"Ohio votes down new law limiting union rights; State’s current bargaining rules will remain
November 09, 2011|Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Voters handily rejected Ohio’s new law restricting union rights for public workers yesterday after an expensive union-backed campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers, and teachers against the Republican establishment.
It truly is a corporate paper.
In a political blow to Governor John Kasich, a Republican, Ohioans easily voted down the law, which limits the bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers.
Labor and business interests poured more than $30 million into the nationally watched campaign, and turnout was high for an off-year election.
The law hadn’t taken effect yet. Yesterday’s result means the state’s current union rules will stand, at least until the GOP-controlled Legislature determines its next move. House Speaker William Batchelder, a Republican, predicted last week that the more palatable elements of the collective bargaining bill - such as higher minimum contributions on worker health insurance and pensions - are likely to be revisited after the dust settles.
Earlier this year, thousands of people swarmed the State House in protest when the bill was being heard. The bill still allowed bargaining on wages, working conditions, and some equipment but banned strikes, scrapped binding arbitration, and dropped promotions based solely on seniority, among other provisions.
Kasich and fellow supporters promoted the law as a means for local governments to save money and keep workers. Their effort was supported by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business-Ohio, farmers, and others.
We Are Ohio, the largely union-funded opponent coalition, painted the issue as a threat to public safety and middle-class workers, spending millions of dollars on TV ads filled with images of firefighters, police officers, teachers, and nurses.
Celebrities came out on both sides of the campaign, with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and singer Pat Boone urging voters to retain the law and former astronaut and senator John Glenn and the Rev. Jesse Jackson urging them to scrap it.
Labor and business interests poured more than $30 million into the nationally watched campaign, with the law’s opponents far outspending and outnumbering its defenders....
Ohio’s bill went further than a similar one in Wisconsin by including police officers and firefighters, and it was considered by many observers to be a barometer of the national mood on the political conundrum of the day: What’s the appropriate size and role of government, and who should pay for it?
Kasich has vowed not to give up his fight for streamlining government despite the loss.
For opponents of the law, its defeat is anticipated to energize the labor movement, which largely supports Democrats, ahead of President Obama’s reelection effort.
Also on the Ohio ballot was a proposal to prohibit people from being required to buy health insurance as part of the national health care overhaul. A vote against the health care law would be mostly symbolic, but Republicans hope to use the outcome as part of a legal challenge.
In another hotly debated proposal, Mississippi voters went to the polls to decide whether to back a referendum on whether to define life as beginning at conception....
See: Mississippi Women Kill Personhood Amendment
And I'm killing the rest of this article.
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Related:
"Ohio voters’ resounding rejection of an antiunion law provides a huge boost for Democrats and union officials preparing for their next major battle - the attempted recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican - but their prospects could be clouded by the differences between the two Midwestern states and their election laws."
Also related: Labor Has Lost in Wisconsin
Mass. House Worse Than Wisconsin
Unions Surrender Rights in Massachusetts
Democrats Abandon Unions in New Jersey
Yeah, good thing Democrats are looking out for you unions.
"Amish man’s beard cut in Ohio attack" by Associated Press, November 12, 2011
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - An elderly Amish man was attacked by his son, who a sheriff said cut the man’s hair and beard in the latest incident in a breakaway Amish community. The victim told the sheriff he was scared and upset but would not press charges.
“I’m frustrated with it. I’m upset with it. And, here again, the man doesn’t want to file charges because of his belief,’’ Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said yesterday.
Abdalla warned the son in advance that he did not want trouble and parked nearby during the father-son reunion, the first in several years.
Such hair-cutting attacks are offensive to the Amish because they believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.
The man went to his son’s home and the two talked. The man said his son then attacked him, with the help of the son’s children, Abdalla said.
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More: Sheriff: Amish man's beard cut in new Ohio attack
Amish extremists?
Also see: Ohio man traded guns to build his collection of wild animals
I apologize for not having covered that story, readers. Sorry.
