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Ohio Senate Restricts Workers’ Rights

Press TV – March 3, 2011

The Republican-controlled Ohio state Senate has followed Wisconsin in passing controversial legislation that restricts collective bargaining rights by public workers unions.

The Ohio bill was approved on Wednesday in a vote of 17 to 16, with six Republicans joining Democrats in opposing the measure.

“I’ve been saying for weeks that we have the votes to pass this bill. It reflects the diverse interests that our members have around the state of Ohio,” CNN quoted Senate President Tom Niehaus as saying.

The measure, known as Senate Bill 5, would limit a 1983 Ohio State law that grants collective bargaining rights to public employees.

The proposal was amended on Tuesday to include limits on worker’s vacation, new measures to settle workplace arbitration and to cut seniority-based pay hikes.

The modified regulation would restore collective bargaining rights on wages while it bans any kind of strikes by public workers. Ignoring the ban would impose fines and termination of employment contracts.

Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered outside the Senate in Columbus, Ohio and shouted slogans such as “Shame on you!” and “We will remember this,” following the vote.

On Tuesday, protesters occupied Wisconsin’s Capitol for the fifteenth consecutive day in a bid to oppose a similar measure taken by the Republican Governor Scott Walker to reduce employee pay and undermine unions in the state.

Also on Saturday, tens of thousands of people staged rallies in nearly all 50 states, including Washington, New York, California, and Nevada, to express their solidarity with Wisconsin protesters.

March 3, 2011 - Posted by | Economics, Solidarity and Activism

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