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Sick-leave measure off ballot in Ohio
TweetBy MARC KOVAC
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS — In a surprise move, backers of a state law requiring employers to provide paid sick time off to workers agreed to remove the issue from the November ballot.
Proponents, buoyed by a potential federal sick day leave law supported by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, told reporters Thursday they wanted to void “a shrill and vitriolic ballot campaign marred by misinformation and disinformation.”
“There’s no question that we were about to get into a very divisive and unproductive debate and, for lack of a better word, struggle, with folks that support the coalition and the business community,” said Becky Williams, president of the Service Employees International Union district that covers Ohio.
The announcement came one day before the deadline for proponents to remove the issue from the statewide ballot. Kevin Kidder, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, confirmed the office had received the letter, the only statutory obligation required by proponents to end their election drive.
The decision was supported by Gov. Ted Strickland, who had voiced his opposition to the ballot issue as written.
The move ended the Ohio Paid Sick Days campaign’s initiated legislation, called the Ohio Healthy Families Act, that would have required businesses with 25 or more workers to allow full-time employees to earn seven paid sick days per year. According to proponents, 2.2 million Ohio workers are not able to take paid sick days, exposing their co-workers and the public to potential illnesses.
Some 3.5 million can’t take paid days to care for family members who are sick or who need physician care. But opponents called the measure an “anti-job creation proposal” that would burden employers with additional regulations and mandates, increase their costs and restrict companies’ flexibility in their employee benefit plans.
State Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, an early supporter of the proposal, agreed with the decision to pull it from the November ballot.
After giving his support, Hagan, D-60th, said he heard from local business owners in his district who told him it would hurt their companies if passed.
Hagan added the sick-leave issue is best handled by the federal government and not individual states.
In polling in recent months, a majority of Ohioans appeared to support paid sick days, and opponents, including Strickland, acknowledged the issue likely would have passed in November. The governor’s office actively sought a compromise between the issue proponents and opponents, with hopes of keeping it off the ballot. But those efforts failed, and late last month the administration announced discussions involving the business community and the union had ended without a viable solution all sides could accept.
Williams said the union had already spent an estimated $1.7 million in its efforts to see the ballot issue passed.
Comments
Yes it was good news and Strickland now faces his last term in office. This was actually political suicide for the man. There are a heck of a lot more underpaid employees and families struggling to survive in Ohio then there are Cheap skate Business owners that only want to spend money to donate to his campaign fund. Man did he lose a ton of votes!
So Ohio should be harder for businesses to turn a profit in than other states? That's smart. No wonder the southern states are booming...
The southern states actively recruit northern state employees.... when I was about a month away from graduation I could barely keep up with the recruitment calls. The incentives blow away anything I have ever been offered in Ohio. I'm not sure whether or not mandating sick days is the answer.... but the best and brightest look for the best pay and perks.
I think each company needs to decide whether to give paid sick days or not. The gov't is start to going overboard in trying to control everything.
Most companies aren't exactly known for their generosity to their employees, even on issues as seemingly basic as fair pay, benefits, and paid leave. They will get away with doing as little as possible while expecting their workers to sweat blood for a job that barely pays $10 an hour. It took until 1992 for most working women to be guaranteed ANY time off after having a baby -- and that was still limited to 12 weeks unpaid leave.
U.S. companies are pathetic in their treatment of workers, both at the blue- and white-collar levels. Maybe if private companies would look at more than their own profits, the government wouldn't have to stick it's nose in on behalf of those who can't fight for themselves. Gee, isn't that why unions were formed?
Um, pardon me, but even the Democrat governor of Ohio said this proposal would significantly hurt Ohio’s business environment and was therefore opposed to the issue. Did you read his editorial in the Wall Street Journal? You may want to track it down so you can see how well the rest of the state of Ohio is doing.
So let's throw the baby out with the bathwater, right?
Yes, this proposal had its flaws, and yes, unions are not a cure-all, but the alternative is worse. A purely capitalistic country is as detrimental to widespread prosperity as a purely socialist one. That's why we seek balance.
I know what it's like to work for a company that offers the bare minimum required -- and then only because it has to by law -- and to feel absolutely powerless to improve the situation. It was each individual person versus a multi-million-dollar corporation. What chance did any of us have to improve our salaries, time off, schedule changes, or the myriad other issues that matter to workers? And that's for a job that requires a college degree. What chance does a shift worker making minimum wage have?
And while Strickland opposed the state proposal for its divisive potential in a presidential election year, he supports the same law at the federal level because it would level the playing field across the country and not make Ohio appear worse for business (even though it would be better for employees, but who cares about the lowly workers, right?).