Swing-state Ohio at heart of union rights battle

[TomCADem]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from North Canton, Ohio— In this former company town, an aging smokestack marked with "Hoover" in tall white letters stands like a tombstone over the union jobs lost when the vacuum-cleaner factory shut down in 2007.

The decision to shutter an icon of America's industrial heyday, made by the company's new Hong Kong owners, was another step in labor's relentless slide in a state once known as a union stronghold. Now, organized labor is facing an existential test in Ohio, a showdown with implications for next year's presidential election.

Republican Gov. John Kasich recently signed a new law sharply curtailing the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Labor and its allies responded by promoting a ballot measure to repeal it this fall.

"This is a spark for labor and the Democratic Party," said Jim Repace, who once led the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers unit at the Hoover Co.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ohio-labor-20110429,0,2277749.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

---

Another example of why the 2012 elections are so important. Republicans are using the 2010 elections to justify ending Medicare, lowering taxes to the rich, dismantling the EPA, limiting abortion rights, and destroying unions. We are seeing first hand the vast difference between Republicans and Democrats. Watch in 2012 as they try to expand on their pro-corporate agenda.

[cstanleytech]

1. Do the states face potential contract violations

for passing these laws to do away with the collective bargaining if they have existing contracts with the unions?

Edit: Also why have the unions not tried to get this into court as a constitutional violation and get it thrown out kind of like how the corporations got campaign finance reform largely thrown out and got granted constitutional rights and protections?

[Proletariatprincess]

2. It just doesn't seem possible...

that the voters would support an agenda that does so much damage to the rights and well being of the electorate. There is just no way to spin this to make it good for the people. Why would people vote for it?
Maybe we are past all that now. Elections don't count so the opinions of the people don't count. It's all just show...Kabuki theater. Election results are already decided before the first ballot is cast.
But they can never totally defeat the Labor Movement. It will always rise again as it has for hundreds of years. Unions can be defeated, but the Movement cannot be destroyed because as long as there is a working class, there will be a struggle with the owner class.
I would like to see Labor stop all political contributions and invest instead in worker cooperatives. Worker owned businesses. Worker owned health and welfare programs.
The deck is stacked and justice cannot be gained at the ballot box.

[24601]

5. Justice can indeed be gained at the ballot box - however, there is

no way, in this political climate, that the majority will ever vote for it.

[OHdem10]

3. The Democrats need to do much more in getting their message

out nationally.

One Speech by Obama is not going to sustain the
support for Democrats from now until the election.

[TomCADem]

4. Is it really a question of message? When you vote Republican, is there any doubt...

...that they are going to attack unions, the environment, the poor Medicare, and try to give handouts to the rich? The problem I see is not the message, but the media's role in obscuring the truth. Look at climate change. The media portrays the issue as a he said, she said, when the overwhelming scientific evidence is that climate change is happening and that it is caused in large part by the emission of green house gases.

Mother Jones has a great story in this month's issue about the private cottage industry dedicated to pushing big lies.