Labor & Employment Law

Ohio Senator Yanked Before Vote on Bargaining Rights Speaks Out

By James Parks

Half an hour before an Ohio state Senate committee voted on SB 5, the bill that would eliminate public employees? right to bargain, the Senate Republican leader replaced a fellow Republican senator who opposed the bill with someone who supported it to guarantee the measure passed.

Now, State Sen. Bill Seitz from Cincinnati who was yanked from the committee, is speaking out. He told ThinkProgress in a telephone interview that he believes the bill goes too far. He said his abrupt removal sends a bad signal to Ohio workers concerned about their own future. He said he told State Senate President Tom Niehaus, the person who yanked Seitz off the committee:

I?m not sure it looks real good, particularly in the context of a management rights bill, to have you exercise management rights over your own roommate, friend, and fellow party member. Because if that?s what can happen to a sitting state senator, what?s going to happen to you if you?re a nervous firefighter, teacher, or policeman ? what?s going to happen to you if this bill passes?

Seitz said he supports the right of state employees to collectively bargain, but reforms are needed ? and SB 5 overreaches.

I don?t think you need to so totally eviscerate collective bargaining to achieve those results. And I say that informed by an employer?s perspective of labor law.

Most objectionable for Seitz is the bill?s replacement of a binding arbitration process with one that greatly favors management over employees.

It?s tantamount to someone being both a judge and advocate in their own case. It?s tantamount to heads I win, tails you lose.

Read the ThinkProgress article here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 04, 2011 (boomark / email).