Cleveland Jobs With Justice, Unions To Picket Gov. Kasich's Visit To Cleveland Area To Stomp For SB 5 And Issue 2

Debbie Kline, executive director of Cleveland Jobs With Justice who will lead a protest against Gov John Kasich's visit to the Cleveland,Oh. area Nov. 3 for the gov. to stomp for Issue 2, a state issue on the Nov. ballot that unions and Democrats across the state are asking voters to say no to.

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich

Ohio public sector unions protest Senate Bill 5 at the statehouse in Columbus, Oh earlier this year. The yet-to-take-effect anti-collective bargaining law called Senate Bill 5 was passed earlier this year by the state legislature and is on the Nov. 8 ballot and titled Issue 2 as a yes or no vote for Ohioans to either scrap or keep the controversial state law.






From the Metro Desk of The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Led by Cleveland Jobs With Justice, a coalition of labor based and community organizations, Cleveland area unions against Issue 2 will picket Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich's and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's visit to the Cleveland area tomorrow, forcing Republicans to repeatedly change the meeting place in hopes of avoiding the show down. But all indicators suggest that a show down it will be.

The contact for the rally is Debbie Kine of Cleveland Jobs With Justice at 440-333-7007.

"The Republicans have changed the meeting place several times and it will now be in Independence, Oh., a suburb of Cleveland, at 4:00 pm at the old recreation center Elmwood Building at 6200 Elmwood Ave.," said Kline, an organizer of the protest and executive director of Cleveland Jobs With Justice. "We are doing a peaceful protest to send a clear message that people in Ohio are voting no to Issue 2 and we don't want this to be a screaming match with Governor Kasich, the Tea Party, or anybody else."

Kline said that the protest is also sponsored by People for a Fair Economy and Northern Ohio Firefighters.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Kasich is in town to stomp for Issue 2. And he knows now that Issue 2 opponents will be stomping outside of the event, and likely with as much if not more venom as the governor's supporters hope to propel.

And what is Issue 2? It is a state issue put on the Nov 8 ballot through signatures gathered by unions across the state where voters will decide if Senate Bill 5 , a yet-to-take-effect state law passed earlier this year by the Republican controlled state legislature, should be eliminated or kept in place. If a majority of the voters vote no to Issue 2, SB 5 is repealed and shot down as law.

SB 5 is a sweeping overhaul of collective bargaining, the cornerstone of America's unions. It would essentially limit collective bargaining to negotiations on wages and strips unions of binding arbitration on pensions, health care and practically everything else. It's most stinging provisions are penalties for employee walkouts and the elimination of the power to strike, the most prominent means used by unions to minimize the abuse by management on things such as workplace safety, work hours, teacher tenure, and employee layoffs, overtime and sick leave.

Issue 2 has become one of Ohio's single most controversial voting issues in decades as Democrats and unions representing public employees across the Buckeye State take on Kasich and the Republicans that hold each and every statewide office from auditor, to state treasurer, to the governor's office, one swept up by Kasich last year as he narrowly defeated one-term Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, a former congressman as Kasich once was too.

Kline is a seasoned organizer of some 25 years who has pushed labor issues in the greater Cleveland area. She is an easy going but strong leader of the local chapter of the national Cleveland Jobs With Justice organization, a local chapter with powerful board members like North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor Executive Secretary Harriet Applegate, another of several vocal opponents of Issue 2.

Kline is a fighter, and a White woman who understands the men and women that lead the public sector unions in Ohio, the Republicans that despise them, the ambitious politicians that often guide them, and Black folk. And she is not afraid to fight for the 63 unions and community organizations that belong to her issue-based organization, including firefighters and the Cleveland Teachers Union. She says that she does not trust Kasich as far as one could throw him.

"I think he is not done and that he still has tricks up his sleeve even after Issue 2 fails at the ballot box on Nov. 8," said Kline.

Teachers, firefighters, policemen, nurses, electricians and a host of other union affiliates from across Ohio swarmed the statehouse with a series of protests during pre-SB 5 legislative debates, including members of AFSCME, the Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association, and the powerful Ohio Education Association, the state's most influential union, and the one that gives the most monies to Democratic candidates seeking political office in Ohio.

Like Wisconsin, where anti-collective bargaining legislation pushed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker fueled lost elections to Republicans in state supreme court races, Ohio is a pivotal state for presidential elections and no Republican has won the White House without first winning Ohio.

What impact Issue 2 will have on future elections for Ohio Republicans remains to be seen.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, ktcoleman8@aol.com and phone number: 216-932-3114.