The fightback continues in Midwest states, where earlier this year Republican governors and lawmakers took aim at union collective bargaining rights.
In Wisconsin, epicenter of massive protests in February, union activists will begin collecting signatures Nov. 15 to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Walker led passage of a bill that decimated public employee collective bargaining rights. The recall campaign, backed by the state AFL-CIO and its affiliates, will have 60 days to collect 540,208 valid signatures; the plan is to collect 700,000, in order to provide a cushion in case some signatures are ruled invalid. Organizers do have a kind of head start: As of press time, the coalition United Wisconsin had over 200,000 people pledged in advance to sign the recall petition. If they meet the signature goal, the Walker recall election would likely be in May or June 2012.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, unions and allies collected enough signatures to refer Senate Bill 5 to the voters of Ohio, which is now on the Nov. 8 ballot as Issue 2. Passed earlier this year, the law supersedes collective bargaining agreements and requires all public employees to pay at least 15 percent of their health care premiums and prohibits governments from picking up any portion of employees’ 10 percent pension contribution. Most Ohio public employees already paid about 10 percent of their health insurance premiums and more than 90 percent paid the 10 percent pension contribution; but those things were arrived at in collective bargaining. The We are Ohio coalition is urging voters to overturn the law by voting “no” on Issue 2.
