Published 21 Jul, 2011
Its official- union busting Senate Bill 5 will be on the ballot in November for the citizens of Ohio to overturn. On July 21 state election officials announced that enough certified petition signatures were submitted to get a referendum.
After delivering a semi-truck full of petitions, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced that 915,456 valid signatures were collected by the We Are Ohio coalition; only 231,147 signatures were required to get a referendum on the bill. The coalition of unions, community groups, churches, environmentalists and students got the required amount in each of Ohio’s 88 counties.
TWU members in Ohio were busy collecting thousands of signatures and are now ready to mobilize and educate voters to repeal the legislation pioneered by Gov. John Kasich and his CEO funders who are sure to put up a fight. However, grassroots energy and boots on the ground will be more powerful than millions of dollars.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll revealed that the majority of Ohioans support repealing the bill, 56%, while only 32% want to keep it.
“Now we have to get the message out to go and vote on Nov. 8 to repeal the bill,” said Andrew Jordan, President of TWU Local 208, at an anti-SB 5 rally in Columbus, OH.