Former OEA LR consultant spells out the losses if SB 5 passes
Editor, the Gazette:
I am very upset with the provisions of Senate Bill 5, recently introduced legislation that would nullify collective bargaining and other rights of teachers and other public employees.
I began teaching in 1970, when the idea of having discussions with local school boards was just beginning. Teachers in my district began discussions with our school board, which made it clear that it was listening to us out of the "goodness of their hearts" and that no law required those discussions.
Because of the unfair treatment of teachers I saw, I went to work as a labor relations consultant for the Ohio Education Association, where I remained for 22 years. I spent part of that time before the collective bargaining law for public employees passed in 1983.
My job was to help local teachers' and other school employees' associations, mainly in Ross County and nearby counties, affiliated with the Ohio Education Association, work with school boards to arrive at fair collective bargaining agreements. I think most, if not all, of the teachers and administrators I worked with understood I was not looking for conflict, I was looking for agreement. During my years serving Ross County, one school district went on strike in the late 1970s, prior to the collective bargaining law. It was resolved after a few days, and teachers went back to work.
Prior to the collective bargaining law, I was assigned by OEA to assist teachers in many labor strikes across Ohio. For the most part, there was only one issue on the table: the right to be recognized for the purposes of discussions. We were simply seeking the right to discuss the issues which surrounded us every day as teachers, with the boards who created rules.
I am really directing these comments to teachers and other school employees who have forgotten or who never learned what your predecessors did to pave the way for the mostly harmonious bargaining we enjoy today, especially in the Ross County schools. Here is what the older teachers achieved and what you are in danger of losing.
Here is what Senate Bill 5 would do:
• End collective bargaining as we know it. Anything left would be a watered down, no rights provision.
• End the salary schedule structure, an index the law established prior to any collective bargaining, and would make raises based on a merit system, which would have no input from teachers. There would be no step increases.
• Mandate there will be no bargaining on health insurance, which would be set by the school board, and would mandate teachers pay at least 20 percent of the costs.
• Eliminate the concept of seniority. If there are layoffs, the board could choose to lay off the most senior teachers, which would make sense if saving money is the only objective.
• No longer allow a board to pay an employee's share of pension costs.
• Eliminate the guaranteed 15 days of sick leave per teacher.
• Eliminate strikes but turn them into empty threats. It would allow boards to hire permanent replacement workers and eliminate continuing contracts for teachers who strike. Striking teachers would have no recall rights.
If you value these things, you had better write to your legislators:
I urge all school employees and other public workers to stand up to this broad sweeping legislation that would nullify all the hard work they and their predecessors have put in the last 30-plus years. We all know that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. If I were still teaching in Ohio, I would hate to return to those days.
Dottie Fay,
Chillicothe
Chillicothe
posted by Kathie Bracy at 1:42 PM
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