They started listing Ohio companies, accused each one of "attacking Ohio's middle class", and listed each company's address and telephone numbers. And, they asked their followers to rebroadcast all of this information to their followers.You become a target for vandalism.
Yes, folks, the Ohio Democratic Party went into full attack mode against...Ohio job creators and employers! This is what you have come to, Democrats? Attempting to harm business who employ thousands of Ohio citizens?
You become a target for trespassing.
That sign belonged to Don Race in Huron County. He also had his mailbox torn down and some of his trees destroyed. Why? Because he supports Issue 2.
Signs supporting Issue 2 are few and far between in the Valley, but one local resident said even the small amount that are around appear to be too many for some opposed to the measure.
John Creed of Liberty Township said his sign urging voters to vote yes on Issue 2 has been destroyed twice. The sign is located on his property and faces state Route 11.
"We fixed it once and you can see the tape on it," Creed said. "They came back over and got it again."
Getting to the sign is no easy task. The vandal would need to park on the side of state Route 11, go through high brush and climb over a fence just to reach the sign.
Creed said he believes the vandalism is an intimidation tactic and one of the reasons why more people don't have signs in their yards. He said he supports the issue because he believes property taxes are getting out of hand.
An internal memo from a key labor-backed group in the state is flatly warning that the polls are “flawed” and that a big win for labor is not even “remotely possible.” It adds that the right’s messaging has “worked,” and that there’s good reason to suspect that a “massive amount of voter confusion remains,” suggesting the fight could still go either way.
MANITOWOC — No layoffs are included in the proposed 2012 budget County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer presented Tuesday to the Manitowoc County Board of Supervisors.
"We've gone through a bumpy patch over the last few years where because we didn't have the ability to make changes in our costs, we were forced with the choice of having to reduce the size of our staff," he said. "Now we have more control over the costs of our compensation and by making modest changes, we'll be able to deliver."
"I am not speaking about the particular ballot issues," said Romney. "Those are up to the people of Ohio. But I certainly support the efforts of the governor to reign in the scale of government. I am not terribly familiar with the two ballot initiatives. But I am certainly supportive of the Republican Party's efforts here."Mitt missed a huge opportunity to appeal to GOP primary voters by standing with them in supporting reasonable government union reform.
We Are Ohio insists Issue 2 – in addition to being unnecessary – is “unsafe, unfair, and hurts us all.” I’ve thoroughly covered the
hypocrisy of a D.C. union front pretending to have Ohioans’ interests at heart… is there anything trustworthy about the group’s talking points?MYTH: Public employees are overpaid, and their salaries need to be brought in line with the private sector.Contrary to the Rutgers study, two researchers at the American Enterprise Institute reported that Ohio government workers receive an average premium of 43% more than private industry employees when factors including job security are considered. But this is much more than a case of dueling think-tanks.
TRUTH: A recent Rutgers University study found Ohio public employees earn 6 percent less on a yearly basis than their peers in the private sector. They earn 3.5% less on an hourly basis.
The folks I interviewed said those trying to save S.B. 5 will hammer us with information on how the benefits and pay for Ohio’s public workers are better on average than those of us in the private sector. When asked that question, Fazekas quickly steered to me to a study on the compensation issue completed this year by Jeffrey Keefe, a labor and employment relations professor at Rutgers in New Jersey.
“We will combat it with the truth,” she said.
Here in Springboro, my members would be agast [sic] to learn that their union, the OEA, is not willing to bargain with its own union workers in a manner that reflects the willingness to practice-what-it preaches.
Some negotiations are settled peacefully and uneventfully by enlightened boards of education who value their employees.Of course, OEA defines “enlightened boards of education” as the ones who give OEA whatever it demands.
And then there are those boards of education whose modus operandi is to constantly be power-hungry, contentious, self-serving and extremely short sighted.Am I the only one who thinks “self-serving” is an odd way to describe public officials who look out for the public?
A secretly funded Republican-friendly group based in Virginia has started spending money in Ohio to urge voters to uphold Senate Bill 5, the new law that would significantly weaken collective bargaining power for public workers.The story was titled – simply and accurately – “Outside group spending money to save Senate Bill 5.” Several days later, the Dispatch mentioned the mailers again in a story about pro- and anti-Issue 2 spending:
Alliance for America’s Future, a GOP-linked group based in Virginia, is funding a pro-Issue 2 mailing campaign to Ohio voters, according to news reports. The organization is run by Barry Bennett, a former top aide to U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland. Disclosure of its spending on Issue 2 is not required, Redfern said.Absent from the Dispatch story on We Are Ohio’s 5-to-2 spending advantage for TV ads is any explanation of how We Are Ohio can afford to cram commercial breaks with rhetoric debunked as “Mostly False” by PolitiFact.
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| Graphic courtesy GOHP Blog |
This year we need to make sure we get out and vote because we are under attack by extreme politicians who have supported Senate Bill 5, the unfair, unsafe law that hurts all of us.By "extreme politicians" the unions mean, of course, any politician operating from an address outside the AFL-CIO's pocket. And really, what makes Senate Bill 5 unfair - the fact that it brings government compensation closer in line with what most taxpayers receive? What makes it unsafe? The cost-saving measures that will help local governments keep safety workers employed?
It’s not an overstatement to describe Zuccotti Park as New York’s Marxist epicenter. Flags with the iconic face of the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara are everywhere; the only American flag I saw was hanging upside down. The “occupiers” openly refer to each other as “comrade,” and just about every piece of literature on offer (free or for sale) advocated socialism in the Marxist tradition as a cure-all for the inequalities of the American economic system.
Professors at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law say the woman thrust herself into the public debate by appearing in the ad, making her a “limited-use” public figure.I have to believe "We Are Ohio" had their own legal experts telling them essentially the same thing, so why the threats and hysterics over the ad? As has been true from day 1, they don't want you to know the truth about Issue 2.
That gives groups the right to use her image in relevant advertising.
I’m also taking into account those locals who have had wage freezes, no step increases, and pay higher cost for health care, or who took no increases in pay to keep healthcare.Last summer, the OEA President was eager to explain why OEA salaries couldn’t increase forever with no relation to reality. A fair argument, with union staff pay averaging more than $95,000.
I’m also taking into account the local presidents who have told me to please keep the cost down of PSU because there [sic] members can not afford higher dues for their(PSU)contractCause and effect, both together in one sentence!? When it comes to once-public funds that have been siphoned into OEA’s hands, OEA is quick to explain nothing is free.
Communications by PSU lack credibility because they are misleading and sometimes inaccurate.Nothing says “solidarity professional” like calling your employees liars! I doubt this is the sort of representation many Ohio teachers have in mind when they fork over hundreds of dollars to OEA each year.
“They’re reforms that are completely and utterly unnecessary,” said Stern at We Are Ohio’s kickoff event yesterday morning in Cincinnati.He told the Youngstown Business Journal the same thing.
...
Stern said that as a Cincinnati firefighter, he also pays 20 percent toward his health-care premiums. A 2011 survey by the State Employment Relations Board showed that, on average, public employees are paying between 9.5 and 11 percent of their health-care premiums.
"That would be wonderful if we could get back" to paying 15% on health insurance, he added, pointing out that he pays 20% in Cincinnati.And the Toledo Blade, too.
Mr. Stern said it's not true that unions have been unwilling to negotiate. He said he and his fellow firefighters pay 20 percent of their health insurance in Cincinnati and haven't had a pay raise in two years.As with so many of We Are Ohio's claims, its a lie. The Columbus Dispatch reported that Cincinnati firefighters actually only pay 5%, and issued a correction.
Cincinnati firefighters pay 5 percent of their health-insurance premiums. Because of incorrect information provided to The Dispatch, a story on Page B1 of Wednesday’s Metro & State section included a different percentage.This is a person that We Are Ohio is putting forward as a spokesman. He is featured in their commercial and speaks at their campaign stops. And he has been outright lying about the facts of the matter.
One of Senate Bill 5's provisions excludes safety equipment issues from being covered during collective bargaining. "It is in the bill that we can talk about it. We can talk till we're blue in the face about safety equipment but that is not negotiation. There's no teeth behind that talk," Stern said.Stern has it backwards. Senate Bill 5 explicitly gives firefighters the ability to collectively bargain for safety equipment. They don't even have that power under current law!
Stern cited an incident a few years back in Xenia, where firefighters' request to replace 10-year-old fire gear, as mandated by their contract, was opposed by a council member who was looking out for his "pet projects" and his own interests. "He wasn't going to save that money to put it toward more staffing or better equipment. He was going to use it for a project that would help him get reelected," Stern said.
| Dennis Van Roekel, President | $397,721 |
| John Wilson, Executive Director | $384,129 |
| Becky Pringle, Secretary Treasurer | $340,845 |
| Lily Eskelsen, Vice President | $326,563 |
| Carmen Quesada, Director | $308,773 |
| John Stocks, Deputy Executive Director | $277,613 |
| Dorothy Harrell, Director | $270,529 |
| Cynthia Swann, Sr Policy AdvDir | $258,751 |
| Michael McPherson, Chief Financial Officer | $249,499 |
| HT Nguyen, State Affiliate Exec Dir | $246,403 |
| Len Paolillo, Executive Committee | $241,556 |
| John Yrchik, State Affiliate Exec Dir | $228,786 |
| Kimberly Anderson, Org Specialist | $228,356 |
| Julie McGinnis Garcia, CLO | $224,117 |
| Barry Melamed, Assoc. Director | $222,951 |
| Tamara Hamilton, Dir CareerDev ExelEd | $222,220 |
| Sheila Simmons, Director | $221,934 |
| Andrew Linebaugh, Director | $221,733 |
| Armand Tiberio, RegionalDir | $220,416 |
| Segun Eubanks, Director | $214,015 |
| David DuVall, RegionalDir | $212,649 |
| Dennis Friel, RegionalDir | $212,160 |
| Janet Dade, Director | $210,970 |
| Kathleen Lyons, RegionalDir | $208,009 |
| Leona Hiraoka, Director | $206,885 |
| Roxanne Dove, Director | $206,816 |
| Bouy Te, Director | $206,751 |
| Ronald Henderson, Director | $206,161 |
| Willard Raabe, Director | $204,717 |
| Daniel Hand, Director | $204,343 |
| Philip McLaurin, Director | $203,845 |
| Michael Edwards, Sr Policy AdvDir | $203,778 |
| Donna Healy-Dean, Director | $202,462 |
| Harry Lawson, RegionalDir | $201,658 |
| Jacob Sweeney, Org Specialist | $201,191 |
| Maurice Joseph, Deputy General Counsel | $200,682 |
Need a real-life example? Look to Chillicothe.Notice what happened there? Who had the final say in the negotiations? Was it the city officials that the people elected? The city officials who have to answer to the voters at election time? No. It was a third party arbitrator, who answers to nobody! Shouldn't the voters have the final say? Most people would agree, (except the union bosses.)
In 2009, a binding arbitrator determined the average income in Ross County was a little over $25,000 and the county held a 13.8% unemployment rate. With that in mind, one would think Chillicothe would want to keep their budget belts tightened, but not the arbitrator. Instead, he awarded the safety forces union with pay increases of 3% for the next three years. This decision resulted in starting salaries being almost $10,000 more than the county average income. Additionally, another arbitrator awarded the police union with a 7% pension pick-up, meaning that the City had to “pick-up” 7% of the employees’ required contributions to their pensions.
How could the City of Chillicothe possibly pay for these cost increases without a tax hike?
The answer? They couldn’t. Because of increased costs, the City of Chillicothe had to ask voters for a 25% hike in their income taxes.
Worried about responding to fires and serious medical runs from a station with only two firefighters, Chillicothe is closing its second one in less than six months.There is no doubt that Chillicothe would not have laid off those firefighters, had they had the tools that Senate Bill 5 gives them. Instead, the unions pushed for more and more, knowing that the city could not afford it. But they didn't care. They knew they had a chance to take more if the dispute went to an arbitrator. And that's exactly what happened.
The city is closing Fire Station No. 3 on E. Main Street. Beginning Friday, only the headquarters station on Water Street downtown will be open around the clock.
"At times, we're down to two firefighters (at the closing station) doing a fire response," when three or four are needed to appropriately handle runs, said Fire Chief Bruce Vaughan.
The approach of vacation season and the layoffs of five firefighters last year make it impractical to keep the station open with adequate staffing, Vaughan said.
But keep in mind, elected legislators already were exempted from that pay schedule.We Are Ohio tries to claim that the legislators should be judged on their merit, as well. Um, they are. They're called ELECTIONS. Duh. On the "Loophole" ad, Politifact and the PD rate it "mostly false."
The other half of the claim, that "politicians exploited a loophole," underscores the commercial’s overall message, that state lawmakers used trickery to avoid playing by the same rules they’re forcing public workers to play by.
But the exemption is hardly a loophole. Lawmakers already were exempt from existing laws relating to the job classification plan and collective bargaining. SB 5 alters those laws while keeping the exemptions for elected officials and others intact.
Legislators’ salaries are set in state law. The Ohio Constitution prohibits lawmakers from in-term pay raises or decreases.
We started by checking how many nurses belong to public unions and, therefore, will be affected by SB 5.Aha. So only a tiny fraction of Ohio's nurses are even affected by SB5. We Are Ohio didn't mention that, did they? Politifact continues:
There are about 160,000 registered nurses in the state and between 6,000 and 10,000 of those are public employees, according to the Ohio Nurses Association. That means SB 5 would affect between 4 percent and 6.25 percent of Ohio nurses.
The current collective bargaining agreement that covers Turner, the nurse featured in the commercial, gives some insight into how SB 5 would affect nurses working conditions.Catch that? The hospital where the nurse in the commercial works already has the authority to determine its own staffing levels. So in the ad, Turner is complaining about losing a "right" that she doesn't even have now.
Turner, who works at the Ohio State University Ross Heart Hospital, is represented by the Ohio Nurses Association. The union’s contract with the university contains a clause that gives management the right to set staffing levels.
ONA’s contract with OSU says management has the right "to determine staffing and staffing patterns including, but not limited to the assignment of nurses as to the numbers employed, duties to be performed, qualifications required, and areas worked."
That sounds a lot like the rule that SB 5 would impose.
Retired Member Tim Kohl, who is a past president of Holgate TA (and self-proclaimed “past problem maker”) was denied access to OEA’s property today. Tim was a dues-paying member for 35-years. OEA’s hired “security” thugs told him “no one enters the property.” Shame on you, OEA – for disrespecting a long-time, dues-paying member in that way!“Shame on you, OEA” – for doing the exact things you accuse elected officials of scheming. If you’d like more evidence OEA bosses have too much power, there’s plenty to be had.
| Joseph Rugola: Executive Director, AFSCME Local 4 |
$243,712 |
| Larry Wicks: Executive Director, Ohio Education Association |
$210,858 |
| Gary Martin: Associate Director, AFSCME Local 4 |
$202,712 |
| Patricia Frost-Brooks: President, Ohio Education Association |
$190,000 |
| Doug Crawford: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$189,832 |
| Cecilia Weldon: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$187,405 |
| Bill Leibensperger: Vice President, Ohio Education Association |
$186,471 |
| James Martin: Assistant Executive Director, Business Services, Ohio Education Association |
$171,528 |
| Kevin Flanagan: Assistant Executive Director, Member Services – Field, Ohio Education Association |
$169,761 |
| Michael McEachern: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$169,298 |
| Susan Babcock: Assistant Executive Director, Strategic/Workforce, Ohio Education Association |
$169,148 |
| Rachelle Johnson: Assistant Executive Director, Member Services-Programming, Ohio Education Association |
$164,525 |
| Charles Roginski: Regional Director, AFSCME Local 4 |
$161,885 |
| Mark Linder: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$161,756 |
| Venita Shoulders: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$158,432 |
| John Lyall: President, AFSCME Council 8 |
$156,183 |
| William Otten: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$155,873 |
| Patricia Collins: Director, Region 1, Ohio Education Association |
$155,551 |
| Fritz Fekete: Director I/S & Research, Ohio Education Association |
$154,635 |
| Tom Drabick: Director of Legal Department, AFSCME Local 4 |
$154,584 |
| Mary Suchy: Director of Membership, Ohio Education Association |
$152,636 |
| Randall Flora: Director, EI&I, Ohio Education Association |
$152,114 |
| Rodney Bird: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$152,058 |
| Jeffrey Kestner: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$150,739 |
| Don Williams: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$149,886 |
| Parry Norris: Director, Region 2, Ohio Education Association |
$148,654 |
| Harold Mitchell: First Vice President, AFSCME Council 8 |
$148,723 |
| Alfred Nelson: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$145,740 |
| Cristina Munoz-Nedrow: Director, Region 5, Ohio Education Association |
$145,430 |
| Rebecca Villamagna: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$145,182 |
| Gary Carlisle: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$144,948 |
| Gregg Gascon: Research Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$144,897 |
| Suzanne Kaszar: Communications Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$144,853 |
| Linda Fiely: General Counsel, Ohio Education Association |
$143,564 |
| William Pearsol: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$143,535 |
| Stuart Graham: CIS Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$143,043 |
| Talmadge Hutchins: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$142,714 |
| Robert Matkowski: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$142,640 |
| Victor Marchese: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$142,553 |
| Lavonne Lobert-Edmo: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$142,494 |
| Ronald Rapp: Director, Governmental Services, Ohio Education Association |
$142,475 |
| Michael Mahoney: Director, Communications, Ohio Education Association |
$142,468 |
| Vicky Davis: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$142,337 |
| Ruth Field: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$142,266 |
| Randy Weston: Director of Political Action, AFSCME Local 4 |
$142,261 |
| Joseph Cohagen: Director, Accounting, Ohio Education Association |
$142,029 |
| Jerry Squires: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$141,812 |
| Elizabeth Chandler-Mark: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$141,549 |
| Mark Allison: CIS Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$141,258 |
| John Grafton: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,859 |
| Robin Busby: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,857 |
| Cathy White: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,853 |
| Darren Clum: CIS Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,589 |
| Melodie Terman: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,479 |
| Linda Lindsey: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,291 |
| Cynthia Peterson: Education Reform Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,080 |
| Ann Bayou: Labor Relations Consultant, Ohio Education Association |
$140,037 |
"I have no recollection of knowing about the operation, called 'Fast and Furious,' or of hearing its name prior to the public controversy about it," Holder said in a letter to key Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
He added that before early this year, "I certainly never knew about the tactics employed in the operation, and it is my understanding that the former United States Attorney for the district of Arizona and the former acting director and deputy director of ATF have told Congress that they, themselves, were unaware of the tactics employed."Because this is Barack Obama's Attorney General we're talking about, Holder's letter was also required to meet a minimum threshold for Stuff Blamed On Dubya.
The attorney general noted the flawed tactics employed in Fast and Furious "were actually employed in an investigation conducted during the prior administration."In review, Obama's Attorney General hadn't heard about Fast and Furious until this spring... even though he received several memos mentioning the program dating back to early 2010. So maybe he heard about the operation, but it was probably a different one - which he made no attempt to clarify in his testimony because... ? Holder definitely doesn't remember knowing anything, and what he did know but almost certainly forgot is really Bush's fault anyway.
The deals, which were originally negotiated during the Bush administration, would boost U.S. exports by $13 billion a year; both the White House and congressional Republicans have touted the three pacts as a means of creating tens of thousands of jobs without requiring additional federal spending.Our own Senator Sherrod Brown is clear about his stance on free trade: he’s against it.
“With an exploding trade deficit that has caused massive job loss, now is not the time to pass more wrongheaded free- trade agreements,” Brown said in a statement released after the White House sent the measures to Congress on Oct. 3.The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a frequent pinata for Senator Brown, as it was for candidate Obama. Sure, the preponderance of evidence supports NAFTA and makes Brown & Obama look like demagogues, but there are competing figures for any issue. Sherrod also finds it convenient to talk about China instead of out-of-control spending - and to smear every trade partner as if they were the Chinese.
“This extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance and the Health Coverage Tax Credit is long overdue,” Brown said in a statement.Sherrod Brown rails against free markets as if the purpose of government were to smother everything else, but there’s one industry Sherrod adores: unions. Maybe D.C. union bosses have a Sherrod-Signal on the roof! Whenever union clout is threatened, they throw the switch and Sherrod swoops in – with bags of taxpayer cash.
