March 30, 2011Local leaders, please forward this critical information quickly to your members! SB 5 Passes Ohio House and Senate in one day,
in bid to silence the voice of those serving Ohio,
but signature drive for referendum fight begins soon
Dear SWOEA ,
Like many of you, I began teaching when there was no collective bargaining law. Then in the 1980s, we saw the possibility for passing an Ohio collective bargaining law. Twenty-seven years ago I rode a bus with many of my colleagues from Cleveland to Columbus to rally at the Statehouse for the passage of the bill, just like so many OEA members have done this year. Back then, we established our collective bargaining rights, just as we are fighting now to preserve them.Today, despite all our work, I witnessed the passage of Senate Bill 5. The House passed the legislation, 53-44, with five no votes from Republicans and 39 no's from Democrats. Less than five hours later, the Senate passed the bill 17-16, with the same six Republican Senators joining all 10 Democrats in opposing it. This is not what we hoped for. We fought this battle with collective action – our emails, phone calls, letters to the editor, personal meetings, rallies and interviews. Speaking with one voice, we made it clear: collective bargaining is effective and it isn't broke. My heart is filled with pride and amazement at our effort and energy. But my head is pounding due to relentless attacks on our rights, the state budget for education and our pension plans. The passage of SB 5 is not the end. We now must continue the struggle, and we can only win at the ballot box in November. Let's keep our energy levels high going forward – both for our continuing legislative battles, for the signature-gathering effort that begins soon, and the referendum campaign in the fall. All of us will take part – teachers, ESPs, students, retirees and all our college and Pre-K-12 specialists. We have pride in our professionalism and we will not allow our voices to be silenced. We must win the referendum election November 8 to prevail. To get there, we will launch an effective effort to gather 250,000 valid signatures to defeat this outrageous bill. We will start the signature drive in earnest as soon as we get required approvals for ballot language. That could take 15 to 25 days, so we cannot gather signatures until those approvals come through. But we understand that process and we are on top of it. We are already getting ready. OEA will participate in referendum kickoff activities now being planned, and we'll provide details as soon as we have them. We will begin with planning sessions on the referendum and signature-gathering logistics on April 7 with all OEA staff, and you will receive more information after that. Together with our coalition and labor partners, we believe we can build wide support for the referendum. We do not believe the people of Ohio elected public officials to cut education funding, attack educators and set off a fiscal crisis in every community across the state. In that hope, I believe Ohioans will be on our side. Thank you for everything you have done to help us on this issue, and thank you for everything you do every day for OEA, for public education and for our students. - Patricia Frost-BrooksKeep listening,
Keep learning,
Keep leading!
<https://owa.scoca-k12.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=262d66ecf9ba4eafa6e1b771afe68f0e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fmsg6svc.net%2fcozvg%2f336720%2f53%2f114569%2f3111%2f0%2fS%2f0%2f0%2fjxgr.html> President to President is an electronic newsletter of the Ohio Education Association written for local association presidents and other association leaders. Please feel free to copy and share this information with your members. Ohio Education Association 225 East Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-228-4526
www.ohea.org <https://owa.scoca-k12.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=262d66ecf9ba4eafa6e1b771afe68f0e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fmsg6svc.net%2fcozvg%2f336720%2f53%2f114569%2f3111%2f0%2fS%2f0%2f0%2fjxgr.html>
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