SEOEA e-Pad Senate Bill 5 Update 

(Vol 1, Issue 4)

Greetings!

Senate Bill 5 is on the fast track.  Vote possible by end of next week.  More testimony at hearing Tuesday, February 22.

This bill will take away nearly everything collective bargaining has gained since public employees and teachers received that right.  What collective bargaining that is left is not really CB.

For those of us who attended the Statehouse rally on Thursday, it was a wonderful feeling to stand shoulder to shoulder with other teachers, police, fire, EMS and other public employee union members as well as with private sector unions there.  We had a tremendous turnout but we need to apply more pressure and keep it coming until this bill is defeated. 

This bill does nothing to create new jobs but is a blatant attempt to bust public employee unions and will cause a loss of jobs.  The proponents have no clue as to the savings or the costs of the provisions in the bill.  Costs to our communities in terms of lost wages, lost taxes and decreased pensions will be huge.  Most of all it is diverting  the attention of teachers away from the most important issue, the children we teach.  Unions allow teachers to do their jobs without worrying about employment issues by providing a framework for problem solving. 

Governor Strickland got it right when he set a priority on educating our children.  (He received a rousing reception when he entered the rotunda yesterday.)  A good public education provided by quality teachers with adequate resources will help our students achieve and will attract more business to Ohio and thus more jobs. 

Jeff Slattery, SEOEA Communications

Athens EA