I sometimes (in fact, quite often) disagree with Joe but...this time 'round he tends to make sense!
From John Curry, February 13, 2011
"Is it perfect? No. Does the mayor sometimes wish he could snap his fingers and make decisions for the entire work force? Sure. But these rules are in place for a reason. History shows what things were like before you had these rules, and there's a reason they're in place." "That history dates back to Toledo in 1979. And it includes Chicago now. Neither version is acceptable. Somewhere in the middle is a solution."
"But there are already signs of wariness in the GOP ranks. It's not among the many freshmen. They're gung-ho after coming off the campaign trail. But some of the veterans are well-aware of the respect and influence that teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees have in their communities." (OK, CORE members...get the drift? Write those letters...THEY DO MEAN SOMETHING! - John)
Joe Hallett commentary: Unions, General Assembly need to find the middle ground 
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus Dispatch
I remember vividly July 1, 1979, the night Toledo burned.
After a long impasse over pay, the police and firefighters' unions illegally went on strike. Mayhem ruled. The city was ablaze; a hotel was firebombed. A bus driver was robbed and killed. Residents brandished shotguns to protect themselves.
One of the striking officers was Mike Navarre, now the Toledo police chief. The strike, he told The Blade 30 years later, was an impetus for the 1983 collective-bargaining law for public-sector employees, including binding arbitration to resolve police and firefighter labor disputes.
Last month, I was in Chicago and picked up the Sun-Times. It reported that, if elected, mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel wanted to renegotiate a policy that allows police officers to take 365 sick days every two years. That's right, 365 sick days every two years.
Holy smoke, I thought, the mayor who allowed that to happen ought to be in the Cook County Jail for malfeasance.
Somewhere between the stalemate that caused Toledo police and firefighters to strike, and the incompetence that caused a Chicago mayor to subjugate his citizens to a self-serving police union, there must be a middle ground.
Don't look for it around the Ohio Statehouse. A battle for the ages is unfolding between powerful forces so dug in that, at this juncture, compromise seems impossible.
Gov. John Kasich and fellow Republicans who dominate the legislature are seizing an opportunity to rescue Ohio from what they view as the paralyzing grip of public-employee unions. The unions, which represent the teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees in your towns, know they're in a fight for their survival.
Make no mistake: Kasich and GOP lawmakers hold all the cards. If they stick together, they have the numbers to repeal the collective-bargaining law, including binding arbitration, as a bill presented to a Senate committee last week by Sen. Shannon Jones of Springboro effectively would do.
But there are already signs of wariness in the GOP ranks. It's not among the many freshmen. They're gung-ho after coming off the campaign trail. But some of the veterans are well-aware of the respect and influence that teachers, police, firefighters and other public employees have in their communities.
On Thursday, Jones conceded being under duress from the nasty phone calls and e-mails flooding her office, not to mention the more than 800 public unionists who jammed the Statehouse a day earlier when she testified on behalf of her bill.
Barely containing her emotion, Jones said it was not her intent to kill public-employee unions, but she said their power had to be curbed to give state and local elected officials more control over dwindling resources, particularly with the state facing an $8 billion deficit.
Perhaps Jones' bill would be unnecessary if more governors, mayors and school boards were not prone to cave in to demands for automatic pay increases, generous pension deals, unreasonable job protections and straitjacketing workplace rules that most of the citizens they represent do not enjoy and for which they must pay.
But before blowing up a collective-bargaining law that has significantly diminished public-employee strikes, Kasich and the Republicans have an obligation to go beyond anecdotes and actually quantify how much the law is costing cash-strapped governments.
Kasich, for instance, told an audience Thursday that the state's Democratic big-city mayors are secretly cheering his effort to kill binding arbitration.
Not Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman: "We're pretty pleased with how the process has worked for us," said spokesman Dan Williamson.
"Is it perfect? No. Does the mayor sometimes wish he could snap his fingers and make decisions for the entire work force? Sure. But these rules are in place for a reason. History shows what things were like before you had these rules, and there's a reason they're in place."
That history dates back to Toledo in 1979. And it includes Chicago now. Neither version is acceptable. Somewhere in the middle is a solution.
Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 10:17 PM
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