We Are Ohio:
A Campaign Against Senate Bill 5
written by JESSICA MILLER
photographed by G.R. SAUVAGE
Last March, Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio Senate passed a bill called Senate Bill 5, or SB 5, in an attempt to reduce a state budget deficit that was standing at $8 billion. The bill effectively outlawed all collective bargaining rights for public employees, including K–12 teachers, professors, police officers and firefighters. From that political climate, a group called We Are Ohio was born.
We Are Ohio is a “non-partisan, community driven organization that came about when SB5 was signed into law,” said Jacob Chaffin, a campus organizer at Ohio University who canvasses and works to promote the group’s goals. His father, a teacher, encouraged Chaffin to go to a protest after SB 5 was passed and Chaffin has been involved ever since. Like his father before him, he is an education major who could eventually be affected by the ban on collective bargaining. He applied for an internship with We Are Ohio. “I know it’s really important that we get college students involved in this, and let them know [about SB 5],” he said.
The main goal of We Are Ohio is to get SB 5 repealed. Volunteers from all over the state have been working all summer, going to door-to-door and collecting signatures. In Ohio, a bill that is signed into law can be placed on a referendum ballot if it has the signatures of 6 percent of the total vote from the most recent gubernatorial race. In the case of SB 5, We Are Ohio needed to gather 231,147 signatures to put the issue on the ballot in November. They collected 1.3 million. Because of that, the general populace will be able to vote on whether SB 5, which will be Issue 2 on the ballot, will be signed into law.
In addition to prohibiting collective bargaining, SB 5 has other provisions that affect public employees in many ways. Safety forces could lose the right to negotiate for better safety equipment, like bulletproof vests and police cruisers. It could also hurt staffing levels. “So suddenly instead of having a full staff at any given time, it might be taken down to two or three because they’re no longer able to negotiate for how many [police officers] are on staff,” Chaffin said.
That provision of the bill could directly affect students at Ohio University. Students walking home at night—whether from an all-night study session at Alden Library or a night out—should feel reassured that their protection and safety is being made a priority. “I do feel unsafe sometimes when I’m walking back at 3 a.m. from the library, and I don’t like the fact that the police department is getting its budget cut,” said Leah Woodruff, a sophomore at OU who is majoring in commercial photography. “I feel like there’s no one looking out for me when I need it.”
SB 5 has many other implications for students at public universities like OU. “One of the biggest things about it is how it affects the custodial staff here, the maintenance, the cooks in all of the dining halls,” Chaffin said. Because these people work to clean the dorms, cook food and keep up the grounds, cutting their staffing levels will have a negative impact on students. It also affects the employees themselves, who will not be able to negotiate for higher pay, better working conditions or health benefits. These workers are public employees in the poorest county in Ohio, and the university is the main source of jobs in Athens. Chaffin said there is also a respect issue. “If this goes through, it’s like telling them that their job doesn’t really matter, when they’re already doing something that not a lot of people want to do.”
In addition, the bill directly outlaws public employees’ right to strike. The right to strike has been a component of democracy since the United States was founded. Employees on strike have been able to bargain for the 40-hour workweek, better working conditions and child labor laws.
Proponents of SB 5 say that the bill will help create jobs and that the cuts to public employees’ wages and benefits are needed in order to balance the state’s budget. The bill could generate an estimated savings of $1.3 billion. The bill does not have a specific provision to create jobs. Others complain that labor unions are corrupt and have too much power, and passing SB 5 would help to rein them in.
We Are Ohio estimates that the bill could eliminate 51,000 jobs by cutting back public services such as the fire and police departments. Tyler Barton, a senior at OU who is also a campus organizer with We Are Ohio, said, “The State of Ohio’s budget deficit is not the fault of public employees, and there are much more fair ways of balancing the budget, like taxing the wealthy.”According to PolitiFact, public employees currently pay 10 percent of their pensions and 15 percent of their own healthcare costs. Under SB 5, all government workers would have to pay at least 20 percent of their health insurance premiums. Although some private sector workers have to pay 100 percent of their health insurance premiums if they do not receive it from their employer, a recent study by Rutgers University found that public employees in Ohio earn 6 percent less annual income than private sector workers. The average Ohio Association of Public School Employee makes $24,000 a year and retires with a pension plan of $900 per month. In addition, many teachers already take pay decreases. There have been five pay freezes in the last nine years. State employees have also taken furloughs saving the state a total of $350 million, according to We Are Ohio. “This idea that teachers aren’t already making sacrifices is naïve, at best,” Chaffin said.
According to Barton, the implementation of SB 5 can create certain advantages for Gov. Kasich. “There are billions of dollars in potential campaign contributions from corporate entities that share this hatred of organized labor,” he said. “It’s not like the politicians who voted for SB 5 are doing so entirely selflessly.”
Gov. Kasich ran for office on a platform of being fiscally conservative. Upon becoming governor, he raised the salaries of his chief of staff, communications director and press secretary by a combined total of more than $100,000. Kasich also created a brand new position, special assistant to the governor, with a salary of $145,000.
Chaffin and Barton are both confident that the bill will pass. “If you live in this state, and you like the idea of having a readily available firefighters, police officers or nurses, you’re going to vote to repeal this. I absolutely think it will be repealed,” Chaffin said.
The outcome of SB5 will be determined by the November 8 election.
