This is the 15th anniversary of our historic SB 5 fight, when people across Ohio came together to protect collective bargaining rights for 350,000 frontline essential workers like teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, snow plow drivers, bridge and water inspectors, corrections officers and so many others who make our communities safe and great places to live and raise families.
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Now on to the history….
Let’s look back on February, 2011 because from the start working people all across Ohio sent a clear message to the anti-worker forces at the Statehouse and then-Gov. John Kasich: Don’t poke the hornet’s nest.
It started on February 1, 2011 when then state Sen. Shannon Jones introduced a “placeholder,” bill in the Ohio Senate. Yes, from the start the anti-worker forces were secretive and nefarious. A placeholder bill is blank. We knew it was an anti-worker bill, but that was all.
So we started organizing meetings across the state because right after Kasich was elected, he threatened labor unions with retaliation for having dared to oppose him in the campaign.
One week later, on Feb. 8, 2011, Jones unveiled the actual language of her bill and gave sponsor testimony.
We now knew it was going to wipe out collective bargaining rights – the ability of workers to have a voice in their workplace regarding safety, wages, benefits, and pensions among other issues.
Thousands of workers from all across Ohio would converge in Columbus to protest SB 5.
Workers were everywhere wearing No on SB 5 shirts. The Statehouse Atrium was packed with our sisters and brothers.
Hearings were piped into the Atrium through speakers and each time someone testified and attacked workers rights, the Atrium crowd would erupt in boos and they would cheer when someone stood up against the bill.
This was just the beginning of a momentous month.
A week later, at the next hearing, once again thousands of workers came out in the bitter February cold and then Kasich tried to pull a fast one.
Were you there when Kasich ordered the Statehouse doors locked to stop us from coming in out of the cold after rallying outside?
Kasich claimed the Statehouse was filled, but we quickly went to social media and started posting photos of empty hallways. There was plenty of room for our people in the Rotunda and the Atrium and wide stretches of open space in the vast basement.
Kasich looked like a mean-spirited fool, and he relented. It wasn’t the first or last time Kasich puffed his chest at us and had to back down.
The month ended with an ultimatum to the unions representing the public sector workers who would lose their collective bargaining rights: they were ordered to deliver any amendments they wanted to SB 5 by noon on Friday, February 25, 2011.
They were warned: You want to negotiate, get your proposed amendments into the Senate committee or else.
What did the union leaders do?
At noon on that Friday, they held a press conference and stood together shoulder to shoulder, public and private sector union leaders, in a room jam-packed with working people, and they delivered their own message to the Ohio Senate leaders and Shannon Jones.
No amendments. We’re not negotiating. We’re not accepting a single sentence of SB 5. Not one comma, semi-colon, or period. The entire bill is an attack on working people. Toss the bill. Throw the whole thing out.
We are going to fight for our members’ rights, the rights our forebearers spent decades fighting for, the rights we finally were given when Ohio lawmakers passed the Collective Bargaining Rights bill in 1983.
It was a historic month and March, 2011 would be just as contentious.
Where were you in 2011?
We Are Ohio
