First and foremost, I apologize for having to Blog this as I tried numerous times to post it to no avail.
Response:
I make so much as a Union Employee that is in Ohio that I have had to take on 2 part time jobs and had to declare bankruptcy last year.Add to that my heart attack with no prevailing factors.
Yes, the State of Ohio is 8 Billion dollars in deficit.This is a fact.
Ohio Senate Bill 5 passed through the Senate with a vote of 17-16. Many valid concerns were pointed out by both Republican and Democrat Senators. Unfortunately 17 of the 23 Republican Senators refused to listen to reason. Republican Senators Sietz and Grendell, both lawyers in the State of Ohio, warned the Senate that this bill has some major flaws and will cost the tax payers considerable dollars in litigation that the State will lose. Also, 3 Republican Senators that were on the committee were replaced at the last minute for not being willing to vote yes on this. This includes Senators Sietz and Grendell and Osleger.
Before the vote a study paid for by Ohio Tax revenue at the request of the Governors office stated the annual savings for the State of Ohio of this Bill will be 2.5 million dollars. The same study showed that the savings if they terminated all the employees that the bill covers as seen by the State will be 500 million dollars. This is due to the majority of the public employees effected being paid for out of local taxes and levies and not the State funds.
The Bill actually states the following:
# We (the public employees) will have the inability to negotiate safety equipment and clothing
# We will only be able to grieve subjects that are outlined in the CBA, no longer conditions of employment not covered by the CBA (the new CBA will not include pay, health care, safety equipment, personnel safety, etc)
# Cities will have an easier time declaring fiscal watch (this will give them the ability to enforce a pay freeze with no proof of financial hardships)
#For future negotiations instead of binding arbitration, City Council will act as the conciliator during a public hearing. In that hearing both sides will present their last best offer between the Council and the department negotiating ... this is a "I win, you lose" for the city.
# Any strikes will be dealt with using Jail time, fines and termination with no recourse
# Any violation of the new law will be dealt with using jail, fines and termination
# The city is now allowed to bid out the jobs performed by the public workers to private contractors for the highest bid. They are not required to lower the tax rate accordingly to the citizens of the cities that privatize.
Unions are responsible for several things in the Nation:
# Minimum Wage is taken from a Union developed formula
# Workplace safety and OHSA was started due to Union pressures on businesses not even unionized to help keep workers going home the way they arrived
# FLSA was developed that limited the amount of time a business can work their employees per week without proper compensation (overtime)
# MSDS is required so you know what bad stuff is in your workplace
As an 18 year member of my fire department I can honestly say I have taken 7 years of no pay increase. This includes 4 years of a pay decrease. All to help the city balance their books without raising taxes (our last tax increase was in 1986). The rest of the years I received 2% if I was lucky, even when the city was booming and economically sound.
The cost of everything has skyrocketed around me and I now work 2 part time jobs to supplement my income to live.
At those part time jobs, the starting hourly wage of the cooks there is equal to my new hourly wage after 18 years on my career.
The average salary of a Costco Employee is $43,000.00 per year Plus Benefits *(source NBC Nightly News)
The Average salary of my career in my city is $34,000.00 per year plus benefits (source SERB Website on Pay Scales)
The NFL gets a Federally Appointed Mediator to help Millionares go after Billionares and I can no longer ask my employer for safe firefighting equipment for me to fight a fire.
As a final note .... my station heat broke the other day ... we were living in 43 degrees weather for our 24 hour shift. The outside temperature was 20 degrees. The mayors office told us that next week when this is law they will no longer have to fix the heat as we can no longer complain legally about it.
