MANSFIELD — Mansfield City Council is taking a stance against six proposed “right-to-work” constitutional amendments by the Ohio General Assembly.
According to legislation approved by council, the changes weaken collective bargaining laws and rights in the state.
A similar law known as Senate Bill 5 was previously passed into law, only to be overturned by voter referendum by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent in 2011.
Representative John Becker (R-Union Township) is asking the Ohio General Assembly to place six constitutional amendments on the ballot that propose various changes to weaken organized labor in Ohio, the council-approved legislation states.
This includes amendments to prohibit public employers from requiring public employees to join or pay dues to any employee organization; to prohibit workers from being required to join unions at private businesses (under the current system, employees cannot be forced to join unions); to eliminate the prevailing wage; to prohibit state and local governments from withholding union dues; to eliminate the state requirements that state and local governments work with unions on construction projects; and to require annual votes by public sector workers to grant their unions permission to negotiate contracts on their behalf, according to the legislation.
Dozens of people flooded council chambers Tuesday night, many were wearing orange shirts with LiUNA! (Laborers’ International Union of North America) written on them. Supervisors from Shelly & Sands, Inc. and Kokosing were among those in attendance.
“Pretty much every contractor that works in this community is represented right here this evening,” said Jeff Sellers, business manager for the Ohio Laborers’ Union on Park Avenue West. “As we’ve seen over the past years, not only is organized labor under attack, but the working class men and women of this state are under attack.
“The folks you see back here in orange — these are the people that live in your community right here in Mansfield. These are the people that are paving your streets. That are out here at the treatment plant right now doing the upgrade to your infrastructure.
“These people and their families rely heavily on the prevailing wage laws in the state of Ohio. It allows them to raise their families with a decent middle class wage, with benefits, with a reliable pension, with everything that we want as working-class Americans.”
He added that the prevailing wage laws allow local contractors to be part of projects in the community.
“Last year, many of these folks in the room were part of your street resurfacing project,” he said. “We did the Trimble Road project. Those are these folks here in orange, among other trades, but they’re right here in your community doing work.”
Dan Mapes, the city’s union president, said the amendments will have negative impacts on communities that are already struggling.
Along those lines, Law Director John Spon said that in other states where some of these proposed amendments were passed, “The results have been disastrous.”
He said it’s resulted in disenfranchising the skilled, blue-collar workers of those communities.
Fourth Ward Councilman Butch Jefferson said he strongly supports the bill brought before council that opposes the right-to-work amendments.
“There’s always somebody fighting the working man trying to get rid of their benefits and perks that unions for years and years have fought for,” he said. “Keep fighting, and as long as I’m up here, you will have my support.”
Councilman-at-large Don Bryant, echoed Jefferson.
“Our labor unions have continued to fight for equality and fairness in our workplace, they continue to fight for, as Councilman Jefferson said, fair pay, sick leave and more,” Bryant noted.
The bill passed in a 6-2 vote, with First Ward Councilman David Falquette and Councilman-at-large Cliff Mears voting no.
“I certainly support many of the individuals that belong to unions, the right for fair pay and things like that. I do have some issues with union management and the way unions are run, and so I am torn very much on this particular legislation,” Falquette said before placing his vote.
Council will send a resolution declaring its strong opposition to the six amendments to State Rep. Mark Romanchuk and State Senator Larry Obhof.
Council approved a similar resolution about a year ago opposing the passage of House Bill 53 by the Ohio General Assembly.
