Senate Bill 5 Final Draft

Sammie Hutcheson

English 151

Mr. Lutz

Multimodal Essay Final Draft

5/4/2011

Senate Bill 5

            Depending on what the title of your job is, Senate Bill 5 may or may not have a huge impact on your life. If you happen to be a public worker such as a school teacher, police officer or firefighter, I am sure you are not only very aware of this detrimental Bill, but also very frustrated with how this is affecting the world right now. Senate Bill 5 reduces the rights of these workers, including collective bargaining rights. This Bill takes away the public worker’s rights to be able to ask for a raise on their salary and it also takes away their freedom to be able to go on strike, if they would decide to do so. If these people would even try to go on strike, they have a good chance of being forced to go to jail. Being in the position of any of these public workers would be a very devastating situation knowing what this Bill is doing to all of these people. Though, it may save the state around 1.3 billion dollars because of all of the cuts they would be making, I do not think the people that are for this Bill realize all of the damage they could be doing and all of the people they could emotionally hurt. 

A woman stands outside in the rain while at the Strongsville protest against SB5.
One out of the 13 held in the state of Ohio.

350,000 is a pretty big number, wouldn’t you say? Imagine that number representing people; Workers that are affected by Senate Bill 5. That is the number of workers this Bill would be affecting if it passes and becomes a law. Though it is said that the state would save 1.3 billion dollars, from my research on this topic, I found in the article, Ohio Senate Bill 5 that “the Cleveland Plain Dealer insisted in the paper that the law would not save everyone money because workers in some cities and school districts were already paying 20% of health costs.” (Tingley) I am sure that you are probably wondering where that 1.3 billion dollars is coming from that the state is saving? All of this money is coming from the huge cut pay they are taking away from the workers that are lucky enough to get to stay. The other half of the money will be coming from the extra money that these people will have to pay for their health insurance. If these people having to pay more for health insurance and losing their right to go on strike or ask for a raise is not enough, they are also making them put a limit on sick leave and vacation times.

People chanting about Governor John Kasich's State of the State speech.

Speaking for myself, Senate Bill 5 is a very stressful situation considering I am currently going into the Middle Childhood field to be a 5^th grade mathematics teacher. A friend of mine told me that other day that her Aunt, who is a history teacher for 7^th grade, was looking for a teaching job anywhere that needed someone and said there was only one teaching job left in the whole state of Ohio. Being a college student and getting into the program of what you plan on doing for the rest of your life should make you excited to get out there and start the next new part of your life, but hearing all of this information about not being able to find a job and knowing this information on this new Bill, it makes the future public employees like the school teachers, police officers, and firefighters more scared and frightened than excited. In the article from “Practical Leadership” by Suzanne Tingley, she tells about a young couple that had just bought a house and they were getting ready to have a baby. The man worked for the state and his wife was a teacher. The husband states, “I don’t know how we’re going to do it. I’ll be paying and extra $300 a month for insurance.” I do not think these people realize all the families out there like this one that it could financially and emotionally hurt them with this Bill.

            It may seem like the only people that should be worried about this Bill are the ones working as police officers, fire fighters and school teachers, am I right? I am sure you have asked yourself if this Bill really mattered to you or if you should even care about it at all since you do not fall in the category of a police officer, school teacher or fire fighter. Whether you fall into one of those three job descriptions or not, you should still care about this Bill passing or not. This Bill is based on collective bargaining and collective bargaining has a huge impact on our nation during this time. It is important to our economic welfare because if the collective bargaining is high, it enhances mass purchasing power (Brudney). If we do not keep these school teachers, police officers, and fire fighters at work, it could ultimately hurt our economy. By having these people on the job, it makes our middle class strong and healthy. If we did not have these people on the job, it would be hard for our economy to be as big as it is because there would be less Americans that would contribute by doing t things such as purchasing consumer goods, investing in higher education for their children, buying homes and taking family vacations (Brudney). Another way Collective Bargaining is important to our economy is because of the way it ties into our everyday daily routine. It plays a big role in our commitment for self-government. It allows us, as public workers, to voice our opinion on things in the work world like sharing the same benefits and burdens as managment. This Bill has a lot to do with Collective Bargaining and from all of the research I have found, it shows that Collective Bargaining is a very important thing in the workplace. Without Collective Bargaining, it could have a huge impact on the economy and make it weaker than ever. Senate Bill 5 can affect all of us, not just the school teachers, police officers and fire fighters.

Works Cited

Brudney, James J."Ohio Senate Bill 5, and Why We Need Collective Bargaining." ACSBlog. American Consitution Society for Law and Policy, 04 11 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/ohio-senate-bill-5-and-why-we-need-collective-bargaining>.

Sellers, F. "SB 5 clouds Forest Hills." Cincinnati.com A Gannett Company, 04 29 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://cincinnati.com/blogs/eyeontheeastside/2011/04/29/sb-5-clouds-forest-hills-contract-talks/>.

"Senate Emails and Calls: 90% Opposed to SB5!." ProgressOhio Blog. ProgressOhio, 03 01 2011. Web.9 May 2011. <http://www.progressohio.org/blog/2011/03/senate-emails-and-calls-90-opposed-to-sb-5.html>.

Tingley, Suzanne. "Ohio Senate Bill 5." Scholastic, 04 20 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://blogs.scholastic.com/practical_leadership/2011/04/ohio-senate-bill-5.html>.

Wenzel, Fritz. "Wenzel Poll: Majority Favors Repeal of Senate Bill 5." Wenzel Strategies, 04 12 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.wenzelstrategies.com/blog/polls/wenzel-poll-majority-favors-repeal-of-senate-bill-5-2/>.