Issue 5 Protests Yesterday

Journal coverage...

Richard Packert, a teacher at Vail Middle School, said unity will remain important for the nearly 400,000 public workers who may lose their collective bargaining rights if the bill is also passed by the Ohio House of Representatives.

The bill does more than just change salary increases, but takes away rights to bargain for decent health care, classroom sizes and pensions, Packert said. Meanwhile, he said, politicians — who are also public workers — are not being held to the same standard.....got news for you Richard Packert, private industry has never gotten the priviledge of "bargaining" for decent health care, pensions or wages. The company offers you several health care plans, you choose and you pay a certain portion of the premiums, depending on which health care plan you choose. Usually 15 to 20% comes out of the paycheck each pay period. Wages? No bargaining. They call you in, tell you how they feel about you, hand you a slip of paper, you look at it and smile, shake their hand and tell them you are just happy to have a frikkin' job these days and leave.

Some key factors of the bill include:

• Eliminates binding arbitration on contract disputes while leaving the final decision to legislators such as city council.

• Establishes merit as the only basis for pay increases, not length of service.

• Eliminates bargaining rights on issues such as transfers, staffing levels, hours of work and discipline

Merit for pay increases....been happening for 40 years + in our working world. It's all about contributions and worth to the operation. What's this "length of service" bullcrap? What's that got to do with your contributions or in establishing how much you get for a raise? Nonsense.

Hours of work?...In the private sector, especially on a factory floor and shift work, if a worker calls in on the midnight shift, they ask for volunteers to man the machine in their place. If no volunteers, the person who just worked 2nd shift MUST man the machine for 4 more hours until they can find a person on day shift to come in early at 4AM to take over. No "bargaining rights" on this. It is forced overtime sometimes.


Discipline? No one to represent you in the private sector against unjustified/justified discipline. If the company wants to discipline you, they do so. You are at their mercy. If you are suspended, you are walked out the door to serve your time. If you are fired, you are walked out the door. They can come in at any moment and say you have been downsized and you have an hour to leave. Happened to me and 340 others in 1999 at General Cable. Had one hour to clear the building.

"Anyone doubting that Middletown is a union town got a rude awakening Wednesday afternoon by the blaring of horns and shouts of more than 150 people who crowded the corner of Breiel Boulevard and Grand Avenue."...So, 150 people who show to support the union side of things is a "no doubt union town" out of 48,000 people? Comical Journal. That's a pathetic number of participants if this town is dominated by union type jobs.


Freeman, who lives in Middletown, said he’s been a teacher for 33 years, and that before current collective bargaining laws were passed, he made $7,000. He remembered thinking he couldn’t start a family on his salary.

Collective bargaining brought him a better wage and with it better teachers — people who didn’t have to choose between a career in education or an honest salary, Freeman said.

With his daughter about to graduate with a degree in early childhood education, Freeman said he thinks this law will hurt teachers’ abilities to have fair work conditions and a living wage. It will drive those like his daughter out-of-state to find a job.

“I don’t think teachers are being greedy. I don’t think it’s so different from the private sector. This is all a ruse. It’s a way the Republicans are trying to break the unions,” Freeman said

"collective bargaining brought him a better wage and with it better teachers"- Horsecrap Freeman! Better wages...certainly. Better teachers...nope- look at the performance of this school system. Check on the status of rankings with comparable districts- You teach in a poor performing district bud. Good wages does NOT translate into better performance- not here.

"I don't think teachers are being greedy." I don't think it's so different from the private sector"- WHAT? It's a helluva lot different than the private sector, Freeman.

Resident Rudolph Pringle said he came an hour and a half early to the rally — which started at 4:30 p.m. — because “that’s how anxious I was to see justice done.

“The American people are closing their eyes to their heritage if we can’t remember we built this country on labor,” Pringle said. Why does the Journal give this guy air time? "anxious to see justice done"? Give me a break!

It all comes down to the union people seeing their world being dismantled and brought back to reality with the rest of the working class. All the little perks, the tenure, the low cost out of pocket expenses for bennies will end and they will be required to pay more like the rest of us must do. They'll actually have to show value and contributions to garner a raise in the merit system instead of sitting at a table negotiating a raise without first having to earn it. Guess I'd be mad too if I had their setup for all these years and now have to adjust to what they should have had in the first place- pay by merit, pay more into retirement and bennies, discipline without representation, and no strike opportunities. Welcome to the world of the private sector folks!

Then we need to clean out this lot of councilmembers who seem to be beholding to the union mentality and replace them with more "Laubach's" from non-union shops who don't give a crap what the union people want nor are at the mercy of the union pressures that may be present. This is just one more reason to gut council, retool council who should then make as a priority, firing the city manager and all who are like her and start over with the proper mindset in place hiring some city building people with some frikkin' common sense.

Wait until the union's start stacking city council with their own members.

Vet, its called "Dancing With the Wolves." Not one but JL will vote to make changes. You'll be hearing soon, te cry of the wolves about the need for public safety, and to raise taxes to 2.0%. Middletown should have a class action suit for their breach in fiduiciary duty to the citizens. Issue 5 will pass,but Middletown won't deviate from current policy. Now do you realize why they are so high on Cincinnati State and the education facilities out by the Atrium? They like the tenure and union aspects it  brings to support city hall. As Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story. Why LL was head of Middletown non profit group with the flyers Paul Nagy referred, and Mr. Presta, and why the "at large" council was altered. And is there a correlation between Schiavone getting $8,000 for his work at the court for a month, and changing his voting position on the wards? Of course, that was just an odd correlations wasn't it.