The mean-spirited legislative attack on collective bargaining rights was so repugnant to Ohio citizens that 1.3 million affixed their signature on petitions to place the law on the November general election ballot – a rare and not lightly taken action of direct democracy.
By nearly a two-to-one margin, Ohio voters overturned the law, sending it to the dust bin of political history, along with a strong message to conservative lawmakers that they best not again seek to trash workers’ rights to collectively bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions.
The New York Times called the landslide vote “a slap to Ohio’s governor, John Kasich, a prominent Republican who had championed the law.” Vice President Joe Biden said, “Fundamental fairness has prevailed.”
The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund played a meaningful role in overturning the law, with active and retired UTU members in Ohio helping to organize public demonstrations, circulating petitions to place the law on the November ballot, and assisting in voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives that involved knocking on doors and providing rides to the polls.
The phrase repeated to Ohio voters a million times over by UTU volunteers was, “Don’t let others decide your future.”
UTU Ohio State Legislative Director Glenn Newsom spent months visiting locals and directing mail and phone messages to active and retired UTU members about the importance of voting and encouraging others to vote for repeal of the law.
Related News
- Coordinated Bargaining Coalition welcomes face-to-face mediation over national contract negotiations
- House subcommittee leaders take aim at PSR cuts in STB reauthorization hearing
- STB requires additional service reporting from railroads
- Longtime Mo. SLD passes away
- The Coordinated Bargaining Coalition again calls on NMB to proffer arbitration
- April 28th proclaimed “A Day of Honor and Remembrance for Railroad Workers” in Kansas
- TD GO-386 gets arbitration win over attempted BNSF pool consolidation, other work-rule changes
- “We won’t back down!”
- SMART Transportation Division issues statement on Amtrak board nominees
- RRB resumes in-person appointments