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Right-To-Work Laws and Working-Class Voters: Another Teachable Moment
Note: This article was reposted with permission from Working-Class Perspectives, a commentary from the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University. Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. To read more from Working-Class Perspectives, click here.
By: John Russo, Center for Working-Class Studies
As a professor, I am always interested in teachable moments. When it became apparent in late 2010 that Ohio Governor John Kasich planned to introduce legislation depriving public sector workers of basic bargaining rights, I told reporters that it was a teachable moment about the role of public sector workers. After all, they were the ones who made all other work possible.
Both organized labor and community groups quickly embraced the idea that Ohio Senate Bill 5 could be a teachable moment. They launched a hugely successful campaign to put a referendum on the bill, Issue 2, on the November ballot, and then led the fight to persuade voters to oppose the issue and overturn the bill. Kasich’s attack and the forceful response to it may make it possible for Obama to win Ohio in 2012, despite economic conditions and 2010 election results that would seem to prime the state to swing to the right this time.
Another teachable moment has arrived now that Republicans have introduced Right-to-Work legislation in New Hampshire and passed it in Indiana. Similar legislation may be on the way in Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio. Such moves may well undermine the historic white working-class support of Republicans, and that could bode well for Obama’s re-election.
RTW legislation differs from past Republican attacks on unions. As labor historian Joseph McCartin has recently chronicled, while courting union endorsements and union voters, Republicans have pursued strategies that, over the last 30 years, have quietly undermined administrative agencies and government policies that facilitated the formation of unions. The result has been the erosion and marginalization of organized labor and its ability to raise wages, improve workplace safety and health, and advance representative democracy not only in the workplace but in the body politic.
The current RTW legislation is a direct attack on organized labor and its ability to represent the economic and political interests of both the rank and file and those non-union workers whose wages and benefits are enhanced by employers to avoid unionization. No doubt, the role of unions in building and rebuilding economic security and the middle class, advancing workplace rights, and promoting political democracy will be a central part of the curriculum for this teachable moment.
All the current Republican candidates have refused opportunities to speak to union leaders. Instead, they have signed on to the anti-labor agenda, including RTW legislation, proposed by conservative corporations, business groups, and donors. Together with their other economic proposals, they have established a Republican brand that embraces and even celebrates a distorted sense of morality and inequality of income, wealth, and power.
But as Governors Kasich and Walker have found out, “as you sow so shall you reap.” The fight against RTW proposals and their supporters will be particularly fierce in the battleground states, especially the Rust Belt swing states of Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota. Political analysts Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin consider those states crucial to Democratic chances in 2012. In addition, RTW initiatives have now put projected GOP states with relatively small labor movements, such as New Hampshire and Indiana, into play for 2012.
If RTW legislation inspires union members to support Obama in November, their family members are likely to follow suit. In New Hampshire & Indiana, about 10% of voters belong to unions, but union households make up about 20% of voters. This is smaller than in the Rust Belt battlegrounds, where 26% to 34% of voters belong to union households, but that 20% may still make a difference. Further, the effect of the anti-union push could also cross state borders by galvanizing labor and community activists from safe Democratic States into neighboring states in the 2012 election. Supporters in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and even Washington State organized phone banks to support the fight against the Indiana RTW bill.
Republicans also forget that their attacks on unions can turn off long-time Republican voters. In Ohio, the demonization of teachers as part of Issue 2 moved many Republican educators toward the Democrats. Educators are now the single most unionized group of workers in the U.S., and many continue to react strongly to conservative attacks, both in states where they are being targeted and across the country.
Further, while conservatives may hope to undermine union political influence with RTW initiatives, they don’t understand the continuing power of unions to mobilize workers. Kasich’s attack on public sector workers was overturned last year not because so many dollars flowed from unions into the Issue 2 campaign, though enough money was raised that We Are Ohio, the union-based organization that led the fight, is still spending the millions it has left. What really mattered was the person-to-person, door-to-door effort. Organizing, it turns out, still works.
All of this has not gone unnoticed by moderate Republicans, and many now believe that the party should not have taken this route. Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam have argued that the Republicans missed multiple opportunities to garner greater working-class and union support by crafting policies that, while socially conservative, would embrace “limited government pragmatism” that met the needs and aspirations of working people. They see many Republicans as having confused being “pro-market with being pro-business,” and failing to make a distinction between policies that “foster dependency and those that foster independence and upward mobility.” Rather than directly attacking the very existence of union, they encourage the development of new forms of unionism that are better suited for the new economy and enhance employment opportunities and economic advancement.
Importantly, the Republicans seem to have confused anti-labor policy with real economic policy. Rather than pursue the kinds of moderate revisions suggested by Douthat and Salam, Republican leaders, cheered on by conservative corporate donors and lobbyists, have launched an attack on labor unions that may well lead to the reelection of President Obama and further weaken an already divided Republican Party. Consequently Republicans, especially Michigan Governor Rick Synder and Governor Kasich, are not publically supporting initiatives by conservative groups, such as the effort by Ohioans for Workplace Freedom to put a RTW referendum on ballots this November. In the current conservative political environment, their silence is deafening.
Tonight marks a historic victory for workers all across Ohio and throughout the nation
This election affirms that Ohioans believe in the in the collective bargaining process and workers’ rights. Never before has collective bargaining rights been upheld at the ballot box. Today, we proved that Ohioans will not stand for attacks on the middle class as a solution to the challenges Ohio faces.
Tens of thousands of Ohioans came together in an unprecedented grassroots movement to repeal John Kasich’s signature piece of legislation. This election sends a message that we will not stand for attacks on workers. Tonight, we proved that the power of democracy is stronger than any one politician. Our message will echo throughout state houses across the country and make those anti-worker politicians think again before they come after the middle class.
This was not an easy process and is worth reflecting back on how many obstacles we overcame to get to today. Ten months ago, our sisters and brothers were locked out of the state house, denied the right to speak during committee votes, and thousands of people were ignored during some of the biggest protests Ohio has ever seen. We did not let this stop us. We put together a citizen’s veto collecting nearly 1.3 million signatures to place Senate Bill 5 on the ballot.
Today, Ohio spoke loud and clear to John Kasich and his allies. The Ohio State House is the people’s house and we will be heard. This has been a long journey to tonight and many people deserve recognition for the countless hours spent knocking on doors, making phone calls, and getting the word out to friends and family on why Senate Bill 5 was unfair, unsafe, and bad for Ohio.
Our own Fight For a Fair Economy played an integral role in making sure we won this fight. They knocked on over 250,000 doors, talked to over 1000,000 Ohioans and collected over 25,000 vote by mail forms. Without their hard work and all of our members, this victory would not be possible.
Tonight we celebrate this historic win. Tomorrow, we get back to work knowing that this is just one battle of many in the war on workers. We will fight for workers’ rights until every worker has a good paying job with good benefits. We will fight until we see economic and social justice throughout this country.
Hundreds Rally as Cleveland Gets Out The Vote
Hundreds of SEIU District 1199 members and supporters of the Fight for a Fair Economy (FFE) campaign gathered today at the SEIU 1199 Hall in Cleveland, Ohio to kick off our Get Out The Vote (GOTV) canvass with President Becky Williams and SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry.
“This is a campaign about us verses them. It’s about the people who get up everyday and bust their butts to put food on the tables. These politicians are out-of-touch with Ohio values. Now we’ve got to put Senate Bill 5 where it belongs and beat them Tuesday at the polls,” said Becky Williams, President of SEIU District 1199.
The GOTV rally was part of SEIU’s month long campaign to tell Ohio voters that they can repeal the unsafe and unfair job killing bill known as SB 5 by VOTING NO ON ISSUE 2. International President Mary Kay Henry, along with SEIU sisters and brothers from across the country, went door-to-door talking to Ohio voters showing their Solidarity with Ohio’s working families.
“There is terrible economic inequality all across our country. We are the 99% and voting No on Issue 2 is going to make sure we have a collective say in raising our wages and improving the lives of all working families in this state,” said Mary Kay Henry, SEIU International President.
This weekend’s activities sparked off a statewide drive focused on getting Ohioans who support the repeal of Senate Bill 5 out to the polls to VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2.
“Collective-bargaining is a important right for the working people of Ohio. It helps maintain safe working conditions and allows us to take better care of the public,” said Judy Maldonado RN Vice President for SEIU District 1199. ”We’ve been saying this to Gov. Kasich since he’s started this battle – Senate Bill 5 is dead wrong. But I have to give him credit where credit is due – he’s done an amazing job uniting working people. We’ve come out stronger than ever and we’re ready for Election Day.”
Samara Knight, Private Sector Member Vice President, echoed similar sentiments. She’s been a leading voice educating voters in Cleveland. She said, ”Over the last 8 months it’s been a challenge for members to fight against job cuts and layoffs. Everwhere you turn in Ohio our out-of-touch politicians continue their attack on working families. Ohioans will continue to make a difference in the Buckeye state because we’ll defeat Issue 2 on November 8.”
We have the opportunity to make a difference in this campaign. Join us to help repeal Senate Bill 5 by clicking here.
No One Can Fire Me for the Color of My Shoes
I am part of a team of Cleveland schools staff who advocate for and with the parents of special needs children when they raise concerns about the education or services children are receiving.
Just this past year, my supervisor and I handled and resolved over 90 cases, many of them without the use of in-house or contracted-out legal counsel. Neither my supervisor nor I are attorneys. We just know what the laws are and the rights of the students and their parents.
What we do behind the scenes every day – quietly and without fanfare – saves the Cleveland schools hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. And I have the satisfaction of knowing I have helped kids focus on their education.
Because students are my top priority, it deeply disturbs me that our governor and politicians are dead set on passing Senate Bill 5, legislation that will disrupt my ability to provide the best assistance to students and their families.
I oppose this anti-collective bargaining legislation because I believe it will give employers a huge upper hand on implementing work practices that give way to at-will employees being treated unfairly when it comes to pay, hiring and firing and treatment in the workplace. Many before me have worked hard and even lost their lives to win the rights that protect public employees today.
Because of collective bargaining, no one can fire me just because they don’t like the color of my shoes. And because of collective bargaining, I can go to work each day knowing that I can fully be there for my students in a fair, stable working environment.
The manner in which Governor Kasich and his political allies are trying to ram this legislation through and their dismissive attitude toward public employees tells me that the voice of working people in this state doesn’t matter to the politicians who support Senate Bill 5.
As public employees, we are the nurses, teachers, firefighters, librarians, cops and first responders who provide critical services every day for our fellow Ohioans. We are not to blame for the current financial crisis and, but we are willing to do our part to fix this broken economy.
We have taken pay cuts, forgone longevity payments, taken furlough days, and increased the amount we pay for monthly health care premiums and doctor visits. Through collective bargaining, we sat down together and reached a mutual agreement with our employer on these issues.
We have also had to adapt to working with less staff and resources. Yet politicians would point the finger of blame at us and our unions with one hand while handing out tax breaks to big businesses with the other. We refuse to be the governor’s scapegoats and allowing him to take the focus away from what really matters to the people of Ohio: creating jobs, allowing us to make a livable wage to take care of our families, and being treated with dignity and respect.
Lynn Radcliffe has been a support staff person in the Division of Special Education, Cleveland Metropolitan School District for more than 30 years, and is also a proud member of SEIU District 1199.