Rescinding Bargaining Rights Doesn't Fix State Budgets

[DainBramaged]

Ohio's budget crisis is the result of the Wall-Street-created recession, not the collective bargaining rights of public service workers, says a new report released recently from Policy Matters Ohio. The report analyzed states across the country, their budget gaps, and whether they have collective bargaining laws.

"We found that on average, the budget gaps of states with and without collective bargaining for public employees are similar in 2011," says the report. The report goes on to say that: "...the right of public workers to bargain collectively is not the cause of the budget shortfalls and eliminating that right to collective bargaining has not fixed the problem in states that have tried it."

http://www.policymattersohio.org/CollectiveBargainingPressBriefing2010.htm

Gov. Kasich and his allies have tried to portray these rights for workers as one of the main causes of Ohio's budget deficit. But this is nothing more than a distraction to exact political payback. Kasich and his allies are trying to push blame onto Ohio's working families in order to deflect calls for needed reforms to the private sector -- such as ending tax loopholes and breaks for companies that ship Ohio jobs overseas -- reforms which would require Wall Street and greedy CEOs to pay their fair share for the problems they created.

This political partisanship will not help us solve the tough decisions that will have to be made in order to deal with Ohio's $8 billion deficit. Hard-working public service workers -- who work and live in the communities they serve -- understand this and are willing to work together to come up with solutions. It is time for Kasich to work with all Ohioans, including public service workers, to come up with bipartisan solutions to create good jobs and an economy that works for everyone.

http://www.seiu.org/2011/01/report-rescinding-bargaining-rights-doesnt-fix-sta.php#

[damntexdem]

1. But it certainly fits right into an anti-union, anti-worker agenda.

And that's one of the major points of the RW -- whereas the RW doesn't give a damn about deficits except as window dressing for their true agenda.