Ohio’s government unions claim to represent simple, positive principles. Good jobs. Workers’ rights. Progress. The reforms in Issue 2 were voted down because union bosses warned dramatically, expensively, and dishonestly how dark Ohio would be with elected officials controlling local governments. If voters realized union power leads to higher taxes, they may not have been as quick to torpedo reform.

The agitators at the top of the union pyramid can now justify for awhile longer “earning” six figures by taking it directly from public employees’ paychecks. However, the scare tactics that worked for Issue 2 weren’t so effective when local voters considered higher tax levies. This means the gravy train will leave the rails a bit faster than expected – but the unions have a solution!

Months before Governor Kasich balanced an estimated $8 billion deficit without raising taxes, unions were demanding we cough up more money to fund their unsustainable benefits and backwards policies. Unions rallied for higher taxes despite a state and local taxation trend that looks like this:

Somewhere along the way Ohio’s “safety net” wound up around our necks, which isn’t especially comfortable for those of us unwilling or unable to flee. It’s hard to argue Ohio’s taxes should be higher, so the unions and fellow Progressives focus on attacking Governor Kasich:

1. It’s Kasich’s fault for discarding the Strickland school funding model! (Never mind that most districts are in the red, not just a handful on the margins.)
2. It’s Kasich’s fault for cutting local spending in the state budget! (Ignore those Strickland-era forecasts that prove local deficits have been on the horizon for years.)

In both cases the alternative is cloaked in Obamaesque euphemism about needing a “balanced approach,” if an alternative is mentioned at all. There’s not enough state money because of evil Republicans and racist mathematics, and Ohio’s union bosses need us to refill the tank. Until we do, they’ll force local governments to slash jobs and services, with the occasional face-saving concession for the sake of the Progressive cause. Over the next few months I’ll highlight districts forced into layoffs by untenable union contracts!

This is the system we have. Thanks to the Ohioans who let a cynical union campaign cloud their judgment, this is the system we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future. Ohio can still pull out of this tax-and-spend tailspin, but local and national unions won’t make it easy!

Cross-posted at Big Government.

Though the Wisconsin union circus produced widespread union-reform fatigue, you might be wondering what went wrong with Issue 2 in Ohio. As an Ohio conservative who happened to start researching government unions a few months before the General Assembly tackled reform, here’s my educated guess!

Executive summary: The unions spent several boatloads on dishonest class warfare, and Ohio voters failed to see through it.

First, some theories I don’t subscribe to. With the future of Issue 2 looking bleak leading up to yesterday, there have been rumblings that Governor Kasich and/or the Ohio Republican Party backed away from Issue 2 for fear of getting egg on their faces. I’ve seen no indication this is true.

A fairer guess is that including police and firefighters doomed Senate Bill 5; I hesitate to jump to this conclusion, if for no other reason than I advised excluding police and firefighters. It’s worth noting that police and firefighters figured heavily into the union smear campaign, but the bill’s reforms would have been assailed by unions of all stripes regardless of who was affected.

Perhaps the worst explanation – popular with that special brand of Ohioan whose motto is, “I’m a lifelong Republican, but” – insists Senate Bill 5 was an overreach. Ohio’s existing government union law isn’t a little broken; it’s completely broken. Republicans attempted to reform the Democrats’ 1983 bill in a single shot rather than spend the next 3 years fighting with unions. Blaming Issue 2′s defeat on this calculation misses the bigger picture.

What does the bigger picture look like?

Out-of-state union donations, grossly understated by Ohio media, far exceeded the “Yes on 2″ campaign’s entire budget. The Ohio Education Association (OEA), a despicable band of hypocrites whose average pay in 2010 was more than $95,000, took an extra $54 from every member to kill Senate Bill 5. OEA alone dumped more than $5.8 million into “We Are Ohio.”

Did the unions spend $30 million exposing an ill-advised portion of Senate Bill 5, or pushing some compelling argument about the need for powerful public unions? Hah! The unions spent more than $800,000 collecting signatures for the referendum; bragging that this constituted “grassroots” support was the most honest aspect of their campaign.

“We Are Ohio” claimed passing Issue 2 would mean fewer firefighters and nurses, leaving Ohio houses to burn and patients to perish. They released a radio ad saying Issue 2 would “take us back to the days of Jim Crow,” misrepresenting at every turn the effort to limit union power as an attack on Ohio’s middle class. They lied that Republican politicians exploited a “loophole” in the bill, though elected officials have never been subject to collective bargaining. They insisted local budgets were dandy before Kasich’s election.

Even without spending unprecedented amounts to mislead Ohio’s electorate, unions are built for fighting reform; union bosses become millionaires on the strength of their class warfare. In my opinion, Issue 2 came down to two questions:

1. How many Ohio government employees see through the Progressive narrative shoved down their throats courtesy of their mandatory dues?
2. How many Ohio taxpayers with friends & family in public work think for themselves when told Governor Kasich is out to steal workers’ benefits and punch their babies?

OEA & Co. don’t have to lumber into a defensive stance when their stranglehold is threatened. They just keep doing what they do every day – painting themselves as victims and taxpayers as villains. Yesterday it worked, to the detriment of everyone except the union bosses.

Sadly, a majority of Ohio voters were guilted into ignoring fiscal reality. In return for killing Issue 2, Ohio can expect:

• More tax hikes than would have been necessary with Senate Bill 5
• More layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and police than would have been necessary with Senate Bill 5
• More service cuts than would have been necessary with Senate Bill 5
• None of Senate Bill 5′s drop-dead obvious reforms to benefits & automatic pay hikes
• More lost House seats as employers and citizens flee

Those who voted No on Issue 2 have guaranteed the results they were told their votes would prevent. This is bad news for anyone who doesn’t get rich from the government union racket, especially the thousands of young public workers whose jobs will be sacrificed on the altar of union demands.

Cross-posted from Big Government.

From 2000-2010, Ohio lost 595,200 private industry jobs, faring better than only Michigan and California. In 2010 the state had the 7th-highest tax burden and 47th-best business climate. Although Governor Kasich has been working since January to get Ohio back on track, the forces of statism are deeply entrenched.

As public record proves, many of these folks get rich portraying big government as a moral imperative:

You have a chance right now to help a Midwestern swing state escape leftist control! Two Ohio ballot measures up for a vote on Tuesday deserve the full support of conservatives nationwide.

Issue 3 represents an unprecedented citizen-driven effort; its passage would amend the state constitution to block Obamacare’s individual mandate in Ohio. Conventional wisdom is that Issue 3 will pass, but efforts to kill Issue 2 may claim Issue 3 as collateral damage. If conservative Ohioans stay home Tuesday, union propaganda could prevent a repudiation of Obamacare.

Issue 2 has been the focus of a $30 million smear campaign, with an alphabet soup of unions framing government union reform as an “attack on The Middle Class.” There are many reasons to support Issue 2, but the best is also the simplest: Issue 2 restores a little power from union bosses to taxpayers.

Ohio’s status quo ensures that unions – instead of our elected officials – set the rules of public employment. Public wages are garnished for union propaganda and professional agitators’ pockets, while taxpayers are demonized over any effort to restrain spending. Their own employees describe Ohio union bosses as “rife with hypocrisy,” but $30 million buries a whole lot of dirt!

Far from theoretical, Ohio’s need for reform is rooted in fiscal urgency. Based on forecasts prior to Kasich’s election, 260 Ohio school districts will have deficits amounting to more than $500 per resident by 2015. Passing Issue 2 would ensure fewer layoffs, fewer tax hikes, fewer service cuts… as well as fewer six-figure union salaries. Any questions as to why AFL-CIO, NEA, AFSCME, and SEIU are dumping millions into a state ballot issue?

Like the broken law Issue 2 amends, I’ve been part of Ohio since 1983. Will you help me do good where decades of bureaucracy have done so much harm? Will you encourage Ohioans to free themselves from President Obama’s terrible policies and dishonest financiers?

Citizens of the Buckeye State, vote Yes on Issue 2 and Yes on Issue 3. Everyone else, please help counter union lies on your social media network of choice!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at Third Base Politics and RedState.

When they aren’t taking $54 from every member for an anti-reform smear campaign, Ohio Education Association (OEA) bosses pass the time by fighting with their employees. Is it weird that Ohio’s largest government union hawks expensive “solidarity” to teachers, while its managers can’t event get along with its staff?

"Bad Faith + Bad Management = Consequences" ...not if union bosses have anything to say about it!

In the past two years alone, OEA has seen a “No Confidence” vote against the union’s executive director and a $3.75 million settlement with union retirees whose health benefits the union pulled out from under them. OEA employees have described union bosses as “rife with hypocrisy,” “no better than the scabs,” “every bit as bad as the worst boards of education across the state,” and “hell-bent” on forcing a strike.

Do these sound like descriptors you would expect for people who take millions from public employees to fight for workers’ rights? Without Issue 2, OEA bosses have more power than our elected officials when it comes to the local services our tax dollars fund. Is it any wonder school districts across the state projected huge deficits back when Ted Strickland was governor, due largely to outrageous OEA demands?

Socialism enthusiasts, non-mathematicians, and taxpayer haters on Twitter have used the hashtag #StandUpOH to cloak their anti-reform campaign in populist terms. On November 8, Ohio taxpayers need to stand up for sensible government union reform; Lord knows the unions are on their feet demanding more from us!

• Issue 2 ends automatic step increases and requires merit pay for public workers.
• Issue 2 requires all government employees to pay 10% of their pension costs and 15% of their health insurance costs.
• Issue 2 ends forced payment of “fair-share” fees for government workers who don’t want to join a union.
• Issue 2 puts a stop to last-in, first-out firing policies, requiring considerations other than tenure when making layoffs.
• Issue 2 does not affect bargaining over wages or working conditions

Ohioans, vote Yes on Issue 2! Conservatives nationwide, help spread the facts over the next few days!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at RedState.

Back when the professional staff of the Ohio Education Association (OEA) had an official blog, this endearing quote from Socialist author Jack London was featured in the right column of every page:

“Esau was a traitor to himself: Judas Iscariot was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country; a strikebreaker is a traitor to his God, his country, his wife, his family and his class.”

Did you know the rough-and-tumble business of taking six figures from teachers to demonize school boards and extort taxpayers was like the 19th-century Canadian tundra? Yeah, neither did I.

But then, maybe we shouldn’t hold OEA staff accountable for the things published on their website. After all, they also said this:

PSU will maintain this blog, as well as its “Friends of the Professional Staff Union” Facebook page as means of communicating with OEA members and union brothers and sisters, so check back often for new pictures and updates!

I started sharing quotes from the site, and suddenly their socialism-loving, forced-dues-demanding, OEA-boss-attacking words became unfit for public consumption. Here’s one of many reasons why:

During the past few months, the EMT [ed: Executive Management Team] has applied this anti-union attitude in a number of smaller ways that indicate a lack of respect for staff. This group of officers and managers has used their claim of “fiduciary obligation” to attack the core union principle of seniority! Specifically, the actions of the EMT indicate that seniority does not matter in the major arena of vacancies and transfers! What core contract principle will be next? Sick Leave? Health Insurance? Salaries?

Basing management decisions on business needs and merit? Inconceivable! OEA bosses, who talk about fiscal responsibility only as it relates to money already siphoned from public workers’ paychecks into union coffers, don’t get along well with OEA staff. No surprise there.

Would you want your School Board and/or the Administration to be able to treat you and your contract this way—just by claiming they have to protect the interest of taxpayers? We think not!

And there it is: the simple, ugly truth. OEA doesn’t care about taxpayers, because taxpayers aren’t covered by a union contract. Thanks to Ohio’s broken government union laws, every handout a politician gives the unions is automatically assumed to be included in the next contract. Whatever We Are Ohio tells you, Issue 2 provides sensible reforms to the power of government unions who want only one thing: more.

On November 8, vote Yes on Issue 2!

Cross-posted at RedState.

In the union universe where We Are Ohio represents mainstream voters, there are two types of people: those who support limitless power for government union bosses, and evil fat-cats eager to throw Ohio schoolchildren off a cliff. Advocates of smaller government are shunned as racist yokels while the useless hipsters of Occupy Wall Street are heroes for standing up to the man.

Governor Kasich, elected last fall to get Ohio back on track after years of mismanagement, is the perfect recipient for union blame when it comes to local budget problems. He even worked for Lehman Brothers! The breathless protest signs write themselves.

However, reality in Ohio (as everywhere else) is cruel to the Progressive mindset. Check out the cost per citizen of these school districts’ projected 2015 deficits… based on forecasts submitted October 2010:

Shortfalls projected in October 2010 weren’t limited to this list; out of just over 600 districts, 59 warned of deficits amounting to $1,000 or more for every resident. 260 districts estimated 2015 deficits amounting to $500 or more per resident. See the forecasts for your county here.

Also contrary to union talking points, local tax hikes were a regular feature of the status quo ante. This fall there are 1,081 local tax issues across the state. Last year there were 1,131. In 2006, there were 1,115. If We Are Ohio could be troubled to acknowledge public record, they would surely insist unions have nothing to do with tax increases. Pesky detail: increasing the cost of government is the stated purpose of government unions.

To draw attention away from their decades-long influence on skyrocketing government expenses, Ohio unions smear sensible reform (to which Democrats submitted zero amendments) as an “attack” on middle class workers (who unions do not represent). Before you vote on Issue 2, get the facts – and keep in mind that union bosses make a killing by setting public employees against the public.

Without Senate Bill 5, your elected school board wouldn’t have many options for dealing with budget problems: taxes would have to go up, teachers would be laid off, and services would be cut. With the reforms in Issue 2, taxpayers will regain a little leverage over union bosses who are happy to force layoffs while posturing about “solidarity.”

On Tuesday, November 8, vote Yes on Issue 2!

In both 2009 and 2010, Ohio’s largest government union fought over contract terms with more than 100 of their employees. Ohio Education Association (OEA) bosses rake in millions, but that doesn’t mean they like handing out the same benefits they demand from you!

Take it from an OEA employee, in an August 29, 2009 entry on an official OEA staff blog:

OEA, which seems hell-bent on forcing its Professional Staff Union (PSU) to strike the organization, just doesn’t seem to understand that forcing its employees to strike is a short term tactical move that has very long-lasting internal and external implications.

What lasting effects of a strike was this professional agitator concerned about?

Trust is gone, and the aftermath of a strike is distrust, anger, and at times, downright hatred.

Hatred? That’s the emotion I’m accused of displaying every time I dare to criticize the Ohio Education Association! But remember, these are the words of an OEA employee and not some worker-hating union-buster.

If the OEA management team truly cares about its members and the stability of the organization, it will bargain a fair settlement with its professional employees prior to September 1.

In 2009, OEA settled their contract dispute before the union’s staff went on strike. In 2010… not so much. In 2011, Ohio taxpayers have their first chance in a generation to fix a broken system where hypocritical union bosses have more power than our elected officials. Vote Yes on Issue 2!

The union bosses behind We Are Ohio claim they’re concerned about the “unfair, unsafe” reforms in Senate Bill 5. When it comes to mistreating employees, the front group’s biggest donor would know!

An Ohio Education Association (OEA) employee explains in this August 5, 2009 post from an official union staff blog:

OEA continues to propose a regressive package complete with significant increases in workload, diminution of current rights and extreme cost-shifting of health care to the employees. All of which are completely inconsistent with the stance OEA promotes its members take with their board of education.

Where government unions are concerned, what’s good for taxpayers is apparently no good for the unions. More and more of your money is demanded by union bosses who get rich on member dues… and fail to meet the standards they force on taxpayers.

Who should decide how government employees are managed: your elected officials, or hypocritical union bosses? On November 8, vote for reasonable reforms that will empower Ohio taxpayers. Vote Yes on Issue 2!

There’s something union front We Are Ohio doesn’t want you to know about their largest donor, the Ohio Education Association: OEA has such a history of internal strife, it’s obvious OEA bosses are awful negotiators. This is a tiny problem for people who siphon millions from teachers on the strength of their negotiating skills, don’t you think?

Signs placed by OEA staff during a 2010 strike encouraged their Executive Director to kill himself

I’ve covered in depth the unlovely things OEA staff have said about union bosses, but they pale compared to this:

PROFESSIONAL STAFF VOTES “NO CONFIDENCE” IN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The 110 member Professional Staff Union (PSU) has voted overwhelmingly “…to declare a lack of confidence in the Executive Director of the Ohio Education Association to lead the professional staff or to implement the program of the Ohio Education Association effectively.”

Emphasis in the May 31, 2010 original (view as PDF), which I printed from an official OEA staff blog before it vanished from public view weeks after I began sharing quotes. Coincidence!

The resolution states that the Executive Director, “…in little more than a year on the job, has presided over the greatest and most rapid deterioration in the relationship between the OEA and its professional staff since a month long strike in 1997” as well as “…the greatest and most rapid deterioration of professional staff morale.”

Serious stuff, ultimately leading to a strike against OEA. This Executive Director got the boot, right?

Wrong! Larry Wicks pulled down $208,469 in 2009, $210,858 last year, and this spring led the OEA push to take an extra $54 from every member to kill Senate Bill 5. This suggests Larry must have improved on at least one failing cited in his employees’ No Confidence resolution:

has chosen to waste OEA dues dollars and other resources to fight OEA’s own employees instead of OEA’s REAL adversaries;

When union staff talk about “OEA’s REAL adversaries,” they mean any taxpayer or teacher who thinks the public should have a little say in how public schools work!

Another theme comes up frequently in the resolution against Executive Director Wicks: money. Specifically, OEA staff (dozens of whom are paid six figures) are salty about changes to OEA’s expense reimbursement policies. Very salty.

To date, PSU members have been forced to file more than 300 grievances. Despite the efforts of two Federal Mediators to re-solve these disputes during the facilitation step in the grievance procedure, OEA management has refused to settle any of the grievances. Instead, OEA management has hired one or two new employees just to process the grievances.

Federal Mediators. To resolve a dispute between the dispute resolution professionals and their dispute-resolving bosses. It’s great that OEA is creating grievance processing jobs (a growth industry!)… but why should Ohio teachers, children, and taxpayers be at the mercy of professional arguers who can’t even handle internal arguments?

The real problem with the Ohio Education Association isn’t their dishonest far-left rhetoric or even their miserable management skills. The problem is that taxpayers foot the bill for selfish bureaucrats who take advantage of Ohio teachers – and harm Ohio children by hamstringing our education system.

Ohioans should show how much confidence we have in government union bosses by voting for reforms that bring some balance to our broken status quo. Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at RedState.

To kill government union reform in Ohio, Ohio’s NEA affiliate charged every member an extra $54 this year. The Ohio Education Association (OEA) has contributed $5.8 million to a $30.5 million campaign whose message is equal parts simple and dishonest:

Vote NO on Issue 2 on November 8th to help repeal Senate Bill 5, the unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety in Ohio.

How do we know passing Issue 2 will hurt public employees? Because union bosses – who, coincidentally, are wealthy because of Ohio’s broken status quo – say so. In addition to being We Are Ohio‘s biggest donor, OEA is the state’s largest public union… let’s investigate whether OEA bosses are as trustworthy as they claim!

Last summer, more than 100 OEA staff went on strike against the union. Ask OEA’s own workforce whether taxpayers should buy the union’s rhetoric…

There are two possible explanations for the attacks directed at OEA bosses from OEA staff:

1. OEA staffers use cynical, melodramatic theatrics to get what they want.
2. OEA bosses demonize elected officials while mistreating their own employees.

Whether OEA staff are overpaid hypocrites or OEA bosses are overpaid hypocrites, the money’s coming from the same place: Ohio teachers’ paychecks. This is how government unions work by design, and Issue 2 is a real chance to fix Ohio’s broken system.

Ohioans, vote Yes on Issue 2! Everyone else, please help combat the union smear campaign – November 8 is fast approaching.

For more Issue 2 coverage, follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted at RedState.