers.”

Donnie Blatt, Rapid Response Coordinator for United Steel Workers District 1, testified that the bill “would place overtime pay in great jeopardy and mandatory compensatory time agreements would too often become a condition of employment instead of a choice for compensation.”

The house also introduced legislation that would attack project labor agreements – which are collective bargaining agreements between building trade unions and contractors that govern terms and conditions of employment for all craft workers - union and nonunion – on a construction project. In a recent News-Herald article, Lake-Geauga AFL-CIO President Robert Schiebli said eliminating PLAs would be devastating for communities as a whole. “Quality would suffer, deadlines would suffer because people are going to come in who are unqualified to perform the work,” said Schiebli. “It’s a complete attack on working class people and working America.”

The Ohio AFL-CIO will continue to monitor both of these bills and keep you informed needed action.

I am a Public Service Worker: Firefighter K.J. Watts

K.J. Watts and his fellow firefighters at the Lancaster, Ohio fire house are in the middle of finishing up their daily training when they receive a call. A fire has broken out across town. Without a second thought, Watts and others move into action, throwing on their gear and moving as swiftly as they can to get out the door and to the scene as quickly and safely as possible. Watts – who is trained as both a paramedic and firefighter – is working his paramedic role on this day and hops into the station’s ambulance. Watts is finishing up his final 24 hour shift for the week and ready to get some time off to see his six kids and wife. But serving the Lancaster citizens comes first at the moment.

At 21 years old, K.J. Watts (pictured below) – who was one of the thousands of workers and community members at last week’s historic turnout against Senate Bill 5 – decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and began the rigorous training to become a firefighter. He is now a 12 year veteran of the Lancaster Fire Department and has no plans of ending his service to the Lancaster community until he physically can’t do it anymore. “I love this job because of the sense of service it instills in us,” said Watts. “Being a firefighter is more than just a job. It is a brotherhood and everything we do is about giving back to the community.”

Not only do Watts and other firefighters spend 56 hours a week either at the fire station or fighting fires and providing emergency paramedic service to Lancaster residents. They also do charitable work in the community on their days off, tutoring children every week as part of the Ohio READ program, raising $20,000 every year for the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association fund drive and raising money to sponsor sports teams for children in Lancaster. Watts is also involved in community activities in Canal Winchester, where he lives with his wife, four daughters and two sons.

But Watts and firefighters across the state are worried that Senate Bill 5 – which would scrap collective bargaining for hard-working firefighters, nurses, bus drivers and other public service workers in an attempt to destroy unions in Ohio entirely – would put the safety of Ohioans at risk. “This bill opens the doors for cuts to services that Lancaster residents cannot afford,” said Watts. In their last two contracts, Lancaster firefighters took pay cuts to help the city with its budget problems. The cuts amounted to over one million dollars in savings for the city and kept the city from laying off firefighters from an already stretched department.

“We understand the budget problems the economic recession has created for Ohio,” said Watts. “That is why we took two years of consecutive pay cuts. We are doing our part and want to work with lawmakers. But they need to stop playing partisan political games that will hurt all Ohio workers if we are to solve these problems together.”

Watts also sees this bill as an assault on Ohio’s middle class and a distraction from working on creating jobs for Ohio’s unemployed. “Some of the same politicians who have continued to increase their salaries and the salaries of their staff, are asking hard-working firefighters, nurses, and other public service workers to bear the brunt of our budget crisis. Ohioans want lawmakers to be focused on creating good jobs not pushing partisan policies that attack Ohio’s middle class.”

- Photo by Progress Ohio/Dave Harding

Join the Fight to Save Ohio’s Working Families

Senate Bill 5 is only the start of a coordinated effort to destroy unions and erode the middle class in Ohio. That is why it is critical to get involved in the Ohio AFL-CIO’s Labor Action Team program to continue to build momentum to pushback against the Gov. Kasich’s anti-worker agenda. Click here to sign-up today.

Area Labor Federation Coordinators Kathleen Green, Sarah Smith, Kathleen Green, Kenny Woolum, George Shafer, and Les Wiley along with Ohio AFL-CIO staff Jason Perlman and Jeanette Mauk are working hard to bring the struggle to your area through the program. As a member of the Labor Action Team, you will help to get the word out to workers and the general public about these assaults on working families through in-district meetings with legislators, rallies, town hall meetings, earned media events, phone banking, and other actions. To sign-up for the Labor Action Team, click here.

Also, if you are looking to take action on Senate Bill 5 today, join one of our phone banks (click here to watch a video made, by phone banker Lauren Michelle Kinsey, from yesterday’s Columbus phone bank). Phone banking is being conducted in Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Lima, Portsmouth and Youngstown. See below for contact info for each site.

Akron
Contact Kathleen Kelly for more info at 330-612-5573.

Canton
For more info, contact Kathleen Kelly at 330-612-5573.

Cleveland
For more info, contact Jeanette Mauk at 937-260-2599.

Columbus
Contact Sarah Smith for more info at 614-586-6338.

Dayton
For more info, contact Kenny Woolum at 937-823-5717.

Lima
Contact George Shafer for more info at 567-208-3453.

Portsmouth
For more info, contact Kathleen Green at 614-570-8834.

Youngstown
Contact Kathleen Kelly for more info at 330-612-5573.

Wisconsin’s Struggle is Our Struggle

Over 70,000 people rallied in Wisconsin on Saturday and Sunday to protest Gov. Walker’s partisan anti-worker agenda. Today will be the seven straight day of massive protests against Walker’s proposals that are similar to what Ohio workers are facing with Senate Bill 5.

Forbes – that’s right, Forbes – ran a great piece detailing the hidden agenda that is driving Gov. Walker and the broader assault we are seeing across the country on working families. Here is what Forbes had to say:

Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers…this is, indeed, the first shot in the final battle to end unionism in America…Why are the Koch Brothers so interested in Wisconsin? They are a major business player in the state.

The Koch Brothers are behind much of the funding that supports the Tea Party movement and funded and worked closely with many of the anti-union groups, including Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Reason Foundation and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

There is no doubt this is a coordinated National effort to destroy unions and erode the middle class in order to enrich the corporate CEOs and Wall Street profiteers who have wrecked our economy. The struggle in Wisconsin is being underwritten by the same interests who are pushing the attacks we are facing in Ohio – not only with Senate Bill 5 but with legislation to get rid of overtime pay, go after the retirement security of public service workers and other anti-worker measures – and across the country.

But one thing they failed to realize is that the labor movement has a history of standing up and beating back the tide of corporate CEO greed and power that constantly tries to wash away the gains we have made for all working people. We stand in solidarity with Wisconsin because it is our fight too. We are one. If you are on Facebook, please click here to like the “We Are One” Facebook page.

Ohioans Reject Eliminating Collective Bargaining for Public Service Workers in Online Dispatch Poll

Following Ohioans overwhelming rejection recently of passing a right to work for less law in Ohio, Ohioans overwhelming rejected the idea of eliminating collective bargaining for teachers, nurses, firefighters, and other public service on an online poll conducted by the Columbus Dispatch earlier this month.

The poll followed another recent Dispatch online poll where Ohioans rejected the idea of passing a right to work for less law – a measure that hopes to destroy unions and a voice on the job workers by taking away the requirement all workers in a unit to pay their fair share of dues or fees if the workers in their unit have voted to have a union – by a huge majority.

Here are some of the great comments left by some of the hundreds how voted no on the poll:

- This is a distraction from the real solution to restore the budget in Ohio. Potentially this will destroy hard working families with no immediate solution for new jobs. Elected officials have the role of preserving Ohio not pushing through laws that will ruin the education of children and destroy the security of neighborhoods.

- This "need" for cuts is just a veiled attempt by corporations and those who will do their bidding to break the backs of unions in the United States. It's a concerted effort that is happening elsewhere like Wisconsin right now. People choose to be represented by unions because of abuses that occur in the workplace. Now that right is under attack!

- This has absolutely nothing to do with helping Ohio's economy. The governor needs to look at why so many corporations have moved overseas, not pick on public service unions.