In what could be a close gubernatorial race this year, Republican nominee Mike DeWine picked up a labor union endorsement today. A nod for a Republican is not unusual for the International Union of Operating Engineers.
The IUOE Local 18 represents about 15,000 members in Ohio. They’re the heavy equipment operators who build roads and bridges.
That would seem to put them in a Democratic camp after President Obama came to Ohio to promote an infrastructure bill but Congressional Republicans rejected it.
Still, Richard Dalton, the business manager for the operating engineers, said they’ve done well supporting the GOP.
“Our agenda is about jobs and creation of jobs. We don’t get sidetracked with all the social issues that are going on. And we’ve done that for 25 years. So supporting Republicans is not a new thing to us,” said Dalton.
“We’ve done it my whole career. I’ve been on staff of Local 18 for 38 years and I think we’ve supported Republicans the whole time. Ohio spending on highways has been very good.
“We’ve been more successful with a Republican as a governor than we have with a Democrat as the governor,” Dalton added.
That’s a foolish endorsement because of this:
The only political statement on the union’s website is that so called "right-to-work" laws, which prohibit mandatory union dues, are wrong for Ohio. Yet those proposals to weaken labor unions is exactly what Republican legislators in Columbus are proposing.
When asked if he would sign such a law, DeWine avoided answering and quoted Gov. John Kasich.
“Um, not on our agenda, at all,” DeWine said.
The latest proposal would put the issue on the ballot. DeWine told the Columbus Dispatch that the voters should decide. But at the union site in Richfield, he wouldn’t go that far.
“I haven’t even looked at the ballot language,” DeWine said.
When pushed, he said he would do anything that keeps Ohio competitive.
So-called right to work legislation has come up several times in Ohio and across the country in recent years. Unions see it as anathema since it weakens their existence in the workplace, allowing workers to not join or pay union dues even in unionized shops.
Republican Gov. John Kasich rolled back public-sector employee unions' collective bargaining rights in 2011 with Senate Bill 5. While not exactly a right-to-work bill, it did include eliminating fair-share union dues - the requirement that all workers who benefit from union bargaining pay toward the cost of representation.
Kasich suffered an embarrassing defeat at the ballot as a result when voters overturned the law.
What's telling about that is Kasich's language on right-to-work following its defeat.
"It's not on my agenda," Kasich said several times to journalists in 2014 .
That sounds familiar.
DeWine's comments also sound remarkably similar to other governors around the country who said right-to-work was not on their agenda, only to support it when they got into office.
"I don't think it's an appropriate subject for us to be dealing with today," saidMichigan Gov. Rick Snyder , a Republican, in 2011. "Because we have higher priorities that need to be addressed in our state."
Snyder reversed course in 2012, signing a right-to-work bill into law and calling it a "major day in Michigan's history."
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a notably anti-union Republican, also played the "not on my agenda" card in the midst of an election in 2014 .
"I think it's pretty clear the Legislature has worked with us hand in hand in the past and I'm making it clear in this campaign, as I'll make it clear in the next (legislative) session, that that's not something that's part of my agenda," Walker said.
Walker signed a right-to-work bill in 2015.
DeWine wouldn't elaborate his position on right-to-work in general but - with echoes of Scott, Snyder and Kasich - ultimately left the door open to passing right-to-work in the future if he were elected.
Real populist, Richard Cordray (D. OH), has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO and has picked up another major union endorsement recently:
The United Auto Workers announced it is endorsing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.
The decision was announced this week during a UAW Leadership Conference.
The union said in a media release that both Mr. Cordray and Betty Sutton, who is running for lieutenant governor, have “a strong record of standing up for Ohio’s auto industry and its workers.” The release went on to credit Mr. Cordray for working to protect workers during General Motors’ bankruptcy and restructuring while serving as Ohio attorney general. Members also commended Ms. Sutton for supporting the “Cash for Clunkers” bill as a congressman.
And unions are putting their skin in the game big time in Ohio:
Labor’s campaign — dubbed “Take Back Ohio”— will involve thousands of volunteers across the state and is designed to reach every union member in Ohio, along with non-union middle class voters, according to the Ohio AFL-CIO. The campaign will include neighborhood canvasses, phone banks and worksite leaflets.
“The stakes could not be higher,” said Ohio AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Petee Talley of the 2018 elections. “After years of seeing the system rigged against us, working people are engaging in this campaign because we know that our freedom to negotiate is on the line.”
The Ohio AFL-CIO is comprised of 600,000 union men and women who are affiliated through 41 international unions and 1,500 local unions. The Lordstown event was the first of six rkick-off events scheduled this month in Marietta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo.
Among those speaking at last night’s rally was the Democratic Party’s candidate for lieutenant governor, Betty Sutton.
“Rich Cordray and I have always stood on the side of working people and organized labor, and we will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you as the next governor and lieutenant governor of Ohio,” she said. “We need leaders in Columbus who will stand up and fight back against those powerful interests on behalf of working Ohioans who have been left behind.”
Also speaking was state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, who was defeated by Cordray in his bid to win the party’s gubernatorial nomination.
“It’s time we take back our state,” Schiavoni said. “Rich and Betty have always fought for workers’ rights and working families and actions speak louder than words.”
We cannot let DeWine dupe the voters and wreck Ohio’s middle-class. Let’s remind Ohio voters what a real populist looks like. Click here to donate and get involved with the Cordray-Sutton ticket.