To kill government union reform in Ohio, Ohio’s NEA affiliate charged every member an extra $54 this year. The Ohio Education Association (OEA) has contributed $5.8 million to a $30.5 million campaign whose message is equal parts simple and dishonest:

Vote NO on Issue 2 on November 8th to help repeal Senate Bill 5, the unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety in Ohio.

How do we know passing Issue 2 will hurt public employees? Because union bosses – who, coincidentally, are wealthy because of Ohio’s broken status quo – say so. In addition to being We Are Ohio‘s biggest donor, OEA is the state’s largest public union… let’s investigate whether OEA bosses are as trustworthy as they claim!

Last summer, more than 100 OEA staff went on strike against the union. Ask OEA’s own workforce whether taxpayers should buy the union’s rhetoric…

There are two possible explanations for the attacks directed at OEA bosses from OEA staff:

1. OEA staffers use cynical, melodramatic theatrics to get what they want.
2. OEA bosses demonize elected officials while mistreating their own employees.

Whether OEA staff are overpaid hypocrites or OEA bosses are overpaid hypocrites, the money’s coming from the same place: Ohio teachers’ paychecks. This is how government unions work by design, and Issue 2 is a real chance to fix Ohio’s broken system.

Ohioans, vote Yes on Issue 2! Everyone else, please help combat the union smear campaign – November 8 is fast approaching.

For more Issue 2 coverage, follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted from that hero.

In the fight against government union reform in Ohio, the Ohio Education Association (OEA) is the largest donor by a landslide. Ohio’s NEA affiliate charged every member $54 to help kill Senate Bill 5, and they’ve dumped $5.8 million into a $30.5 million campaign whose message is equal parts simple and dishonest:

Vote NO on Issue 2 on November 8th to help repeal Senate Bill 5, the unfair attack on employee rights and worker safety in Ohio.

The unions are too busy beating this drum to offer any evidence reform is an attack on workers that makes them less safe; the only reason to vote against Issue 2 is because the unions demand it. Since OEA has given more to the anti-reform effort than anyone, let’s see if OEA deserves Ohio’s trust!

Government unions have a straightforward business model: using money from members’ paychecks, lobby for endless tax increases and convince workers that only the union cares. From a taxpayer’s perspective this is bad enough – but OEA takes it one step further. The union pays itself big bucks to demonize Ohio’s elected officials and job creators:

These are just the OEA staff & officers paid more than $150,000. In 2010, more than 100 OEA employees were paid six figures! Strange that folks who make a living defending poor, unappreciated educators do so by shaking them down for triple the average Ohio teacher’s salary.

What do you think – can voters be forgiven for concluding the teachers’ union is more concerned with the union than with the teachers? Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted from that hero.

Opponents of the reforms in Issue 2 blame busted local budgets on the way Governor Kasich handled the $8 billion deficit Ted Strickland left behind. In effect, government union bosses who thrive on a broken status quo insist the problem is too little spending. Like all leftists who decry spending cuts, union bosses want to raise our taxes.

For proof, consider Ohio school districts’ five-year forecasts from October 2010. Based on papered-over Strickland state figures – before Governor Kasich was even elected – districts projected major shortfalls by 2015. If we vote down Issue 2, how will local leaders cover these deficits? Layoffs, higher taxes, program cuts… choose any combination of the three.

Without Senate Bill 5, every resident of these Ohio school districts would have to pay between $1200 and $1500 in 2015 to cover the deficits forecast last fall:

In 2010, more than 450 Ohio school districts forecast deficits amounting to more than $100 per resident by 2015. These 21 districts aren’t even the worst examples!

Unfortunately for Ohio union bosses, heated rhetoric won’t melt mathematical reality. With your Yes vote on Issue 2, you can make it easier for school districts throughout state to address deficits without raising taxes, reducing services, or firing teachers.

Get the facts behind the anti-reform smear campaign, check out county-by-county school district forecasts, and then vote Yes on Issue 2!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart

Cross-posted from that hero.

Lately I’ve been posting quotes from Ohio Education Association (OEA) staff, members, and bosses, because We Are Ohio trades in dishonesty that is stripped bare simply by quoting the group’s largest in-state donor.

An OEA employee protest sign:
OEA Exec. Director Larry Wicks
was paid $210,858 in 2010

Fact: OEA has been led by snake-oil salesmen since at least 2004, when the union decided to pull health benefits out from under its retirees.

In the Spring of 2004 OEA served notice that it was terminating all Medicare Supplemental health care coverage for its retired staff employees. Those benefits have been contractually guaranteed for over 25 years.

Because OEA leadership refused to even talk with retirees to try to bring the issue to a reasonable resolution, retirees were forced to file a class action lawsuit in Federal Court in order to seek a just and fair resolution.

Unfair allegations, no doubt! Revoking retirees’ benefits would be impossibly hypocritical, since convincing government employees that taxpayers are out to steal their benefits is OEA’s entire business. Solidarity-loving workers’ advocates wouldn’t have to be sued to make a deal with their own retirees.

On May 10, 2010 the Sixth District approved a settlement between the parties. Retirees have finally achieved the just and fair resolution they sought for over six years.

What resolution was that? A panel of federal judges found that OEA had wrongfully denied benefits in violation of a series of collective bargaining agreements. The class-action lawsuit against Ohio’s largest government union resulted in OEA creating a new benefits account for retirees and paying $3,750,000 in damages. Granted, this lawsuit is only relevant if OEA is a government union and not an elaborate satire…

Have you heard a single anti-reform argument that wasn’t based on an emotional appeal from We Are Ohio’s supposed moral high ground? Are you glad, Ohio teachers, that you pay hundreds of dollars in dues each year to keep OEA bosses’ wallets fat?

On November 8, vote to reform the power of dishonest union bosses who implement the exact policies they claim to stand against: Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Cross-posted from that hero and Third Base Politics.