In Ohio, debate is coming to a head in the months leading up to Election Day over the enactment of Senate Bill 5, a provision that weakens union power in bargaining rights for public employees.
Opponents to the law, who have already raised 1.3 million signatures, according to The New York Times, believe that it unfairly curbs the power of unions and turns public employees into scapegoats. On the other hand, supporters of the act, Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich included, say that the law will keep state and local compensation costs down during a time of major budget deficit, and that, additionally, labor’s power should be decreased.
“As someone who set out to serve his students, I don’t work on Wall Street,” high school social studies teacher Phil Hayes told The Times. “I serve Main Street.
“I didn’t cause the economic and financial problems caused by Wall Street, but now public employees like me have to suffer the consequences. We don’t sell collateral debt obligations, but we do sell cookies to help keep our schools going.”
While on one hand, unions make it extraordinarily difficult for the public sector to control their spending, they have also been historically instrumental in representing groups of people who lack the voice or the resources that governments and corporations have at their disposal. The entire point of a union’s existence is to organize collective bargaining, so a law that curbs that more or less debases the entire concept. Bargaining is a key part of cohesiveness between employees and the institution, and should remain so to maintain a reasonable relationship.
The push and pull between unions and the public school system will always be a struggle, and so it should be. Yes, unions make it difficult for incompetent teachers to be fired and therefore create obstacles for schools running efficiently. Yes, some teachers are overpaid and overemployed due to unions, leaving the schools with very little leftover funding. Unions should not be completely deregulated, but Senate Bill 5 should be immediately repealed because it threatens the integrity of the concept of a union in the United States.
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