Main Street

Word on the Street: SB 5 debate is about safety

Jihad Seifullah – Columbus, Ohio

In the midst of a heat wave that has swept the country working families and constituency groups across Ohio have also continued to turn up the heat to stand up for the rights of many.

We have seen working families’ rights being threatened. Since Governor Kasich signed SB 5 into law – the bill that limits collective bargaining rights for over 350,000 workers in Ohio – Ohioans across the state worked diligently to collect about 1.3 million signatures to get the repeal of the law to a statewide vote.

On Thursday July 21 in Columbus, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga met with representatives from allied organizations from around the state for a round table discussion about the campaign and how SB 5 will hurt working families. Organizations and allies that were represented included the NAACP, Alliance of Retired Americans, Center for Community Change, IUPAT, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Shawnee Central Labor Council, North Shore Central Labor Council, Phi Beta Sigma, Delta Sigma Theta, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, as well as Pastor Rousseau O’Neal, Rev. Susan Ritchie, and former State Senator Gene Branstool, the author of the original collective bargaining law in 1983. Also taking part in this discussion was Working America member Shonda Sneed, who has been unemployed for over a year and a half.

Shonda had a compelling perspective to add to the discussion as she has faced firsthand what so many others in this recession are going through. Shonda had worked in the engineering field for over 20 years. She was a hard working and very dedicated employee to the company she worked for.

At the round table Shonda shared her story, “On December 11, 2009 my supervisor came to my cubical and told me to follow him.” Shonda was totally shocked as she was being told that she was being laid off. “My supervisor walked me back to my cubicle; I packed my stuff and was escorted to my car.”

Others at the round table shared similar stories of the struggles that many families are facing in these tough economic times. This has been the scenario that has been played out over and over again for hard working families across the country.

Shonda also shared her father’s experience with unions, highlighting their importance: “My Dad shared with me how one of his friends was on the job, in a ditch digging, when it caved in on him and crushed him to death.” After he gained union representation, he didn’t have to live the fear of dying simply because he showed up to work at a dangerous site.

As Shonda reminds us all, the fight to defeat SB 5 and retain collective bargaining rights is about the safety of working families across the state. It is about the principle that no one should have to die just because their boss chose to risk their life needlessly, and we can’t let our government drag even more working people and their communities down to lower standards of safety, security and dignity. That’s something anyone can agree to, whether or not they have a union on the job.