Kasich: When Ohio union bill passes, I’ll sign it

Kasich (AP)

COLUMBUS — Gov. John Kasich said Fri­day that he antic­i­pates the Leg­is­la­ture will pass a tough bill restrict­ing union activ­ity by pub­lic work­ers in Ohio and that he’ll sign it into law with lit­tle fan­fare, out of respect for the raw emo­tions sur­round­ing the bill.

The mea­sure — which still has to go through the GOP-led House — would limit the bar­gain­ing rights of roughly 350,000 teach­ers, fire­fight­ers, police offi­cers and other pub­lic employ­ees. They wouldn’t be able to nego­ti­ate health care ben­e­fits or cer­tain other work­ing conditions.

“The day we sign it, it’s not going to be some — you know, I don’t antic­i­pate some big deal because this is hard for peo­ple,” Kasich told reporters at a sep­a­rate bill-signing event. “And any­thing that’s hard, I want to be respect­ful of other people’s feel­ings, their thoughts and their emotions.”

Unlike with sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion being debated in Wis­con­sin, Repub­li­cans in Ohio man­aged to move the bill quickly through the state Sen­ate. The bill was nar­rowly approved Wednes­day on a 17–16 vote.

“Glad it passed,” Kasich said, adding that he wasn’t surprised.

Wisconsin’s mea­sure remains in limbo in the GOP-controlled Leg­is­la­ture after the 14 Sen­ate Democ­rats fled to Illi­nois two weeks ago to deprive the cham­ber of a quo­rum. In Ohio, Repub­li­cans hold big enough majori­ties in both cham­bers to vote on the bill and pass it even if the Democ­rats walk out.

“It’s going to go in the House; it’s going to pass there,” Kasich said at the event, where guests included House Speaker William Batchelder.

Under the bill, union­ized pub­lic work­ers in Ohio could nego­ti­ate wages, hours and cer­tain work con­di­tions — but not health care or pen­sion ben­e­fits. The mea­sure would do away with auto­matic pay raises and base future wage increases on merit. It also would ban strikes by pub­lic work­ers and estab­lish penal­ties for those who do par­tic­i­pate in walkouts.

Batchelder is look­ing to have at least three weeks of hear­ings on the bill — which would carry the debate into late March. His spokesman Mike Dit­toe said the House leader wants it to be a “delib­er­a­tive and exten­sive process.”

The House will likely start review­ing the bill in hear­ings next week, Dit­toe said.

The mea­sure has been pitched as part of Kasich’s rem­edy for an $8 bil­lion bud­get gap, though it is not writ­ten by the gov­er­nor. He has said changes to col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing would give power back to state and local gov­ern­ment man­agers to keep costs low.

Kasich said his mes­sage to union fam­i­lies is: “What we are doing in this state is designed to make sure that your kids have a future in this state.”

He said it wasn’t an attack on work­ing fam­i­lies, nor “a polit­i­cal operation.”

“I could care less about the pol­i­tics,” he said. “This is what is part of an over­all plan to help fix our state.”

Kasich on Tues­day in fundrais­ing e-mails urged his sup­port­ers to call their elected offi­cials and ask them to back the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing bill. The Ohio Demo­c­ra­tic Party has also sent out fundrais­ing e-mails, urg­ing dona­tions from the bill’s opponents.

The leg­is­la­tion has drawn pro-labor pro­test­ers and tea party activists to the State­house. The crowd on Tues­day topped more than 8,500. The mea­sure has prompted a visit by the Rev. Jesse Jack­son, and for­mer Demo­c­ra­tic Gov. Ted Strick­land has pledged to lead a bal­lot repeal if the bill passes.

Kasich said he wasn’t con­cerned with a pos­si­ble bal­lot repeal.

“The Scrip­ture says there’s enough trou­ble today, don’t worry about tomor­row,” he said. “I ain’t even think­ing about some darn ref­er­en­dum in 2000-you know, the end of, when­ever, Novem­ber, when­ever it is. Just let me take care of today.”

Posted by Staff Reports on Mar 7 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.