Tagged: Governor John Kasich

In an election watched nationally, labor unions are celebrating one of their biggest victories in decades after turning back an Ohio law that curbed collective bargaining rights for the state's public workers. Issue 2 was defeated last night by a 61 to 39 percent margin.

The law signed in late March by Republican Gov. John Kasich would have banned public employee strikes, scrapped binding arbitration, and denied public workers the ability to negotiate pensions and health care benefits.

By a vote of 61% to 39 voters said kill the law. It would have given management the final say in long running impasses, used job performance to determine pay and lay offs, and out law strikes.

“People have stood up and said do not treat our public employees this way. we respect our firefighters, we respect our police officers, our teachers, our nurses, our bus drivers, the people that work at our schools, the people that plow our streets and they know what’s best for their cities. Give them a voice at the table,” says Cincinnati firefighter Dirk Sterns.