The Fight Isn’t Over to Save Ohio’s Middle Class

This week against the overwhelming will of the people Gov. Kasich and his political allies dealt a blow to middle class working families.  After Republicans played political games with the Committee hearing process on Senate Bill 5 — even going so far as to remove Republican Senator Bill Seitz from the Committee because he was going to vote against the bill — the Ohio State Senate barely passed the bill.

All ten Democratic Senators and six Republican Senators — Bill Seitz, Gayle Manning, Tim Grendell, Tom Patton, Jim Hughes, and Scott Oelslager — stood up for Ohio’s middle class and voted against the measure but it wasn’t enough to beat the seventeen Republican Senators who voted in favor of this anti-worker bill.  Now the bill moves to the House and we will not give up our movement to save Ohio’s middle class and stop Senate Bill 5 from becoming law.

In the coming weeks, we will ramp up our efforts to tell Ohio State Representatives to reject Senate Bill 5 and to focus on creating jobs, not attacking Ohio’s middle class.  Click here now for a list of events in your area planned for this weekend.

Tens of thousands of workers, students, faith leaders and community members have taken action to stop these attacks.  It is not too late to get involved in the movement to save Ohio’s middle class.

To get more info on an event this weekend in your area, click here now.

Also, mark your calendars for a rally outside the Statehouse on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. to protest Gov. Kasich’s partisan, anti-middle class political agenda.  The rally will take place before Kasich delivers his first State of the State Address.  Here are the details:

What:  Rally Against Gov. Kasich’s Anti-Middle Class Agenda
Where:  West Lawn of the Statehouse
When:  Tuesday, March 8 at 11:30 a.m.

Thank you for all the work you have been doing and we hope to see you at one or more of these events.

Sincerely,

Tim Burga
Ohio AFL-CIO President

P.S. Can’t make it to one of these events?  Call your Representative and tell them to vote against Senate Bill 5 and work on creating jobs instead of punishing hard-working teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public service workers that keep our communities going.  To call your Representative, dial 1-888-218-5931.


For more information, visit <www.ohaflcio.org>.  Cf. Tim Burga, Opposition Testimony on Senate Bill 5 before the Ohio Senate Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee, 22 February 2011.




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