It was a cold day when I went out the city council meeting in Middletown. Mark, the staff union VP, had got a call from one of the AFSCME guys in Columbus. One of the city councillors was introducing a resolution calling upon the state legislature to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees. Mark couldn't go, but a group of us from the GEO went to show solidarity. This was December of 2010, so I half expected that there would be a mob of tea-partiers there to greet us. Dear God was I wrong.
The resolution was brought by Joshua Laubach, a twenty-something teabagger on the city council, who placed blame for Middletown's woes on city cops and firefighters:
The Butler County burg of 51,000 has seen its municipal revenue slip as the poor economy saps income taxes, its largest revenue source. The money it gets from the state - 15 percent of its budget - is in peril as state leaders look to balance their own budget. Amid all this, Middletown's labor costs continue their upward climb at the rate of 4 percent a year.
A rookie city councilman, Joshua Laubach, has identified a culprit: state laws that allow municipal unions to negotiate on wages and benefits and, in the case of public-safety workers, bring in arbitrators to resolve impasses.
Why Ohio has Binding Arbitration
Public workers in Ohio do not generally have the right to strike. Binding arbitration was introduced in 1983 when municipal workers were stripped of that right. Back in the late 1970s, city cops and firefighters struck when management wouldn't negotiate. The consequences were entirely forseeable. In 1979, Toledo government workers walked off the job. Cops, firefighters, the whole friggin lot. And the city burned.
Ohio has binding arbitration for public workers because of this. In exchange for losing the right to strike, public workers got the right to binding arbitration. What Laubach floated for the Kasich administration was the idea that public workers should be stripped of this too. As Charles Wilson, a labor negiotator for the state in the 1980s, noted:
"The way to control labor costs is to decide what you can pay and bargain accordingly," Wilson said. "You can't both eliminate strikes and binding arbitration. Otherwise, it's collective begging."
Who Wants to Cut Costs?
Perhaps the most surprising them for me in attending this meeting in Middletown was the lengths that the unions representing city workers went to accomodate budget balancing measures. Nearly 200 people came to the meeting. The only teabagger in the room was Laubach, who was shot down by all the other members of the city council, including fellow Republicans. Still, the refrain from all these union folks was, "please let's for union-managment committees to find ways to cut costs without harming city workers." If the issue here was cutting costs, there was no fight.
But that wasn't the issue. Laubach was floating a trial balloon for the incoming Kasich administration, and it was shot down like Old Yeller. It's telling that the media narrative on this was so strong that the Cleveland Plain Dealer had to print a correction.
Correction: The original version of this story said the Middletown City Council had passed a resolution asking the Ohio General Assembly to revise the state's collective bargaining law. The council actually voted last week to table the resolution.
That's right the Plain Dealer had written a story premised upon the idea that the resolution would pass. But, of course, it didn't. It was tabled after an overwhelmingly negative council hearing filled with come to Jesus moments for the young Mr. Laubach. This whole affair in Middletown was orchestrated as a stunt by the Kasich administration, and faced with a reality that contradicted their presumptions, they constructed a narrative that ignored the public backlash that happened in Middletown.
If the Kasich administration was serious about cutting costs, they could have walked away from what actually happened in Middletown with the lesson that unions want to work together. You just have to both recognize the right of organized labor to exist, and have a seat at the table when decisions are being made. Instead, Kasich and the gang went gung ho, jamming SB 5 through with dirty tricks. Just to be clear SB 5 replicated the double prohibition on binding arbitration and strikes that produced such uproar when floated in Middletown.
Now That We've Lost, You Negotiate
Fast forward to August of 2011. The SB 5 referendum in full roar, Governor Kasich has made an offer to negotiate terms of surrender from Ohio union leaders. He even put on the sad display of trying to pretend that him dictating terms was compromise:
Ohio labor unions were a no-show this morning at a meeting Gov. John Kasich called to try to reach a compromise on Senate Bill 5, the controversial new collective bargaining law.
The meeting went on at the governor's office downtown Columbus office building with Kasich seated at one table flanked by fellow Republicans, House Speaker William G. Batchelder and Senate President Tom Niehaus. A table angled across from them contained placards for six unions and empty chairs.
"Ninety-percent of life is just showing up," Kasich said. "Obviously they flunked that test."
Yes, John. Now that polls show that you would lose a rematch of 2010 by 15%, that means they've flunked by failing to follow your ever popular wisdom. Folks actually think that you are less honest than Jim Tressel. And he made secret financial arrangements with guys under investigation by the FBI for drug smuggling.
You and Mr. Magoo Speaker Batchelder can put on the sad faces all you like. People in this state fucking hate you. And for the young folks, it's personal. You poll worse than SB 5 in the 18-29 demographic. Man, I bet you're wishing that you didn't listen to all those lobbyists that you met at the ALEC States & Nation Conference at the start of December last year, huh?
Meet the Puppetmasters
As satifying as it may be to direct anger at individuals, John Kasich is a cog in the right wing machine. And for state politicians that means the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 2010, ALEC's States & Nation Conference was held in Washington, from December 1-3. As US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor made clear in his speech to the group the powerful people fighting to repeal the 20th century saw action in the states as the opening salvo.
Model legislation leaked to the Protest ALEC group shows, the appearance of coordinated attacks across the states is no coincidence. They've been building the play book for a long time. But, it was December of last year that the full on assault on the 20th century was laid out. We know from what Cantor said that there had been a previous meeting (apparently the Republican Governor's Association) in which the attendees began "discussion on how we can look to the states as the true laboratories of innovation."
Moreover, we know for a fact that Governor Kasich was at ALEC's 2010 meeting. They were kind enough to post photos. We know that Kasich gave a speech during the Congressional Reception at which he was introduced by ALEC chair Noble Ellington. And the pictures from that night are priceless. See in ALEC protocol, a red tag means that someone is an elected official. A blue one means that they are a "private sector member" aka lobbyist.
Hmm. I wonder who was at that Congressional Reception with Governor Kasich. Oh look Kasich is surrounded by blue tags. Probably discussing the planned spring offensive on workers.
Remember, in the end it's these blue tag pricks that are running the show. They don't traffic in cost savings. They traffic in political influence. And that is the reason why in the end, SB 5 and all the other shit rolled out in the spring isn't about cost savings. It's about giving these private interests control of the legislative process. And that's something that they won't compromise on.