Union membership rules could change

Oct. 30, 2011, Marion Star

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

Topic: Who can join a bargaining unit

Currently: Lower-level supervisors are able to join a bargaining unit, along with department heads in colleges and universities. To dissolve a union, 50 percent of its members must petition for decertification.

What Senate Bill 5 would do: The bill would prohibit some people from joining unions. These include lower-level supervisors in police and fire departments, and department heads in state colleges and universities. The bill also states that supervisor pay cannot be tied to union contracts.

Law would require merit pay

Oct. 29, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls. You can read other parts of the series and view related videos at TheNews-Messenger.com/elections.

Topic: Merit pay

Currently: Much of the current public employment compensation system is based on seniority. The longer you're there, the more you get paid. Public employee pay also has built-in longevity increases – added boosts for sticking around. There also are increases built in if an employee attains more education. If there are layoffs, the last hired workers are the first to be fired.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Senate Bill 5 dictates that pay increases for all bargaining unit employees be based solely on merit. Automatic disappear.

Cash-strapped communities could alter contracts easily

Oct. 26, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. The goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

You can read other parts of the series and view related videos at TheNews-Messenger.com/elections.

» Topic: Entities under fiscal watch or fiscal emergency can alter a bargaining agreement.

» Currently: If a city, village, township or school district is in financial trouble, it can go to the State Employment Relations Board and argue that it faces “exigent circumstances” and can’t uphold current bargaining agreements.

SERB upheld a sudden contract change for Toledo police officers in April after determining the city faced a “situation that demands unusual or immediate action and that may allow people to circumvent usual procedures.”

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Senate Bill 5 makes it easier for entities in fiscal trouble to change collective bargaining agreements.

Under the bill, if a city, school district or village enters fiscal watch or fiscal emergency, it can automatically alter collective bargaining agreements before they expire, without going through SERB.

When this happens, the entity and employees will bargain for a new contract.

Fiscal watch and fiscal emergency are classifications set by the state auditor’s office to identify entities in financial trouble.

Minimum staffing levels may be altered

Oct. 25, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

CentralOhio.com is examining the most important facets of Issue 2 in a 10-day series. Our goal is to dive into the specifics of the bill so you will have the facts when you go to the polls.

» Topic: Elimination of minimum staffing requirements from the bargaining process, and anything that keeps an entity from privatizing.

» Currently: Minimum staffing requirements and restrictions on outside contracting can be part of negotiations between union and public employer.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: Police and firefighters would no longer be able to negotiate for how many workers need to be on a shift. Teachers would no longer be able to set a maximum number of students in the classroom.

Issue 2 would end binding arbitration

Oct. 22, 2011, Fremont News-Messenger

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

» Topic: Binding arbitration

» Currently: All non-uniformed bargaining units can strike, though it is rare. But police officers and firefighters cannot.

Uniformed units instead have a process called binding arbitration, where a neutral party is brought in to resolve the differences between them and their employer. The arbitrator’s decision stands.

» What Senate Bill 5 would do: End this process. Requests for mediation would go through the State Employment Relations Board, and must be done 75 days before the agreement expires.

Under the proposed law, if an impasse still occurs 70 days before expiration, SERB must appoint a mediator.

GOP moving too fast on union bill, some Republicans complain

June 6, 2011, Newark Advocate

BY JESSICA ALAIMO

CentralOhio.com

A measure to overhaul Ohio’s collective bargaining laws is being rushed through the Legislature too fast, some Republican state senators say.

The bill, which would limit the scope of issues public employees could bargain on and prohibit strikes, was approved by the Ohio Senate three weeks after it was introduced by state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro.

It passed through committee and the full Senate on Wednesday despite requests for additional hearings. The bill now before the Ohio House.

State Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, said Senate Republicans didn’t even meet in caucus to discuss the final version of the bill before it hit the floor. Grendell was one of six Republicans opposing the bill.

Some small businesses start push to repeal Senate Bill 5

May 10, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

NEWARK — Rob Romine wants public employees who walk through his door to know he has their backs.

His downtown Newark business, Backstreet Haircutters, has displayed stickers on his doors that read: “This establishment proudly accepts business from hard working public and private employees.”

The stickers are part of the Proud Ohio Workers campaign, an effort to show Ohio’s small businesses support collective bargaining rights for public employees, said campaign spokeswoman Rebecca Scott. The stickers are placed on 600 business doors throughout the state.

SB 5 revision protects death benefits

Mar. 30, 2011, Marion Star

BY JESSICA ALAIMO

CentralOhio.com

Sara Winfield,whose husband was killed in the line of duty in Marion County, told a legislative committee that Senate Bill 5 might keep her and other survivors of slain police officers from getting their full benefits.

The controversial legislation seeks to curtail collective bargaining rights of public employees. On Tuesday, Republican lawmakers added a clause to protect the benefits of surviving spouses and families of officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty. The legislation goes before the full House for a vote today.

However, one Fraternal Order of Police representative said he is not sure if the complex Senate Bill 5 language would interfere with death benefits, even with the change.

A matter of public concern

Feb. 20, 2011, Marion Star

BY JESSICA ALAIMO

CentralOhio.com

The firefighters union claimed it needed 13 people every shift to keep its community safe.

City leaders said they couldn’t afford the cost. There was impasse over wages and health insurance costs, too.

The disagreement could have led to a strike 27 years ago. But in January 2010, the city of Marion and its union went in front of a neutral arbitrator. He gave the final word, siding with the union on some issues and the city on others. One public labor attorney called it a“rare” good arbitration decision.

That process is at the heart of the debate over public employment that erupted in recent weeks when Ohio’s new Republican leaders introduced a bill to overhaul the process.

Collective bargaining process won’t go down without a fight

Dec. 31, 2010, Fremont News-Messenger

BY JESSICA ALAIMO

Special to The News-Messenger

Incoming state leaders plan to target public employment laws in 2011, but on Thursday backers of the collective bargaining process promised to put up a fight.

Officials from Policy Matters Ohio, a progressive think tank, argue that states without collective bargaining have the same budget shortfalls as Ohio. They also defended the state’s prevailing wage law and say that, overall, the state’s public employment laws are good for the economy.

“The right of public workers to unionize is not driving the fiscal crisis of states,” said Wendy Patton, a senior associate with Policy Matters Ohio.

Policy Matters Ohio has traditionally backed Democratic causes, and executive director Amy Hanauer has given to a number of Democratic candidates, including outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland.

Republicans will control state government next year. Gov.-elect John Kasich and GOP legislative leaders say collective bargaining leads to higher costs for state government and overpaid workers. They would like to see substantial changes to the state’s laws.