(Photo courtesy of Ohio AFL-CIO)
Today Republicans in Ohio, taking a page from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's union-busting book, voted to strip collective bargaining rights for thousands of public employees with the passage of S.B. 5, which passed out of the Senate labor committee on a 7-5 vote despite the growing opposition to the bill:
In Columbus, state officials estimated that 8,500 union supporters gathered on Capitol Square, where they listened to speeches, cheered and displayed signs urging defeat of Senate Bill 5, which would restrict collective bargaining, block strikes and do away with binding arbitration for more than 300,000 firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other state and local government workers.
Naturally, Republican Governor John Kasich isn't listening, and in fact, earlier today an anti-union crony stacked the deck to ensure the vote went his way:
Prior to the hearing, Senate President Tom Niehaus yanked Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, a public critic of the bill, off of the committee, replacing him with Sen. Cliff Hite, R-Findlay, who voted for it.
... and in an effort to cram this bill through as quickly as possible, it is expected to be voted on by the full Senate later today.