Thousands rally at Ohio Statehouse against Senate Bill 5; supporters convene Wednesday

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Supporters of changes to Ohio's collective bargaining law will get their turn Wednesday to rally at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

Opponents to the bill are planning for another large demonstration Thursday.

Wednesday's demonstration will be held a day after thousands of people staged a massive protest against Senate Bill Five on the capitol grounds.

At the same time, an Ohio Senate Committee will likely vote on the measure, which permits collective bargaining for wages, hours, terms and conditions, but not on benefits such as health care costs.

The bill prohibits public employee strikes and replaces binding arbitration with a dispute resolution process. It also requires public employees to pay 20 percent of their health care premiums.

Senate President Tom Niehaus, a Republican from New Richmond, said the GOP-controlled Senate could vote by the end of the week and send the measure to the House.

"I believe this bill is fair most importantly to the taxpayers, but also to the employees," Niehaus said.

However, Democrat, Eric Kearney, a State Senator from Cincinnati, said he disagrees.

"I still think it's a deal breaker," he said. "It's an attempt at union busting."

That's a sentiment John Holub supports. He led a group of workers from United Auto Workers Local #2308 in Trenton to Columbus for the rally.

"We are just not going to stand for this Governor taking away the collective bargaining rights of working people in this state," he said. "The Governor has sent signals that the private sector is next and we're here to stand arm-in-arm with our brothers and sisters of the public sector unions."

A half-dozen firefighters from Middletown also made the trip hoping that at some point legislators will sit down with workers and talk about changes that make sense. Lt. John Harvey said collective bargaining is a minor issue.

"There's a lot of issues with unfunded mandates the state has put on these cities that puts them in a financial situations they're in," Lt. Harvey said. "There's also a lot of wasteful spending that the cities want to put it on the firefighters, police officers and teacher that we're the problem."

Educators like Winton Woods Elementary Fourth Grade teacher Amanda Gardner watched the proceedings and listened to the speakers with great intensity. She said she's worried about her class size, the impact on students and her financial future if Senate Bill Five passes.

'We're not going to put new carpets in our house. We're not going to change the flooring. We not going to upgrade our house right now," she said. "Because with not knowing what my salary could be in another year or two, we're even talking about if we were to lose our house.

Nearby stood a group of employees of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, who are members of SEIU Local #1199(Service Employees International Union).

Joy Sunderman has worked in information technology for the college for over three decades and knows she could get more in the private sector. Yet, she has stayed at Cincinnati State because of the students. Wages, she says, are a small piece of what is sought in bargaining.

"We bargain for health and safety. We bargain for health care," she said. "A lot of our members are single mothers and they're basically working for health care. To charge them that much more for health care or to take away their right to bargain for that would be devastating to a lot of our members."

Added Sunderman, "The biggest objection is that we're going backward."

Shannon Baker, a secretary at Princeton Middle School, said she joined the rally to make sure her voice and those of her co-workers would be heard on the right to bargain, wages and retirement.

"We just want it wiped out," she said of Senate Bill Five.

Organizers said the rally drew 20,000 people at its peak. Others put the number closer to 5,000. No matter what the number, it didn't surprise Doug Sizemore of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council. He likened it to the awakening of a sleeping giant.

"You can see. Here's the proof right here. It's not just unions. It's the community. The faith community is up here speaking right now." he said. "This is a community wide effort to stop this bill."

Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican, has said the bill is needed to help Ohio erase its $8 billion budget deficit and control future costs.

Sen. Kearney said that's never been the case and he wonders why Senate Bill Five has been pushed so quickly and strongly in the past few weeks.

"We've had a system in place that's worked for 27 years. We should keep the system," he said. "If there are minor changes that need to be made, we should make minor changes, but not overhaul the entire system."

Sen. Niehaus countered that the bill assures taxpayers that the money they're giving the state is being spent wisely.

"Every family in the state has had to sit down and make tough decisions about what they can afford to spend money on," he said.

"That's all we're trying to do at