Teachers rally in Lebanon
Click image to enlarge.From Mario Iacone, March 1, 2011
Highlights of the proposal ( SB5) include:
- eliminating school districts’ contributions to employee pensions;
- replacing automatic pay raises with merit-based increases;
- limiting the duration of teachers’ contracts to one year;
- eliminating public workers’ right to strike.
Protestors chant ‘kill the bill’ at Lebanon rally
By Richard Wilson, Staff Writer
LEBANON — Area school teachers amassed at Broadway and Main Street Monday to protest Senate Bill 5, a proposal that targets the collective bargaining process for public employee unions.
Holding signs and chanting “kill the bill,” about 100 protesters, many who had just left their classrooms for the day, drew attention and some honks from passing motorists during the afternoon rush hour.
“SB 5 is a significant attack on unions and teachers in general,” said Dan Mueller, labor consultant for the Ohio Education Association who works with the Little Miami Teachers’ Association. “Eliminating collective bargaining rights (for public employees) is not going to fix the state’s budget problems.”
The bill would give school districts and local governments more power to establish working conditions for employees and make changes to negotiated contracts during tough economic times. Highlights of the proposal include eliminating school districts’ contributions to employee pensions; replacing automatic pay raises with merit-based increases; limiting the duration of teachers’ contracts to one year; and eliminating public workers’ right to strike.
The bill’s sponsor, Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., said local governments need more flexibility in managing budgets with declining revenues.
“We don’t want to put our cities in the position where their only option is to do massive layoffs,” Jones said. “There is a structural issue that is driving costs ... If we are not changing the structure it is going to continue to grow.”
The bill includes a provision that if a municipality or school district is in fiscal emergency, that entity would have the power to suspend any provision in a public union’s contract in order to quickly address budget shortfalls.
That has direct implications for employees of the Little Miami district, which is in fiscal emergency.
“Everything is on the line,” said Kelly Blanchard, Little Miami teachers’ union president. “My hope is we can work together to maintain something that provides a good working environment.”
Blanchard and other protesters said they have made concessions on wages and health care benefits in recent years. It’s not true when the bill’s proponents say collective bargaining doesn’t take into account the entity’s “ability to pay,” said Leslie Nettling, president of the Carlisle teachers’ association.
“The district’s ability to pay is always the biggest criteria at the table,” she said. “I come from a long line of Republicans. I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life to be a Republican.”
SB 5 will lower the quality of teachers and end careers early, according to protester Mark Schaeffer, a Lebanon resident who teaches French in the Clinton Massie school district.
“It’s about being able to have a legal contract with the school board and being able to ban together with other teachers to negotiate fairly,” Schaeffer said. “If the school board can negotiate one-on-one with one teacher, there’s nothing fair about that. They’re holding all the cards.”
Denise Callahan contributed to this report. Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or rwilson@coxohio.com.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 11:25 PM
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