Ohio police, firefighters decry bargaining limits

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110401/D9MAHDC83.html

Mar 31, 8:05 PM (ET)

By MEGHAN BARR and THOMAS J. SHEERAN

CLEVELAND (AP) - Unlike Wisconsin's high-profile effort to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers, Ohio's new law includes police officers and firefighters - who say it threatens the safety of them and the people they protect.

Opponents have vowed to put the issue on the November ballot, giving voters a chance to strike down the law. The firefighters' union in Cleveland plans to hit the streets and help gather signatures.

Patrolman Michael Cox, a 15-year veteran of Cleveland's police force, said Ohio overlooked the inherent risks of police and firefighting work when lawmakers included them in the bill, which passed the Legislature on Wednesday and was signed into law by Republican Gov. John Kasich on Thursday.

"We don't run from the house fire; we don't run from the gunshot," Cox said. "We're the guys that got to say, 'OK, we're going to go fix this problem real fast.'"

Under the Ohio plan, police and firefighters won't be able to bargain with cities over the number of people required to be on duty. That means they can't negotiate the number of staff in fire trucks or police cars, for instance.

Supporters of the bargaining limits say decisions on how to equip police and fire departments should be in the hands of city officials, not union members.

FULL story at link.


Cleveland partrolman Henry Steel, 21-year Cleveland veteran, talks about the effects Senate Bill 5 Thursday, March 31, 2011, in Cleveland. As Ohio Gov. John Kasich prepares to sign a bill that limits collective bargaining rights for 350,000 public workers across the state, police officers and firefighters are refusing to give up the fight to block the legislation. Unlike Wisconsin’s high-profile effort to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers, Ohio’s newly passed bill includes police and firefighters, who say the new law that sped through the Legislature threatens the safety of both their officers and the people they are paid to protect. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

[Taverner]

1. At the risk of digressing, I love the hat these guys wear

Being in CA you don't always see those kinds of hats

[Botany]

2. Cleveland does have a winter

Oct 15th - April 5th

[happyslug]

3. My Father was a Letter Carrier, and used a similar hat in Winter

When he was on the Streets in the 1950s-1970s, the Post Office told him he had one one two hats he HAD to wear (And the hat had to carry his "Badge", which every letter carrier use to wear on the center of their hat with their Carrier Number on it). He hated the "Peak" hat that he had to wear in the Summer (The "Peak" Hat was the same as Army Officer Dress Hat), he called it to rough on his head. For that reason he wore his Winter hat from October to May (By May, even in Pittsburgh, it was to hot to wear the winter hat). The Winter hat was much more comfortable. L

Like the "Peak" hat, the winter hat was a designed borrowed from the Army, which in turn borrowed it from the Russian during the Crimean War (The US and the Russian Empire were close allies during the 1800s, the US smuggled supplies into Sevastopol while the British and French were designing that city. In Turn the Russian Fleet visited the US during the US Civil War, seven year later. The Visit was to inform Britain and France that if both or either intervened into the US Civil War on behalf of the South, the Russians, while not declaring war, will do all it could to support the North (i.e. mass troops in Afghanistan to threaten India).

Since the Fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian and Chinese have exported hats like the one the trooper wore into the US. Very Warms hats, even warmer then the polyester based hat like the one the trooper is wearing.

[Historic NY]

4. I used to wear a real Russian one...the guys all had dibs on when I retired...

its wasn't real fur but it was warm in subzero weather. I was called the Czar.