Middletown to cut 26 first responders

I believe that the stated Median Middletown Household Income clearly shows what our problem is really all about.

And so the union tactics win again.  More bloated staffing, more deficit spending, hello bankruptcy.  At least with a vote for the school bond issue we would actually have something to show for it.  Not now.

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Supporters of a proposed “right-to-work” issue on Ohio’s 2014 statewide ballot said they have gathered 100,000 signatures and plan a big push next month for more names.

Ohioans for Workplace Freedom said it has about 200 people collecting signatures of Ohio registered voters who want to vote on the issue next year as a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment. To get it on the ballot, the group must collect 385,247 valid signatures by next year, along with a minimum amount from 44 of 88 counties. The group estimates it will have to submit more than 500,000 names, to account for invalid signatures that are discarded.

“Right-to-work” has been a flashpoint for union members in Ohio since 1958, when citizens rejected a statewide initiative.

The proposal, if approved, would not eliminate unions but would ban mandatory union membership and the practice of allowing unions to assess nonunion members for union dues, or an equivalent.

The proposed amendment says, “No law, rule, agreement or arrangement shall require any person or employer to become or remain a member of a labor organization.” Similarly, no one could be forced to pay dues or an assessment as part of a labor agreement. Anyone who is “directly or indirectly affected or threatened by harm” as a result of violation could file civil legal action and receive payment for damages and attorney fees.

Bruce Hull, a Greene County man who is coordinator of the petition drive, said in an email that this year’s Nov. 5 election is “the perfect opportunity to make huge progress on right-to-work Ohio. ... Done right, I believe we can obtain 100,000 signatures in one day.”

He said that will require having 10 to 15 people gathering signatures in each Ohio county on Election Day. The group has backing largely from tea party affiliates and other conservative organizations.

Some state lawmakers have tried to spark interest for right-to-work legislation in the General Assembly. Bills have been introduced by Rep. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, and Rep. Ron Maag, R-Lebanon, addressing the public sector. However, legislative leaders, also Republicans, have shown little interest.

Democrats and unions, including the Ohio AFL-CIO, are pushing back hard, slamming the proposal as worse than Senate Bill 5, the public-sector collective-bargaining law Ohio voters rolled back in 2011.

The full text of the proposed amendment is available at:

www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/ballotboard/ 2012/WF_SummaryFullText.pdf.