Posted on 15 February 2011 by Jason Hart
Predictably, government unions are up in arms over Senate Bill 5. In a startling twist, union bosses are arguing that taxing Peter to generously compensate Paul is both fair and economically responsible!
“These lower wages and benefits are going to have an impact on our communities. In order to have a healthy community, you’ve got to have good jobs.” – Bruce Wyngaard, Associate Executive Director, AFSCME Local 11
This guy was paid $94,337 in 2009, and wants your taxes increased.Public union boss Bruce Wyngaard has a good job – to the tune of $94,337 in 2009. Lots of other American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 11 staffers have good jobs, too: the union paid its employees over $5.8 million in 2009. Taken from 30,870 members, that’s the equivalent of nearly $190 per member.
AFSCME Council 8 President John Lyall will testify against Senate Bill 5 on Thursday. Lyall was paid $155,482 in 2009. Think he’ll mention that while he’s railing about spending cuts? Excluding payments to officers such as Lyall – and $148,265 for First VP Robert Mitchell – AFSCME Council 8 employees were paid more than $5.7 million in 2009. Annual disbursements to union employees equaled more than $155 per member.
Left: $155k in 2009. Right: $148k in 2009. Both: Want your taxes increased.For context, the unions spent less than half as much on benefits – pensions, medical insurance, etc. – as on union pay in 2009. AFSCME Local 11 spent a little over $2.5 million on benefits; AFSCME Council 8 spent less than $2 million. Is it unreasonable to conclude the primary service provided by government unions is the enrichment of union bosses?
No wonder “leaders” like Bruce Wyngaard and John Lyall insist that without unions, government employees would endure random firings, no benefits, and a steady diet of discount cheese! Anything to keep pressure on the enemy (“the taxpayer”) and off the characters earning six figures on member dues.
Leftists have proven time and again that getting rich on the backs of others doesn’t preclude you from preaching economic redistribution and decrying personal freedom. AFSCME officials will complain till their complainers are sore about Republican attacks on government employees. Fact is, public union reps are chiefly concerned about public union reps.
Cross-posted at that hero and Third Base Politics.
Posted on 14 February 2011 by admin
The State and its Unions
by Jason Hart
Cross-posted at The Buckeye Institute.
As The Dispatch reported and Matt Mayer commented on, new details were released Wednesday about Senate Bill 5, which would revise Ohio’s collective bargaining law for public employees.
Why should the Ohio Senate revoke collective bargaining privileges from both state and local government workers, undoing rights created in 1983 by ORC 4117? The existing law starts from the flawed premise that elected officials and their appointees will protect the public interest in bargaining with the unions. Here’s 4117.20(A):
No person who is a member of the same local, state, national, or international organization as the employee organization with which the public employer is bargaining or who has an interest in the outcome of the bargaining, which interest is in conflict with the interest of the public employer, shall participate on behalf of the public employer in the collective bargaining process except that the person may, where entitled, vote on the ratification of an agreement.
Considering massive union campaign spending, every public official has an interest in the outcome of their office’s collective bargaining. Democrats know they’ve got a friend for life if they accede to union demands, and have no incentive to discourage non-union employees from unionizing. Republicans can hope to dampen opposition by giving the union some leeway.
Further, what need was met by the implementation of ORC 4117? Union bosses at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Ohio Education Association (OEA) decry a lack of “workers’ rights,” hiding behind front groups like OneOhio Now in order to appear mainstream. But what reason do we have to believe non-union government workers would suffer unduly? If the AFSCME and OEA have evidence of hardship which supports their insistence on collective bargaining, I haven’t seen it.
Several things we do have evidence of: Ohio’s tax burden as a percentage of income has increased dramatically; Ohio has a massive public pension fund gap; Ohio General Revenue Fund expenditures have grown at a rate far exceeding inflation. Removing the extra layer of bureaucracy government unions represent is one step the General Assembly can take to begin correcting these problems.
Don’t take it from me! I’m a union-exempt higher education employee – and yet I’m happy with my position, happy with my pay, and happy to look elsewhere if either of those things change. Clearly, my very existence is an impossibility.
Posted on 12 February 2011 by admin
Since the TEA Party began, we have been demanding smaller government and demanding that government cut spending. We marched, we bused, we protested, we shouted, we stood outside the capital and were ignored when we demanded that our elected official listen to us and stop the borrowing and stop the spending. Through hard work and determination, in November we scored a mighty victory in Ohio by voting in those whom we think are conservative Republicans, to do what we have been demanding.
Now, with the introduction of Senate Bill 5 , the process of taking back control of our state and our country begins in practice, not theory. We can not have smaller government, and we can not cut government spending, if we do not stop the out of control growth of government union salaries and benefits! None of us in the private sector have anywhere near the benefits or pay that the much less productive government employees have at our expense. This has to stop and Senate Bill 5 Stops it. This bill would eliminate collective bargaining for all government employees in Ohio including employees at state colleges and universities. This bill would require that future employee pay rates would be based solely on merit. That is the way it needs to be if we are going to have the government we want. That is why 800 state and university workers showed up yesterday at the State House to try and stop the bill. Read some of the union comments in the story below and you will see how important this fight is going to be.
We need to be calling, faxing, and emailing every Ohio Senator, every day, until this vote is passed. They need to be told with total certainty that this vote is a choice between the citizens of this state and the public sector employee unions. Get the numbers and emails out to your membership and tell them to make that choice clear. (I have attached a PDF with the numbers and emails in it.) A Yes vote on Senate Bill 5 is a vote for the Citizens of Ohio and our economic future.
Then we need to get our people down to the Capital for next Thursday’s hearings. We do not want to just fill the gallery, we want to surround the building. They had 800 we need 8,000! The Portage County TEA Party will be organizing buses to Columbus for our members. I encourage other leaders to do the same. This is the moment we have been waiting for when something actually changes for the better. When all the talk finally becomes action. If we do not win this fight, right here, right now, our entire agenda is doomed. We must go all in on this one. This is the reason for our very existence. Let’s take the battle to the big government, socialist, enemies of freedom and liberty!
Tom Zawistowski
Executive Director
Portage County TEA Party
Posted on 12 February 2011 by admin
We have a major issue before us concerning Public Union reform. Ending public unions was a top priority identified by all of the member groups of the Ohio Liberty Council.
Senator Shannon Jones has stepped forward to begin legislation to stop this burden on the tax payers of Ohio. Please see the attachment of her introduction of Senate Bill 5 (SB 5).
We need people to come to Columbus next Tuesday and/or Thursday to show our support. See details below. You may also request testify. See the other attachments.
I know this is short notice but we need to ask as many people as possible to join us in Columbus on Tuesday and/or Thursday. If you can make it one of those days could you please RSVP to me? We also have support from the governor’s office and I would like to give them an idea of our attendance. So please email me back if you can join us.
I’ll be in touch with more details as they unfold. Please pass this message along to everyone in your groups and on your email lists. Encourage them to let me know if they can attend. Thanks so much for your help.
Below is the information from Senator Jones’ office.
The Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee will be holding proponent testimony for Senate Bill 5 on Tuesday, February 15 at 2:30 pm. They will also be hearing Senate Bill 5 on Thursday, February 17 at 10:00 am. I have attached the committee agenda, both will be held in the South Hearing Room. Please let me know which date you will be attending.
When testifying before committee, the chairman asks that 30 copies of written testimony is given so that it can be distributed to the committee and others. Attached you will find a witness form that will also need to be filled out, please put the date of the hearing on the form. If you would like to submit your testimony and the form to our office prior to the meeting, we can make copies.
The Chairman of the Senate Insurance, Commerce and Labor Committee is Senator Kevin Bacon, Vice-Chairman is Senator Keith Faber and the Ranking Member is Senator Joe Schiavoni.
Your testimony can be as long or as short as you would like. Following your testimony the Chairman will ask the committee members if there are any questions on your testimony. If someone is unable to come to the Statehouse to testify, they are more than welcome to submit written testimony. That testimony can be submitted to our office and I can then get that to the chairman’s office.
The bill can be found here: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=129_SB_5. Senator Jones’ sponsor testimony and a summary is also attached.
Thank you for your willingness to testify.
Contact Chairman Bacon’s office at 614-466-8064 about testifying.
