My experience with unions as a teenager was not a good one. At the time I did not understand what they were, let alone saw the good that they do. Now, as a working adult I see the good that they do, or try to accomplish, on a regular basis. Unions make working conditions safer and fare to employees. The unions are bargain based, meaning they want opinions and different views to collectively make decisions on what is best for the company and their employees they represent. SB 5 would seriously limit the bargaining rights of union workers, and threatens termination of those workers who choose to strike. (Phillips-Sandy, Par 5) Before I get started on all the bad that OH SB 5 is and will cause, I want to define what worker unions are and what they have actually done for the Ohio population in the past. A workers union is made up of many people, not just one person over seeing a job. Rather a team. If someone has an issue with the way administrators or managers try to manipulate their employee’s contracts, the employees can refer to their contract to see specific parameters of their rights as an employee. As long as the administrator/manager and employee stay within the parameter, there should be no issue. If they still have questions about it they can address it at a union meeting, where different matters of the work place is discussed, contracts are negotiated, and new by-laws for the contracts are written. With a union there are processes to get things done. As well, there is a security that the union member will not be let go because of “he said/she said” drama that goes on in an everyday work place. Collective bargaining is what the union is there to help keep things working in the business manner. Contracts, hours, pay wages, working conditions are bargained. As well as who is who in the union; union president, chair holders, outflow of funds are all-apart of a voting system of the union members. (Sayles and Strauss, pg 6) The Ohio Senate Bill 5 should not be passed because it allows unfair job termination and hinders hiring qualified people, loss of wages for not only limited to firefighters, police officers, and school district employees, as well as it negatively affects health insurance.
If the SB 5 does in fact pass into law this will dramatically affect about 350,000 firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other public employees all over the State of Ohio. (“Ohio Senate Bill 5 Passes, Restricting Unions,” Par 2) Sen. Shannon Jones is the woman who is sponsoring this bill, and is supporting this bill because she thinks that it will help Ohio save money. This it will cost the men and women of Ohio to be more in debt because the cost of living is so high now, more than it has been in the past. Danny Pride says in an article written by Rozborli that it is unfair that states that are doing away with unions should have to sacrifice bargaining rights while other large businesses get government bailouts for their own financial mistakes. Pride goes on to say that the Working Class shouldn’t carry the weight of the predicament that is going on with Wall Street. (Rozborli, Par 1 and 2) Union workers are considered to be middle class employees. It is because of unions that the middle class has the health care coverage they have, and make the money that they make. With out the union health insurance will quite literally rob us of the time that we spend with our loved ones. It robs us because we will need to work more to be able to afford the coverage as well as put food on our tables. SB 5 will extinguish the middle class leaving only the upper class, and low class workers.
Wages will be drastically cut and all in all kills the job market. How can you “stimulate” the economy when SB 5 seriously makes getting a job with a former union based company an insult to work for with out competitive pay rates? There will no longer be contracts drawn up, so no negotiations; there for strikes will no longer be. But if there is strikes SB 5 makes a threat to those who are thinking about going on strike; percentages of up to twice an employee’ daily pay for each day they are on strike, fines, suspension, automatic termination and possibility of jail time. (Am. Sub. S. B. No. 5., P 251) and (Breaking down Ohio Senate Bill 5, Par 12) Is it not our right as United States Americans to have freedom of speech when we feel that we are being wronged or cheated out of what we think we should be paid (or have been paid in the past for the same job), or because of the conditions we are working in? These kind of repercussions because a man or woman is voicing their opinions and standing for what they believe is right is down right wrong.
Future pay increases will solely be based on merit if SB 5 becomes law. So if Mrs. Jones works for a union company for 20 years her pay raises will not be based on how long she has been there. Her pay will solely based on how well she performs her job. If she is a teacher it will be based on how well her students test on the State Exams. In some ways that is fare but in other’s like on a city official’s pay scale how can one determine his or her “merits?” Sen. Michael Skinkell asks this same question, "So on a police officer, what is merit based pay? Is it the number of tickets they write? So if a police officer writes more tickets they get a higher wage? Is that our merit based pay?" (Breaking down Ohio Senate Bill 5, Par 7) The same question goes for a Firefighter and an EMT, is merit based on the number of lives they save or fires they kill? The merit based pay has too many questions to even begin to think about passing SB 5.
"To ram something through within a few weeks is irresponsible, and to blame the budget woes of the state on the workers is a downright travesty," said Columbus firefighter Terry Marsh (“Ohio Senate Bill 5 Passes, restricting unions”, Par 12). I agree with Mr. Marsh, this Bill was written and quite factually pushed through the Senate. In fact the Republicans pushed to pass it so fast and so hard that the vote was 17-16 (“Ohio Senate Bill 5 Passes, restricting unions”, Par 2). What I heard in the news that they pulled a Democrat that was going to vote against SB 5 out of the room right as they were passing out the ballots, so he did not get to vote tying the poll. Who is looking out for whom now in the work place? It is really sad when 9 year old students understand what this means for their favorite teacher. Dawn Hunley’s son, Mike and his best friend Ty joined in with the picketers in Columbus, OH on March 8th. They told the reporter, "We're here for our teacher," Mike said. "And not just for the rich," Ty added. "They want us all to grow up poor," they both said. Mike’s mom had it right when she stated that the two boys would be apart of history, because they are helping to make it. What is even sadder is the boys wanted to be there. Mike and Ty understood that SB 5 is damage to everyone. (Bostick, Par 8 and 9)
Unfortunately, in the process of writing this argument the OH SB 5 went to the House of Ohio Representatives and passed into law. On Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 7: 19 P.M. Gov. John Kasich signed the bill. The protestors in front of the Statehouse said that it revokes the rights of what Ohioans have been working for and towards for over 20 years. (Bradley, Par 6) If the Ohio Union workers are able to receive enough signatures by the November elections, the issue will appear as a referendum on the Fall 2011 election. Our job now, for all who are opposed to OH SB 5 is to sign the petition. On the article “Kasich signs Senate Bill 5” written by Thomas Bradley, there was a comment at the bottom of the web page by someone anonymous, he said “R.I.P. Ohio -- I will miss you!” Makes a person think that the OH SB 5 is a huge let down to all of the workers that have been striving for so much more in the work place(s).
Works Citied
“Breaking down Ohio Senate Bill 5.” WKBN.com. 2 March 2011. Web. 31 March 2011
“Ohio Senate Bill 5 passes, restricting unions.” CBS News. 2 March 2011. Web. March 10 2011.
Am. Sub. S. B. No. 5. 2011-2012. Print.
Bostick, Bruce. “Ohio Workers shake Capitol in giant SP 5 protest.” People’sworld.org. 14 March 2011. Web. 15 March 2011.
Bradley, Thomas. “Kasich signs Senate Bill 5.” The Lantern. 31 March 2011. Web. 4 April 2011.
Medoff, James. What do unions do?. New York; Basic Books, Inc., 1984.
Rozborli, Robert. “Senate Bill 5 Continues its Controversy.” Neighborhood Voice. 31 March 2011. Web. 1 April 2011.
Sandy-Phillips, Mary. “Ohio SB 5: The Anti-Collective Bargaining Bill Explained” AOL News. 2 March 2011. Web. 28 March 2011.
Sayles, Leonard R. and Strauss, George. The Local Union. Revised Edition. New York; Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1967.
