ut-AAUP Bulletin

"by and for the bargaining units but open to all"

Issue #51

UT-AAUP

Update on Senate Bill 5

Amazing news just in from Columbus...

 

Retired BGSU Professor at Parade

 

 

1.3 MILLION signatures were collected to repeal SB5, so many that officials needed an 18 wheeler (a semi!) to deliver them to the state house. And, yes the semi was packed full with petitions! Yesterday a parade to the state house was 1 mile long and three lanes wide containing 6,500 people. Please see photos on our facebook page and soon on our web site from our photographer on the scene. All 88 counties in the state collected the required number of signatures when only 44 counties were needed.

 

- Mary Jane Erard, Executive Director, UT-AAUP

 

 

 

 

More...

 

FROM THE OHIO DEMOCRATS

Today the voices of more than a million Ohioans are loud and clear. With one simple signature, nearly 1.3 million Ohioans are sending a message to John Kasich and his friends in Columbus. And that message is "enough." Today is the day that John Kasich once and for all realizes that when he pushed through Senate... Bill 5, he made a huge mistake; John Kasich refused to listen to the will of the people. Today is the day that we file the signatures that together we collected from every corner and every county of Ohio.

As you read this email, I am joining thousands of other petition circulators and marching towards the office of the Ohio Secretary of State. Police officers, teachers, fire fighters, custodians, neighbors, friends children and parents, shoulder to shoulder with one goal met and another to come. We have hit our goal of collecting more than a million signatures. Now we must win in November.

Just this week I received word that Statehouse Republicans and proponents of SB 5 are securing million dollar commitments for big corporations. We need your help to fight back against the special interests and out-of-state corporate donors, who we know will flood the airwaves with misleading ads about Senate Bill 5.

Teachers, firefighters and police officers did not cause Ohio's budget deficit. In fact, in Ohio, balanced budgets and collective bargaining have coexisted for nearly three decades. But, this year John Kasich and his friends are trying to blame these public employees for their mistakes.

Sincerely,

Chris Redfern

 

 

Please stay tuned to this list serve and our Facebook page for more information regarding the referendum. Also see:  www.utaaup.com

 

 

Sunshine Follows the Rain

The end of this tumultuous academic year has brought us a few small accomplishments to be thankful for:  The UT-AAUP membership has ratified a one-year extension on their existing collective bargaining agreement and the contentious SB-5 issue appears to be well on its way to making it to the ballot box in November .. as it should be!

As a retrospective ...

The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions has kindly given its permission to post from its final newsletter, published over a decade ago, an excerpt of an address given by former AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney at their 28th annual conference.  We thought it fitting. He portentously warned that:

"Some people find it strange, even offensive, that doctors and professors and engineers are turning to unions -- in many cases, some of the unions that represent low-wage and blue-collar workers. I do not find it strange at all because professionals, blue-collar, and low-wage workers all have one thing in common - they all have employers. And when those employers forget their basic mission or become driven by the unchecked pursuit of profit or are dictatorial to their employees, the desire to join together and collectively bargain follows as naturally as sunshine follows a rain."

"The revolution in the health care industry in our country is a good example. Twenty-five years ago our hospitals and clinics were run largely by religious bodies, non-profit organizations or public institutions, and decisions about patient care were made by doctors and nurses. Today, most of our medical facilities outside of our teaching institutions are owned and operated by private corporations, and decisions about patient care are being made by administrators and insurance executives.  Health care in our country has become corporatized, a trend, I might add, that may be coming soon to an institution of higher education in your neighborhood....."

Thanks to the Center's generosity to the UT-AAUP, you may read the entire address here.

Please consider also marking your calendars early so that you can attend the Center's39th Annual Conference in New York City next April:   Academic Collective Bargaining Under Siege: Implications for a Public Good

To our family of members and readers:   We thank you for your support and look forward to your continued engagement! 

- The UT-AAUP Executive Board.