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Ohio Voters to Kasich: ‘No, No, No’
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Ohio voters today resoundingly overturned the anti-worker agenda pushed by Gov. John Kasich (R), Republican state lawmakers and outside interest groups, which took away the right of public employees to collectively bargain for a middle-class life.
Moments ago, the vote was called: Buckeye State voters said “No” to Issue 2. The Associated Press reports it was defeated by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin. The “No” vote on Issue 2 repeals Kasich’s S.B. 5 that eliminated the collective bargaining rights of some 350,000 public employees, including teachers, nurses and firefighters.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who joined working families in phone banking and canvassing said Issue 2′s defeat ”is a major victory for working families in Ohio and across the country.”
Ohio’s working people successfully fought back against lies pushed by shadowy multi-national corporations and their anonymous front groups that attempted to scapegoat public service employees and everyone they serve by assaulting collective bargaining rights.
In short, Trumka said,
Ohioans from all backgrounds and political parties rejected the crazy notion that the 99 percent—nurses, bridge inspectors, firefighters, and social workers—caused the economic collapse, rather than Wall Street.
After the Ohio legislature rammed the law through in late March—ignoring an outpouring of public opposition, including demonstrations that brought thousands to the state Capitol in Columbus—Ohio working families began a massive mobilization to repeal the law.
In just a matter of weeks, volunteers from the We Are Ohio coalition collected more than 1.3 million signatures to put S.B. 5 repeal on the ballot. With polls showing growing support for repeal and a rapidly shrinking approval rating, Kasich even offered a so-called compromise in August. But working families rejected the deal and continued the fight for full repeal.
As the election drew near, unions and community groups knocked on doors, made phone calls and distributed literature around the state. In the past weekend alone, volunteers knocked on more than 450,000 doors.
But while activists from dozens of states as far away as Alaska gave up their nights and weekends to call Ohio voters from home to get out the vote, S.B. 5 supporters turned to out-of-state money from extremist groups for misleading, and at times downright false, TV ads and dirty tricks.
For example in October, Cincinnati great-grandmother Marlene Quinn—whose family was saved by firefighters—was featured in a We Are Ohio TV ad urging a “No” vote on Issue 2. But shortly after, one of the right-wing groups backing Issue 2 pirated footage for their own ad and doctored Quinn’s words to make it seem as if she was endorsing Issue 2.
Just today, some voters received “robo calls,” telling them Election Day was “tomorrow.” Read more on voter suppression and voter manipulation attempts here.
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26 Comments
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It’s time to do this kind of work across the country and to do it now.CONGRATULATIONS OHIO
This is outstanding! For Ohio, and all working families! Great job guys! Solidarity!
THANK YOU Ohio!
A job well done Ohio. Now get rid of that evil Kasich.
I emailed Trumka and told him to keep the movement going, don’t stop. I also asked when we were going to march in DC.
The other side is not going to give up easily. Our guard must be let down.
Onward to Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida and any other state having this problem.
I know one thing–my cousins, who live in Ohio are elated.
Congratulations Ohio
A great disaster for the young workers in the public unions. Now you will lose your jobs because the money will not be there.
swearto and the first to lose their job is the republican gov.33%approval and sinking.NEXT IN LINE SCOTT OF FLORIDA
WALKER OF WISCONSIN
NEXT
IF YOU WANT TO SCREW AMERICA
VOTE REPUBLICAN
If you want more unemployment vote Democrat. Oh My you did that already. 9.1% and counting. It will be that high come the next election. You lose.
Cities are already cutting public employees. With this defeat of issue 1 more people are going to lose their jobs. Where I live the only thing that kept the police on the job was federal funds. When that runs out there go more police.
The reason the Gov of Ohio didn’t want his public employees to be represented by unions is simple. They would not have to sit at a negotiating table and work on a solution that would work for the state and the employees. It’s very easy to slash & burn when times are hard but it’s didfficult to some up with a compromise. Things can be done to cut the long range cost of benefits for public employees but it must be shared sacrifice and the solution to the states budget problems need to address all sectors of the economy. Besides the real underlying idea in breaking the back of the unions is to stop what little influence they have on elections. Everybody knows this
How come your news story didn’t include the passage of the law that allows Ohioans to opt out of the Obamacare program?
Or didn’t you want to bring that up?
Bob Kastigar
IBEW Local 1220, Chicago
You are right. Obama care is a loser. 1500 org asked for wavers. They cannot afford it.
What we need across this country is the Universal Health Care System that the governor and U.S. senator from Hawaii proposed to our U.S. Congress in 1993, which SHOULD replace the corporation-subsidizing Medicare and Medicaid systems with GENUINE health care for everyone at a reduced cost.
O’Bam-ya’s so-called health care is only healthy-profits care for corporations, namely — for the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations in particular. O’Bam-ya is a total liar and he is a member of The Establishment. We need a GENUINE Democrat for President and currently the only man I know of who will fulfill that is Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, and we have precious short time to draft him and finance his campaign for the 2012 election!
We need to focus on health care in our union contracts, and not health care administered and run by the government.
National health care will only be one more excuse to avoid forming a union.
Why join a union when the gub’mint provides whatever I need?
Socialism discourages union membership.
Bob Kastigar
IBEW Local 1220, Chicago
Well, Kastigar, you need to have a proper lexicon that you do not have to understand what is going on.
Union contract health care will not give anyone the health care that the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care system of 1993 would have given us if Congress had not outlawed it to protect the insurance, pharmaceutical, commercial hospital and phony-health maintenance corporate mafia from losing their business by scamming our government and the public. Have you ever heard of the phrase of “divide and conquer”? The terms you are using fit right into that strategy of defeating labor, not helping it with adult responsibility through Democracy.
The very focus, which you are ignorant of, that the Hawai’ian Universal Health Care system of 1993 provides is funding ONLY to health care at the local level, to the local clinics and physicians who provide services directly to the public, which is what I have been enlightening everyone about for the past four-and-a-half months in this AFL-CIO News Blog !!! SURELY you have read what I have been posting, haven’t you ??? Or are you blindly forgetting what I have been posting ???
Absolutely how in the hell can addressing national health care issues prevent forming a union? That thoughtless comment is so childishly STUPID !!!
I do not know what IBEW Local 1220 in Chicago thinks of your comments, but I’ll bet they do not think much of you as a person if this is how you think, Kastigar.
Looks like the kids lose again.
Yes,Yes,Yes! Right on Ohio for pushing back against the building wave of oppression that the GOP is forcing upon we the people. Well we the people are not to be messed with, and Ohio just proved it. Thank you for showing us all that we can and will fight back and win!
http://www.whatnowtoons.com
Left of center political cartoons
When people have good jobs and are able to once again buy homes you will see tax revenues go up , and cities and states will have funds to operate.
Under Sweartogod the people who have jobs will work for slave wages , and will not pay much in taxes , and will not be able afford to buy anything , that would create jobs. How in the world could anyone maintain schools , roads bridges , Police Depts. Fire Depts. and all the other things citizens depend on? How could America afford the ever growing defense budget ?
We did all those things , and well , and workers were much better off , before the assault on unions began under Pres. Reagan. I remember , because I lived through those times , and saw all the improvements in all the families I knew lives. I also saw many improvements in schools and small towns like where I live , and cities.Almost every facet of life , was improved during that time.
Just remember , that if people like Sweartogod would have had control them , Americans lives , or the country would never have improved.
When Johnny Cash made his wealth making music that people enjoyed, he often returned it in so many ways.
When Governor “Cash” makes his money as Governor, he is stealing it from the common people whom he is stabbing in the back with his legislative agenda.
AWESOME! Great work Ohio workers and labor unions! I am so proud of you. Great work Ohio citizens! Let’s stay vigilant, engaged, fired up and ready to go into 2012 because these people don’t just go away quietly…they get even! Some call it overreach…I call it a threat to democracy. Women’s rights, workers rights, voters rights, civl rights – everything is under assault and we need to make our stand again!
Rhanks to the voters in Ohio for repealing SB5. It is time for a federal inititive to protect collective bargaining rights for all public employees and perminantly stop the likes of Kasich, Walker and other Koch fiends from tking them away. This may be the only way public employees in Texas can obtain collective bargaining rights
sweartogod keeps talking about states etc. not having money. Almost all the states had plenty of money until they gave the wealthy and big corporations and oil companies tax breaks. Then they blamed the workers for the foolishness they created.
It was not the workers who were amassing millions and billions. It wasn’t the workers who were living in mansions , and buying yachts , and vacation homes all over the world. Workers are too busy trying to cope with the high cost of living, and educating their children, and trying to pay for excessively high priced homes.Yes , those greedy workers caused all this misery. You can bet people like Sweartogod isn’t going to pick up the slack and solve anything.
Congrats, people of Ohio. Your hard work and determination paid off. This is a tremendous victory, not only for the specific issue of bargaining rights, but for the much larger issue that people-power CAN bring down corporate tyranny.
Corporate tyranny? You had a victory against us taxpayers. If the taxes are raised to pay for public employee benefits guess what happens in next election . YEP you lose.
swearto, your constant “you lose” meme lacks any substance (as usual) and makes you sound like a broken record. Without credible and factual information to back up that claim, those two little words mean absolutely nothing. Give it up. You have no valid argument.
Sweartogod,
I believe we are all taxpayers not just you , who you call us. If you are like your fatcat friends you probably haven’t paid taxes for years.