Just hours after two House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a three-part strategy to make Ohio a “right to work” state, GOP leadership in the Senate killed the idea.
Senate President Keith Faber, of Celina, said in a statement Wednesday evening that the Senate’s “ambitious” agenda is focused on jobs and economy, but not right to work legislation.
“After discussions with other leaders and my caucus, I don’t believe there is current support for this issue in the General Assembly,” Faber said. “The only purpose this discussion serves right now is to generate a bunch of breathless fundraising appeals from the Ohio Democratic Party.”
Representatives Ron Maag and Kristina Roegner introduced two pieces of “Workplace Freedom” legislation that would ban compulsory union payments in the public and private sectors, and a joint resolution that could place the issue on November ballots. The controversial measures garnered co-sponsorship from 15 House Republicans, a quarter of the caucus.
But the proposals fired up Democrats and labor groups, who condemned the GOP bills as another assault on workers and vowed to fight them.
The sister bills would make it so employees do not have to pay dues to unions. Current law gives employees the option to turn down union membership, but requires them to make fair-share payments to the union for representation and other benefits. The new legislation aims to strip the fair-share requirement and leave it up to unions whether or not to provide benefits to non-union, non-paying employees, according to Maag’s office.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online News
