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“Three years ago, Gov. John Kasich signed into law one of
the most dangerous and unfair attacks on the rights of
workers—SB 5,” said Rep. Ashford. “The Governor believed
that he could successfully break the backs of middle class
Ohioan’s by stripping away collective barging, but through
the efforts of concerned citizens, volunteers and employees
a successful repeal eliminated this unsafe law.”
Senate Bill 5 was widely panned as a politically driven
attack, using the GOP’s stranglehold of state government to
push through the attack on workers’ rights even in the face
of vast public opposition. During the bill’s consideration,
mounting public scrutiny of GOP motivations behind SB5
resulted in large Statehouse protests and impromptu closures
of the Statehouse to the public—leading Democratic lawmakers
to threaten legal action to reopen the Statehouse.
This General Assembly, the Ohio GOP has revived attacks on
workers’ rights to collectively bargain with two so-called
“Right to Work” bills.
Research has shown that so-called “Right to Work”
restrictions strip workers of their rights and actually
bring down wages and living standards in states where they
are enacted. Aside from employees’ voices being collectively
weakened, so-called “Right to Work” restrictions have been
widely criticized as giving unchecked power to large,
multinational corporations.
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