Right to Work Archives | Innovation Ohio

Nov 13 2018

Statehouse Preview: November 13

With the election behind us, the lame duck legislature is here. The six-week session that starts today is already shaping up to be eventful and potentially consequential. Today we’ll focus on the significant bills that are likely to move this week. You can revisit our last update for a run-down of other bills that are positioned to move quickly over the next six weeks. The stakes are not as high as they would have been were a Democrat be set to take the Governor’s chair in January. However, Republicans may want to help the new Governor avoid expending political capital on controversial measures, potentially setting the stage for passage of more extreme proposals like Stand Your Ground and the Heartbeat abortion ban now rather than waiting until January. Any bill not on the governor’s desk before the two-year session comes to a close will need to be reintroduced and start the legislative process all over again in January. Here’s what we’re watching on the Statehouse agenda this week:

Tuesday, November 13

House Bill 53 (Becker) – Public Sector Union Dues: So-called ‘Right-to- Work’ legislation that would allow public employees to work in unionized workplaces without actually joining the union or paying regular union dues, making it more difficult for workers to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The bill will be heard by the House Finance Committee for sponsor testimony.

House Bill 119 (Henne, McColley) – Nutrition Assistance and Medicaid: Imposes new eligibility requirements on recipients of food assistance and Medicaid. The bill will receive a fourth hearing for all testimony in Senate Health, Human Services & Medicaid.

House Bill 240 (Patmon) – Respect Your Date Act: Designates the month of April as “Respect Your Date Month” and requires each state institution of higher education to adopt a policy regarding dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and rape on campus. The bill is up for a sponsor hearing in Senate Education.

House Bill 619 (Antani) – Pregnancy Misinformation and Coercion Act: Mandates the State Board of Education and Department of Health to develop curriculum for public high schools about fetal development for the “purpose of achieving an abortion-free society.” The House Education & Career Readiness Committee will hold a first hearing on the bill for sponsor testimony.

House Bill 758 (Antani) – Campus Speech: would subject public college and university trustees to legal penalties for denying the use of facilities to groups or individuals except in a narrow set of exceptional situations. The House Higher Education and Workforce Development committee will hold a first hearing for sponsor testimony.

Senate Bill 207 (Kunze) – Strangulation: Expands the offense of felonious assault to include the acts of strangulation or suffocation. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a fourth hearing on the bill for all testimony and a possible vote.

Senate Bill 251 (Schiavoni) – Private Images: Prohibits the nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, also known as ‘revenge porn.’ The bill will also create certain legal rights and employment protections for victims of such an offense. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a first hearing on the bill for sponsor testimony.

Wednesday, November 14

House Bill 33 (Patmon) – Firearm Storage: Would prohibit leaving an unsecured and operable firearm in a residence where a minor child could gain access. The bill is up for a first hearing in House Government Accountability & Oversight for sponsor testimony.

House Bill 228 (Johnson, LaTourette) – Stand Your Ground: This measure would allow armed individuals to use deadly force instead of walking away when it is safe to do so. The bill also shifts the burden to prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a shooter did not act in self defense. The bill would also effectively allow for the carrying of concealed weapons without a permit by making it a minor misdemeanor. It additionally prohibits Ohio communities from enacting gun legislation, further eroding local control over gun violence prevention standards. The bill is up for a vote by the full House at its 1:30 pm session.

>> Take action: Tell your lawmaker to oppose Stand Your Ground

House Bill 425 (Antani, Craig) – Body Cameras: Defines specified portions of peace officers’ body-worn camera recordings and the infrastructure records of public schools as not subject to Ohio’s public records laws. The bill is up for a first hearing in Senate Government Oversight & Reform for sponsor testimony.

Senate Bill 250 (Hoagland) – Critical Infrastructure. To increase criminal and civil penalties for protests that take place on so-called “critical infrastructure facilities.” The bill is up for a third hearing and opponent testimony in Senate Judiciary.

Thursday, November 15

House Bill 402 (Hill) – Telephone Deregulation. Would effectively deregulate landline telephone service in Ohio, allowing for a weakening of customer service standards, more frequent price increases and reduced access to basic landline service at the provider’s discretion. The bill is up for a first hearing in Senate Public Utiities for sponsor testimony.

House Bill 563 (West) – Firearm Sales. To prohibit a licensed firearms dealer from transferring a firearm while a background check is pending unless 30 days have elapsed from the date the background check was requested. The bill is up for a first hearing in House Federalism and Interstate Relations.

More Information about This Week’s Agenda

We will be tracking any new updates and sharing timely legislative updates on significant legislation on Twitter using the #LameDuckOH hashtag. Follow us to stay up-to-date on what’s happening at the Statehouse.

TAKE ACTION: House Bill 258, a sweeping new abortion ban, would ban any abortion as early as six weeks – at a time before most women even know that they are pregnant, effectively eliminating abortion access in our state.

Ohioans deserve access to safe, legal abortion care in their community without interference from anti-abortion extremists.

The bill is up for a House vote on Thursday, November 15. Can you contact your State Representative and ask them to oppose HB258 today?

>> Use our action tool to contact your Representative.

May 01 2013

Republicans Unleash New Attack on Workers Rights in Ohio

fire_fighters_sm — Public and private-sector unions are targeted by new Ohio legislation.

State Representatives Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) and Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) today announced their intention to introduce legislation that would make Ohio a so-called “Right to Work” state. Three bills will be introduced. Two would make it illegal to require an employee to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment – one each for the public and private sectors. The third would put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide. Unions would maintain collective bargaining rights, but membership would be expected to decline sharply as non-union workers would be allowed to benefit from union negotiations without paying dues. As a result, unions would lose strength to negotiate working conditions, wages and benefits. At an afternoon press conference, Maag and Roegner said the bills had 16 cosponsors. Roegner suggested offering three separate bills would allow a conversation in which Ohioans would “choose” the best path forward. If all three measures were adopted, however, it would mean labor organizations would have to mount three separate campaigns for their defeat: attempting to defeat the two new laws through a referendum while simultaneously working to defeat a constitutional amendment. [Read more…]

Jan 31 2013

Right To Work – a good way to increase inequality and lower wages

In mid December, Michigan became the 24^th Right to Work state and the second state on Ohio’s border to enact such legislation (Indiana being the other). Michigan’s law was passed under questionable circumstances. The bill never received a committee hearing or any public discussion, then passed the legislature without a single Democratic vote, and was signed by the Republican Governor immediately. Since then, certain conservatives in Ohio have come out in support of a right to work initiative here in Ohio but key leaders like Gov. John Kasich have said this would not be the time for such an effort. Whether there is a movement to put a right to work initiative on the ballot sometime this year, or in 2014, inevitably Ohioans will start hearing about the horrors associated with having unions in Ohio. About how unions kill jobs, force businesses to relocate to other states, and are basically the scourge of the earth. While I at least look forward to systematically taking those arguments apart, today I want to focus on just a single issue: Union membership and income inequality. On Friday, Kevin Drum with Mother Jones magazine published a piece looking at the rate of union workers in the United States and in Canada and comparing the rate of income inequality in the United States and Canada.

As you can see in the graph above, union membership in the United States is at an almost all-time low. Only about 11 percent of private sector employees are members of a union while in Canada that number is at over 30 percent and has been since the 1970’s. There are a variety of reasons for why this chart looks this way but the basic reason is that Canadian labor law is much more union-friendly than U.S. law. It is much easier for employees in Canada to start unions at their place of business while in American the process can be very bureaucratic and slow. [Read more…]

Dec 11 2012

Why Ohio Should Be Wary of So-Called “Right to Work” Laws

Today’s big story is the move by a lame duck Michigan legislature to rush through so-called “right to work” (SCRTW) legislation, barring public and private sector unions from requiring members to pay dues. The move is expected to undermine the influence of unions over time as contracts expire and membership declines. Yesterday, Gov. Kasich indicated that SCRTW is “not a priority” in Ohio. But that was what Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said earlier this year. He changed his tune quickly in the face of corporate money and a dwindling GOP majority. The result is a rushed bill passed and signed before a new legislature takes office next month. Regardless of Kasich’s claims of disinterest, Ohioans should be wary of future attempts to bring SCRTW to Ohio. Studies have investigated the claims of SCRTW supporters, looking at states that have adopted these policies and found they are not good for workers or a state’s economic health. In a definitive analysis on the subject, researchers at the Economic Policy Institute looked at a state’s SCRTW status, controlling for other factors such as cost of living, demographics, educational levels, industry composition and found that, compared to non-SCRTW states, wages were lower and employers were less likely to offer paid benefits like healthcare and pensions. A 50-state review by political economist Gordon Lafer found that there was no correlation between states with SCRTW laws and unemployment rates, per capita income or overall job growth. In fact, when it was published in September 2011, seven of the 10 highest-unemployment states had SCRTW laws. These findings confirm — so-called “right to work” laws would be more appropriately named “right to work for less,” as wages and benefits are lower and economic growth is unchanged in states with these laws on the books.